PRONI

by

Christopher Wilson – Irish Freeholder Records

I searched the  PRONI Freeholder Records, and was surprised to find a likely match for Christopher Wilson:

Christopher Wilson was listed as the leaser of some land in the town of Derryenver, County of Armagh.

How do I know he is the likely ancestor of Christopher Wilson (father of Abraham Wilson)?

I have previously searched the marriage records held on PRONI, and found Christopher and Catherine’s marriage certificate.  On the Certificate, Christopher’s place of residence at the time of marriage is ‘Derryinver’.  This is not a big town, in fact it is a very small village, so there is unlikely to be another Christopher Wilson living there.

The Freeholder record lists the landlord as being William Brownlowe, and date of registry is 1712.  The lease was listed as being held for Christopher’s life and also the lives of his sons Christopher and Robert:

Christopher Wilson land lease1712

The above is the extract of the lease agreement (paid yearly)

It reads:

Christopher Wilson 

In part of town land of Derryenver

dated July 21 1712 for (the) lives of ye (?)

Christopher, Christopher, Robert, his sons

at (?) yearly rent of –  (Pounds) 8-10-0

William Brownlowe was a prominent figure in Lurgan (Armagh) history.  He was landlord over much of the land in the Lurgan area, including the towns Derryadd (where Abraham was born) and Derryinver (likely where Christopher was born).  More information about Lurgan freeholder  land history can  be found here.

by

PRONI records – missing deceased records for the Wilson family

I’ve searched and searched and tried every option I can think of, but I cannot located the deceased records for Christopher Wilson and three of his children – Edward, Mary and Emily.

Christopher died in a shipyard accident (probably in Belfast) sometime in the late 1880s-1891 (when Catherine emigrated).  I’ve searched on every name variation I can think of, but he is not coming up.

I thought perhaps he used a different surname or first name.  So I did a search for the children’s deaths – I’m almost certain the three were deceased at the time Catherine left Ireland, otherwise she would have taken them with her too?

None of the children’s death records are on PRONI either.

So I give up – for the time being.

 

by

Christopher Wilson – PRONI record of date of death?

I’ve been searching for Christopher Wilson’s death certificate.  It is not easy.  Ireland have civil records dating back to 1864, and also have non-Catholic marriages recorded from 1845 onwards.   Records are stored by the Public Records Office Northern Ireland (PRONI). So I should be able to type in Christopher’s name with a range of years for his death (I don’t know what date or year he died), and his name should pop up with a year of death and age.  I understand 1800s records are not completely accurate, but a record of Christopher’s death should be stored somewhere?

Well, I’ve tried typing in ‘Wilson’ ‘Christopher’ and various date ranges up until 1891 (When Catherine, Abraham and Robert left Ireland to emigrate to Australia).  Nothing has turned up so far.  I’ve found just three ‘Christopher Wilsons’ who died between 1880 and 1891.  I’ve also searched on ‘Chris’, ‘Christy’, ‘Christie’, ‘Kris’ and I’ve left the forename blank altogether.  I’ve also looked at various entries for other names which might be his middle name eg. ‘Robert’, ‘James’, ‘William’. And some odd looking names like ‘Reid’ (just in case the transcriber read the name wrong) and ‘Charles’ (just in case the transcriber thought the name read ‘Chas’).  No luck.

Curious, I thought I’d also look up the dates of death for three of his children who probably died in childhood, and before Catherine emigrated (as I couldn’t imagine she would leave children behind in Ireland).  None of the children came up in the search for date of death.  The three children are:  Edward (b. 1869), Emily (b. 1871) and Mary (b. 1875).  I also checked if perhaps Emily and Mary might have got married before Catherine left Ireland (as I don’t think she would leave them behind as young single women).  No marriages.  So why are there no records of death for Christopher, Emily, Mary and Edward?  No idea.

Perhaps Catherine left the reporting of death to her local Church – all the births were recorded, but none of the deaths.  Why?