Daniel Golden/Mary Willem County Down

[Elwyn Soutter]

You can see a list of all the townlands (ie placenames) in each county on this link. The civil registration district is normally the same as the PLU (Poor Law Union).

Street names and house numbers were only introduced to Ireland in rural areas in the 1950s. Prior to that a person gave their townland as their address. The postman and everyone else in the townland knew where everyone lived and so no further detail was required.

So, in my opinion, you are looking for a townland beginning “Creag….”. Trouble is there isn’t one I can see in Co Down.

www.seanruad.com/

[t@nya]

Several people have said that the place name is most likely Creevyloughgare from the pronunciation. After all, the people in New Caledonia would likely spell it how they thought it sounded. Do you think they're wrong?

[Jan1954]

This pdf document of the Registration Districts of Ireland is also a useful resource.

[Coromandel]

Is there any clue in the next line of the marriage certificate? From the tops of the letters visible in the image it looks like it says the mystery placename again.

[t@nya]

Is there any clue in the next line of the marriage certificate? From the tops of the letters visible in the image it looks like it says the mystery placename again.

I'm afraid not, it just says that Daniel Golden and Marie Willem live in that place, whatever it is.

[Elwyn Soutter]

You ask whether Creevyloughgare might be wrong. Difficult to say. Probably the next step would be to test it by checking parish records for her baptism or signs of any other Golden family members.

I’d guess that Theresa was RC. If so, that was the RC parish of Carrickmannon & Saintfield. Their records go back to 1837. Copies are held in PRONI Belfast and also in the National Library, Dublin. They are not on line as far as I am aware and so you would need to get someone to look them up for you. (You could also write to the parish priest but they get rather a lot of genealogical enquiries these days and you may not get a reply).

https://www.
irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/downrc.htm

[t@nya]

Thanks very much for that. Only 1837. I guess my search may come to a halt more quickly than I expected.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Very few RC parishes outside big cities like Belfast and Dublin have records before the 1820s, so this parish is fairly typical. It's extremely hard to research an RC line back beyond 1800 or thereabouts, unless they happened to be very wealthy, or very famous. Obviously most of the population didn't fall into that category.

[t@nya]

Hopefully, I'll still be able to get another generation back, then. Thanks for your help Elwyn.

[Jan1954]

Both Flyleaf Press and Eneclann produce CDs and books that could help with Irish research. Click the links and have a rummage to see if there is anything suitable.