Author Topic: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question  (Read 2651 times)

Offline cocksie

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PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« on: Sunday 06 March 16 03:53 GMT (UK) »
I am trying to assist a friend of mine tracking down his ancestors.  We have managed to detect that his ancestors had some association (ie married, baptised) with St Anne's Shankill (Connor diocese), Belfast.  When searching on the rootsireland site I found 2 records relating to the family (1 baptism and 1 marriage) but am unable to track down the majority of the family being baptised etc at this church.
I gather PRONI holds the microfilm
PRONI REFERENCE NUMBER
MIC583/18-23; MIC1/178
The info on PRONI indicates that the records are "full" ie, not many gaps in the time period that we are interested in 1820-1858.  I have emailed PRONI asking about the condition, gaps etc of this register but have not heard back as yet.

Before my friend engages a local researcher to actually go to PRONI (we live in Australia and it seems the only way to access the microfiche is to physically go) I thought I would ask a question here:
1.  Does anyone know if there are time period gaps in the St Anne's Shankill register information held at PRONI - which could explain the "missing" baptisms, deaths etc we are looking for, particulaly the period 1820-1858.

I would welcome any assistance
Cocks
Hallidays of Northowram, Roberts of Hovingham, Stampers of Kirkdale, Cocks of Mary Tavy Devon, Cocks of Redruth Cornwall, Manser of Sussex, Axel of East Sussex, Palmer of East Sussex, Hermitage of Sussex, Smale of Kent, Haddon of Devon, Cuthill of Kinross-shire, Lynn of Ireland, Seymour of Cork

Offline Maggsie

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 06 March 16 11:09 GMT (UK) »
Hi,
Many sites I use search by name.
Names please and I will see if I can help.
Maggsie

Offline cocksie

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #2 on: Monday 07 March 16 11:30 GMT (UK) »
Hi Maggsie
I don't have easy access to all collated data tonight but wanted to acknowledge your prompt response.
I am searching for the COI baptisms of the children of James Smith Shaw and his wife, Mary nee Hunter. Children all born between 1826 and 1835.  I believe Daughter Elizabeth Smith Shaw was the eldest, baptised in 1826 - found her baptism at St Anne's Shankill.

Am looking for baptisms of :
Jane Shaw
Mary Anne/ Marianne Shaw
William Henry Shaw (documents collated specify his actual birth date as 11 July (from memory) 1835
Fanny Louise/Louisa Shaw
Emily Shaw, b. Abt 1835. She marries Robert Holden in 1854 at St Anne's Shankill

The mother, Mary dies in 1858 (found newspaper death notice)
James and Mary appear to have lived in the Donegall Pass area - Charlotte street.
James' occupation is variously documented as carpenter, builder, joiner.
The children and James smith Shaw all end up in OZ, immigrating in dribs and drabs.

All children indicate (in their respective DCs and other later documents in OZ) that they were born in Belfast and that their mother's name was Mary, nee Hunter.
Have not been able to find marriage of James smith Shaw and Mary Hunter as yet.
Thought I would track down each child's baptism first but have hit a brick wall....
Would make sense if they were all baptised at St Anne's, hence my query as to what year/time gaps there are in the registers held at PRONI.
Cocksie
Hallidays of Northowram, Roberts of Hovingham, Stampers of Kirkdale, Cocks of Mary Tavy Devon, Cocks of Redruth Cornwall, Manser of Sussex, Axel of East Sussex, Palmer of East Sussex, Hermitage of Sussex, Smale of Kent, Haddon of Devon, Cuthill of Kinross-shire, Lynn of Ireland, Seymour of Cork

Offline Maggsie

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #3 on: Monday 07 March 16 13:35 GMT (UK) »
Hi,
I could only find Elizabeth in 1826 and Emily's marriage to Robert Holden.
Ancestry don't have any records.
I did open searches with Shaw and Hunter and the only result was Elizabeth.
Sorry.
Maggsie


Offline Elwyn Soutter

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #4 on: Friday 11 March 16 08:18 GMT (UK) »
I have used the St Anne’s records in PRONI and they are generally complete. You get odd entries and faded pages but there are no major gaps that I recall in the 1800s. St Anne’s was the busiest Church of Ireland church in Belfast but it wasn’t the only one. There’s Christ Church, St George’s, St Mathews (early registers destroyed in the 1922 fire) & St Patrick’s all of which were in use in the early and mid 1800s.  Surviving records for all are in PRONI.)Their records are not on-lien so far as I am aware.

Regarding the parents marriage, that may not necessarily have been in St Anne’s. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, wherever that may have been (and whatever denomination). Remember too that in the early 1800s the population of Belfast was expanding rapidly as people moved into the city from rural areas to take advantage of new jobs created by the huge increase in ship building, linen mills and house building. So the parents may have married outside Belfast.
Elwyn

Offline cocksie

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #5 on: Friday 11 March 16 09:03 GMT (UK) »
Thanks for that info about the completeness of St Anne's register. Looks like it might be worth the friend I am assisting engaging a person in Belfast to have a look to see if he/she can find any of the baptisms.

We don't think that James Smith Shaw and Mary Hunter married in Belfast. His DC indicates a marriage in a place starting with D, has a G - tricky to read but put a scan on rootschat and got some excellent responses and thoughts: Dungiven being one of the possibilities......
James' DC also indicates his birth was in Cookstown, Tyrone (actually it says Antrim) and his death notice talks about a father "Dr John Cook" of Cookstown, Tyrone.

Haven't had a lot of joy pre 1858 "sighting" of James and Mary in Donegall pass area so thought finding/establishing their baptism would be a good start. We are drawn to St Anne's as we have found one child baptism and another child's subsequent marriage there......

Will pass on your info to my friend ....
Once again, thank you
Cocksie
Hallidays of Northowram, Roberts of Hovingham, Stampers of Kirkdale, Cocks of Mary Tavy Devon, Cocks of Redruth Cornwall, Manser of Sussex, Axel of East Sussex, Palmer of East Sussex, Hermitage of Sussex, Smale of Kent, Haddon of Devon, Cuthill of Kinross-shire, Lynn of Ireland, Seymour of Cork

Offline Melbell

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast registers
« Reply #6 on: Monday 03 October 16 15:50 BST (UK) »
Dear Cocksie

As we are now six months on from your original enquiry I wondered whether I might ask if you or your friend had any success in trying to access the St. Anne's Shankill registers ?

I have a very similar problem to yours.  The family I am researching definitely registered some events at this church but there are lots of gaps and queries.

Any tips you have gathered from your experience would be gratefully received!

Thank you,
Melbell

Offline aghadowey

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #7 on: Monday 03 October 16 16:19 BST (UK) »
If you are unable to find the information you expected to find in the church registers it may be that the family moved around the city a bit and baptisms, etc. would be recorded in another parish.
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline cocksie

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Re: PRONI - St Anne's Shankill, Belfast (Connor Diocese) question
« Reply #8 on: Monday 03 October 16 19:25 BST (UK) »
Six months on and I haven't proceeded far due to other circumstances.
I did contact St Anne's and they very promptly responded with an enquiry form along with a good explanation of fees involved for the various types of possible search scopes. Hopefully one day in the near future I will get back into the chase!
Cocksie
Hallidays of Northowram, Roberts of Hovingham, Stampers of Kirkdale, Cocks of Mary Tavy Devon, Cocks of Redruth Cornwall, Manser of Sussex, Axel of East Sussex, Palmer of East Sussex, Hermitage of Sussex, Smale of Kent, Haddon of Devon, Cuthill of Kinross-shire, Lynn of Ireland, Seymour of Cork