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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Antrim => Topic started by: kingsgate on Tuesday 12 May 09 19:47 BST (UK)
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I would be very grateful to hear of anyone who has any information at all about this family, no matter how remote. (The surname may also be spelt Hillritch/Hillditch/Hillerege/Hillrich etc)
They appear to arrive in Antrim in the 1600s, settling around Carrickfergus. They then seem to spread out from there.
I am especially interested in any of the Hilditch family in Belfast, where I am looking for a number of baptisms, including John (about 1847), Robert (about 1852), Hugh (about 1854) and Samuel (about 1861). There were also girls - Margaret, Edith and Elizabeth, but I have no dates for them. The family were in the Shankill area in the 1870s.
I believe the family originally came from the Doagh / Ballyeaston /Donegore / Grange area, with other family also in Larne, Ballymena and Carrickfergus.
Any information would be most useful. Thank you.
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do you have any parents names.
regards mary.
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I have Elizabeth ?Hebditch on my tree but only one i can find is b 1859 Somerset. As all my family is either b Cumberland or Ireland (mainly Down), with no other links to Somerset - I wonder whether there is a transcription error - and she should be Hilditch?? 'My' Elizabeth m James Gribbin b IOM 1859. An irish link would be the most logical......do you have any possible Elizabeths?
Thanks in advance
maryd
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I have many for Antrim, but none for Down, though of course they were very close, especially from Belfast. It would help if I knew which Census years you could find her on? Does 1OM stand for Isle of Man? One of the varients I have found my own family under was Helditch, which isn't that far from Hebditch!
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Hi kingsgate
Do you have details of the Hilditch burial in Templecorran graveyard, there is only one gravestone and it only has death dates not birth or age
Helena
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No, I am afraid I do not have have any details of the Templecorran gravestone but would very much like to.
I am especially looking for a family where the parents are Hugh and Agnes, but will be happy to have any information about any members of this family. Thanks for your interest. Kingsgate
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Hi
IOM does stand for Isle of Man...and found 'my' Elizabeth on 1861 census and then not at all until marriage....probably no link whatsoever but given that there is no logical link between this family and Somerset...I thought a similar name in Ireland might be the answer???Back to the drawing board methinks!!!!!!
Sorry to take your time
Maryd
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Hi Maryd
No problem at all - if she was only 'Hebditch' on one entry you could well be right about a Hilditch connection. Do you have her marriage certificate or know where her marriage was?
There are LOTS of the Irish Hilditch's who emigrated to Englad in the 1800s. Many went to Scotland. The IOM would have been on the sea route too perhaps? Actually - though I can't prove it - I rather think the family came from England in the first place, as there was a crop who were living in Staffordshire and Cheshire in the 1500s. Somerset
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Hi
Templecorran Graveyard
John Hilditch d. 10 June 1898 his wife Elizabeth d. 10 Feb 1922 daughter Minnie d. 13 July 1893 daughter Elizabeth d. 31 march 1965
Helena
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Thank you so much for this Helena. I keep collecting all these fragments of information and am starting to build up various family trees - which very slowly are starting to link together. Its useful just to know where they were. Thanks again.
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Hi,
I believe the current or recent former mayor of Carrickfergus is David Hilditch.
J.A.M.
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Thanks - that is probably worth my following up - I will write him a letter. Thanks again.
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My surname is Hilditch. My great grandfather was Sandy or Alexander Hilditch who lived in the Whitehouse area of north Belfast. He died about 1962. I think he had a family of about 12 and I think my grandfather, James, was the eldest. He was born in 1907 and died in 1994. I live in the North Antrim area.
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Hi
Its great to hear from you. I have gathered a lot of information about the Antrim Hilditch families in the vain hope of finding more about my branch. I may be able to help with your search. Ideally I would do this via a private message, but don't know how to do this on Roots web. I'll have a delve and see if its possible. D
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Kingsgate- after the-hooded-claw makes 3 posts your can use PM (personal message) system to exchange email addresses which can't be posted on Rootschat.
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thanks - but does that mean thc hasn't received the one I sent earlier?
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Not sure if they would have gotten it at all. Hopefully they'll return to this thread.
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Ok.
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Hi Hooded Claw
I did send you a private message but as you will see from the answers above you need to make a couple of more post before we can use the private messaging system. Basically I wanted to let you know that I have a lot of info about Hilditch marriages pre 1920s (though by no means all). If you could let me know a bit more about Alexander (ie the first name of his wife) I could then look for the marriage. I do have one possibility in my files - and Alexander to and Agvnes, in 1908, but I will do a bit more digging and see what I come up with.
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Hi The_Hooded_Claw,
I have been spending some time sorting out my notes, and think I have quite a lot about your family - possibly going back several generations (at least 3), but obviously this is very tentative, and would be subject to having more info to confirm this or otherwise.
