Life in 1840 (about) in County Armagh

[Sara Widness]

From County Armagh around 1840 a Thomas Miller married to a Mary Delly; when did the emigrate to Canada where their son was born in 1858?

Interested in circumstances of life in this county around 1840.

Also would like to trace more information about Thomas Miller and Mary Delly.

[aghadowey]

The dates you are looking for are well before the start of registration of births and deaths in Ireland (1864). However, registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 (from 1864 for Catholic marriages). Before these dates you need to search for church records but in order to do so you need to know their religion and where they lived- parish if not actual townland, not just the county or 'Ireland.' As well as that, many church records will be incomplete or non-existant pre-1850s.

Most of the information you will be able to find will almost certainly come from Canadian sources. Have a look at this topic-
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=498742.0

[aghadowey]

In answer to the other part of your question about life in Armagh in the 1840s it probably depends on whether they lived in a city like Armagh or a more rural area, their occupations, etc.

The Armagh Workhouse was built 1840- http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Armagh/
The one at Lurgan from around the same period- http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lurgan/

[Sara Widness]

Thank you for these replies. I think he farmed outside of Ontario CAN so let's assume he was a farmer. Were there any Mormons in Armagh at that time? He became one certainly in Canada. What was farming like then? He would have been Protestant. Would he have owned land or been under someone's yoke?

[aghadowey]

Please let's not assume he was a farmer. It's just as or even more likely that he would have been a farm labourer working for someone else or had an entirely different job in Ireland. In any case, very few farmers owned their own land until c1900 or even later. Farms in those days would have been quite small (maybe under 10 acres), mixed (a variety of stock and crops- chiefly potato and oats probably), houses quite small (1 or two rooms).
Have a look at Cultra's website to see typical buildings, also the Ulster America Folk Park, both of which have re-created buildings from part of Ulster.
http://www.nmni.com/uftm/Collections/Agriculture
http://www.nmni.com/uafp/Collections/Buildings

Regarding religion, again, don't assume anything. Many Monrmons were converts from Catholicism.
http://wheresmerrill.com/2013/11/09/us-mormon-ancestry-records-pre-date-surviving-irish-rc-parish-registers/

[Sara Widness]

Thank you again. Were people converting in Ireland from Catholic to Mormon as early as the 1840s?

[gaffy]

The only Canadian census records I've seen refer to Thomas and Mary Miller being from "Ireland" - can you clarify, what is the basis of the County Armagh reference and her maiden name Delly, do you have further information?

I can see various genealogy website / blog references to Thomas Miller being married to Mary Dilly or Dilley, also mentions of Clonfeacle parish, all without any substantiation whatsoever, so my advice is to be very careful what you read.

BTW, Delly/Dilly/Dilley, if any of these is accurate, is not a common surname in the time and place context you're seeking.

As already advised by Aghadowey, you need to close off what you can find on the Canadian side, especially with a view to pinning down (at least) the parish in Ireland.

Once you've established a parish - and provided it is indeed County Armagh or elsewhere in the province of Ulster - you might want to consult the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, they were almost contemporary to the period you're after (1830-1840) and were written descriptions, arranged on a parish basis, intended to accompany the Ordnance Survey (maps) commissioned in 1824, although there were gaps / omissions in their coverage.