Finding birth information in County Down??

[amehn]

From the 1891, I have finally gotten a name of a place for my ggg grandmother. Her maiden name was BLACK(or possibly BOYD) but I have no idea how to go about finding out more about her (without, of course, hiring someone to do it for me!).

She married Samuel FERGUSON in Ireland.

1891 census
Name: Ferguson, Agnes
Age in 1891: 48
Relation: Head
Gender: Female
Where Born: Down anshilt, Ireland

Civil parish: Workington
Ecclesiastical parish: St John
County: Cumberland
Source information: RG12/4304
Registration district: Cockermouth
Sub registration district: Workington
ED, institution, or vessel: 16
Folio: 111
Page: 12

Any suggestions?

[kingmytten]

Civil registration In Ireland starteded in 1864 so you are too early for the birth on that. Try www.mayo-ireland.ie/general County Down is in Northern Ireland.
I have in the past written to the local church and had helpful replies.
Andrea

[amehn]

thanks for the links Andrea. I'll check them out. I'm supposing that the parish I need is Annahilt but I don't know what church etc. I'm still at the groping-for-clues stage.

a.

[Peggy]

You are probably looking for

ANAHILT, a parish, partly in the barony of KINELEARTY, but chiefly in that of LOWER IVEAGH, county of DOWN, and province of ULSTER

See: www.from-ireland.net/lewis/down/anahilt.htm for more information.

Peggy

[amehn]

Thank you Peggy, I'll check out that site too.

I read somewhere a long time ago, that many church records in Ireland are no longer available (destroyed?); I read recently that for anahilt (sometimes I've seen it spelled with two "n"s, sometimes one) that the Presbyterian records exist but those for the Church of Ireland are "lost".

PS Is a "barony" a term used today for a division of land? I'm guessing that there aren't still baron's who own huge tracts of land...

It is intersting how difficult it can be to know/understand the different terminology for political land divisions for the different countries; there really is a lot of variation!

[Peggy]

Someone decided that all of the church records should be kept in Dublin. Most C of E records were sent along, and fed the infamous fire. Catholics (and probably other dissenters), not trusting the government, balked, so more records survived.
"A Barony is an important county subdivision. . . . There are generally between seven and ten baronies per county although Cork has twenty and Louth has only four. A barony can occupy parts of two counties in which case it is referred to as a half barony. There are 331 baronies in Ireland. Baronies are no longer used for local government." [from Irish Ancestors web page]

Ireland has complicated place designations. There can be 3 or 4 places with the same name not far from each other, and you need to add a string of information to be talking about the right one. Luckily, there is help from sites such as www.seanruad.com. Put Annahilt as the Civil Parish.

Peggy

[amehn]

Thanks for answering my questions, Peggy.

Unfortunate about the records (as the saying goes: never put all your eggs into the same government building :o} ) Does make the research a tad more challenging!

a.

[olive maxwell]

|banghead|can any one help looking for records of our gtgtgrandad william maxwell
born 1813 county down