If I am correct then actually Sandy was married to Mary (not Agnes) and three of the children they had were Willliam J (who I think was your James, and there is some evidence to support this), b 1907, Rosanna, b c 1909, and Thomas b c 1910.
Work now takes me away for a week or so, but hope to find a message from you on my return.
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Hi Kingsgate.
Don't know if this connects to your research, but you never know.
It's a HILDITCH cemetery entry on The Braid website, www.thebraid.com
HILDITCH.
St Patrick's Church of Ireland, Ballymarlow.
In memory of JOHN HILDITCH, Ballymena, died 3rd January 1883, age 65 years.
Also his wife ELIZA, died 1st September 1885, aged 70 years.
Regards,
Dixie
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Hi Dixie,
thank you so much for this. I have been slowly putting together a Hilditch (Antrim/ Ireland) database, tryng to make connections (which seems to be working for many branches pretty well bar my own of course). Any little fragment is most helpful, so thanks for this - it actually also ties into a will, and confirms a marriage, so is really helpful.
Best wishes, Kingsgate
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I did send a private reply but as I'm very new to this it may not have been forwarded. My great grandfather was Alexander who married Mary Finney. My grandfather William James was born in 1907 and I know he had brothers and sisters as follows, Thomas, Roseanna(known as Rose), Alexander, Cassie(possibly Catherine), Robert, Elizabeth and Lawrence.
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Just to add Rose married a Matthew Houston and they had children called John and Anne. Elizabeth married someone called Hamill (I think!)
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Message to Kingsgate. I was searching on line and found your messages concerning Hilditch/ Hilrich.
I have just joined the site and I am new to this.
I just want to make sure that we are on the same page and are talking about the same Hugh and Agnes Hilditch, their children were Thomas John Elizabeth Robert Hugh.
My connection is with Elizabeth(Lizzie) who married William George Wilton they had about 6 children of which one was Clara she married a William E. Popkin in Montréal Canada.
Thomas emigrated to Canada in approximately 1881.
If this seems to make sense please contact me and I can help you out and hopefully you can give me some information about the parents
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Hi Calman,
Yes this is the same family, and you are absolutely correct. I am afraid I know nothing really more about the parents, but would love to do so. I would love to chat to you further regarding this.
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Hi
I have just joined this forum to try and help a man in his 70s trace his relatives. his name is James Livingstone and he was from the Shankill Road area, his parents are George and Lucy Livingstone, and I have the names of Sandy and Elizabeth Hilditch, also a Dave and Lucy Lockhart, these are the relatives he is trying to find.
I have registered on the Belfast Forum and have had a couple of replies, but I'd like to cast the net as wide as possible. James Livingstone (Jimmy, as we know him as his friends) is in his 70s and living in Bournemouth.
I'll have to re-read this thread as it is most interesting and there may be people he recognises from it.
Hope you can assist.
Cheers
Brigitte
Bournemouth UK
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Rootschat isn't a forum for tracing living people and you mustn't post details of living, or possibly living, people here. After you've made 2/3 posts you'll be able to use PM (personal message) system and people can contact you that way if they've any recent details.
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Apologies for that - this would prove difficult as I only have these names above to go on, as this man is not computer literate, and am trying to get some results for him. In this case it is finding the living relatives so he can take things further if he wishes. This man has long lost touch with his relations and I am trying to cast the net as wide as I can.
Apologies again.
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Hi
It may be that one of these threads relates to the Hilditch family you friend seeks. I am afraid I can't help more at present as I don't have the dates/ages of the family you mention - as the moderator says after a couple of posts you can send me a private message with more details and I'll see what I can track down for you.
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There is a section in help pages with hints for tracing living people you might want to look through-
www.rootschat.com/help/posting_guide.php#living
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Thanks for that. I will read through those links. I think whatever happens it will be difficult as getting ages will be pure approximation!!!!
Myself I possibly have an Irish father from Limerick, so I may find something myself on this site!! Although in my case it depends on whether or not my mother has lied to me - so maybe this Irish bloke never existed - anyway, that has nothing to do with this thread, so I'll not carry on about that here.
Thanks again for the link - Jim was asking this morning.
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My surname is Hilditch. My great grandfather was Sandy or Alexander Hilditch who lived in the Whitehouse area of north Belfast. He died about 1962. I think he had a family of about 12 and I think my grandfather, James, was the eldest. He was born in 1907 and died in 1994. I live in the North Antrim area.
Hi - my great grandfather was also Alexander Hilditch from Whitehouse!! My grandmother was Cassie (Catherine) - James's sister. I have been trying to do some research just lately and have managed to trace some details on 1911 Irish census and Ulster Covenant on PRONI web-site but other than that nothing much else. Have you had any luck would love to know if you have as I would really like to put a family tree together. I now live in Queensland Australia.
