JANE HIGGINS AHOGILL C ANTRIM

[Fellwalker]

Some very kind people from Emerald Ancestors & English & Irish family Search found my grandmother JANE HIGGINS and her parents for me some while ago

The parents were Gilbert Higgins and Annie Darragh and they were married at Ahogill First Presbyterian Church in the Civil District of Ballymena. Gilbert was 23 & a soldier and Annie (Anne) was 22 and a spinster

There were 2 daughters named JANE:
JANE-- born 10/04/1872
JANE-- born 21/01/1877

However, the 2nd JANE--my grandmother. always had her birthday on 1st April. From her age when she died, the year 1887 is correct.and the other family information seems to fit in with what I already knew personally about descendants

I have been unable to trace a death for the 1st Jane and would appreciate help/advice in finding this please

JANE--the 2nd--my grandmother-- had a younger sister MARY HIGGINS.While I have dates of births for other older siblings, MARY doesn't appear. The family moved to Scotland and on census returns it states that Mary was born in Ireland-she is down as being 2 years younger than JANE so should have been born around 1879/1890. Any help/advice in tracing her birth would be very welcome please.

I would also like to trace the parents --and further back if I can--of GILBERT HIGGINS & ANNIE DARRAGH. GILBERT'S father was HUGH a weaver & ANNIE'S father was PATRICK--a servant. Does anybody know of anywhere I could maybe do this please?I have tried further on Emerald ancestors,and Ancestry Ireland without success and am now stuck

Thank you-Eileen

[Elwyn Soutter]

My understanding is that statutory BDM records for Northern Ireland only start in 1864, save for Protestant marriages which go back to 1845, so you may not be able to get too much more info from the statutory registers.

Given that Jane's father was a soldier, could the explanation for the missing death for the 1st Jane and Mary's missing birth (both of which must have occurred within a year or two of each other) be that the family were somewhere else in Ireland at that time, and not in Co Antrim?

Have you considered writing to the First Presbyterian Church in Ahoghill to see if anyone might help you? Perhaps the parish registers are available and might give you some addiitonal information. The Church is still functioning and indeed has its own website. There might also be gravestones with family info.

I have come across the wrong date of birth issue before. I have a friend in N. Ireland whose birth certificate has what he says is the wrong date on it. Though there has a been a legal requirement to register births for many years, not everyone obeyed. Some births were not registered at all, and some were registered very late (sometimes several siblings in a batch). The inroduction of family allowance in 1948 meant that there was thereafter a very good financial reason for parents to rush down and register the birth but before that there was no obvious benefit at all. Indeed you had to pay a fee. My friend (who was born before 1948) says that his parents were farmers, and left it till quarter day, 3 months after his birth, to register it. His father mislaid the piece of paper with the precise birth date on it, and so simply made one up. (Getting it wrong by 3 weeks). So he celebrates the date his mother told him was the correct one, whilst his birth certificate gives another. Perhaps your grandmother was similar.

Elwyn

[Fellwalker]

Elwyn--Thank you for this. It hasn't occurred to me to check for a church web site for some reason--will do this.

I had wondered about the family moving to be with the father and possibly having another child some where else, but I have no idea of what regiment he was likely to be in so gave up on that one I;m afraid.!

Thank you for the comment re late registrations too--possibly if father was away things got left until he had leave.

Off to look up the church web site!

Thank you for your help--I appreciate it
Eileen