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Hi GCloyal,
I researched this family for the Hooded Claw and got back a couple more generations with a high degree of certainty. I will have to dig out my notes. I have been collecting every bit of info on this family for many years now, in the hope - sadly rather a forlorn one as the register I need was lost in 1922 - of trying to find one of my ancestors from Ballyeaston. However on the way I have built up a pretty extensive database from all the scraps of info, including quite a few certificates, and that let me trace this family. You can now search the 1901 census yourself now of course, at the same place as the 1911 one in Ireland.
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Hi Kingsgate thanks for that I would really appreciate any assistance you might be able to provide and would be happy to meet any postage costs if you have documents. I'm new to this and have found it really interesting.Regards GCLoyal
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Hi - here is a sarter, which I know you have found:
in the 1911 census, at Thompson Street, Whitehouse:
Alexander Hilditch aged 25, Presbyterian, smiths helper, married 4 years, had 3 children, all living
Mary A aged 23, wife, flax spinner
William J 4 son, Presbyterian
Roseanne 2, daughter
Thomas F 1, son
Elizabeth T Finney 12, sister in law, scholar
Did you also find his father - at Cahoon Street, Whitehouse?:
William James Hilditch aged 49, Presbyterian, cannot read , general labourer, b Antrim
Catherine 48, married 26 years, had 4 children, 3 still alive
Rose Ann 18 daughter, read and write, linen spinner
Catherine 16, daughter, can read and write, linen spinner
William John Marks 15, nephew, linen doffer, cannot read
More to follow!
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Much appreciated Kingsgate.
You have solved another mystery for me - I have in my possession a 1914/15 Star belonging to William Marquis 15th Batt Royal Irish Rifles who was killed in action 1/7/16 at the Somme. I found him on the Covenant PRONI records and got a few details on the Commonwealth War Graves site but couldn't find anything else. However I am assuming that the William John Marks at Cahoon Street was actually William John Marquis. Incidentially on the Commonwealth War Graves site and Thiepval memotial his name is spelt as Marduis.
Thanks again and would appreciate anything else you might have.
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Hi,
William Hilditch married Catherine Marquis on 10 Nov 1884 in St. Annes Church of Ireland, Shankill, Belfast.
An Ancestry site lists William MARGUIS (sic) Killed in Action on 1 Jul 1916. It states that he was born in Mallusk, Co. Antrim
Regards
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Hi CGLoyal - I've sent you a PM with details of the marriages and baptisms that I have, plus a couple of other bits and pieces - should get you back to the 1790s.
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Thanks Kingskerswell - I have details of all the marriage cert info, but the info about the death is very helpful.
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Hi, it’s by a long time since I last posted, but have been beavering away at this tough family history nut, and think I’ve cracked part of it, though have limited documentary proof, so see what you think.
Many years ago I discovered the earliest references I could find to the Hilditch family were from Staffordshire. At the time my brother lived in Stafford, so I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the Stafford record office. There were references to the Hilditch family of Betley, some of whom were also listed in the recusancy rolls of Elizabeth 1st. I then found details of a farm called HILDITCH (now long gone) but being a new researcher didn’t know enough to record the details. Nevertheless it was old enough to suggest it was probably the source of the surname.
Fast forward a few years and DNA comes in, and lo and behold I discover I have DNA connections to the Staffordshire/Cheshire Hilditch family. So now I think I can suggest a fairly accurate link to how they ended up in Ireland, especially given that so many of the Hilditch family in Ireland say the family originally came from Holland.
First for those that don’t know, here’s a bit of background history. James II became king after the death of his brother Charles II. James was married twice. By his first wife, Ann Hyde, he had two daughters, Mary and Anne. (Both later inherited the throne). Mary married William of Orange (in Holland) and moved to Holland to be with her husband. Following the death of Anne Hyde, James remarried, but this time he converted to Catholicism, and married a Roman Catholic. This did not go down at all well with the English who remembered the Protestant burnings of (‘Bloody’) Mary Tudor and were concerned as they watched as James started to persecute the Presbyterians. However they knew that his Protestant daughter Mary was next in line to inherit, so bided their time. Then, late in life, James had a baby son, a son that would inherit the throne as a catholic king (the ‘warming pan’ baby, who later became father of Bonnie Prince Charlie). That was the trigger for the population to think of revolution. In the end, in 1688 William of Orange came over with an army in the ‘bloodless’ revolution, James left by the back door and fled to France, and William and his wife Mary became joint king and queen of England.
I believe that by then certainly at least one branch of the HILDITCH family had become Presbyterian. They were persecuted by king James. It’s widely documented that many Presbyterians fled to Holland at this time, to seek protection from William and Mary. I think that one of them was William Hilditch together with at least one brother, most likely called Robert. (There is documentary evidence to this effect in one branch of the family). They then returned to England with William when he became king in 1688. They certainly went with King William when he invaded Ireland in 1680, as about then is the first time they appear in Irish records, when William Hilditch is recorded on the lease of land at the Commons, which is near Carrickfergus Castle. (confirmed by the Ulster Historical Foundation). William Hilditch is also recorded as being a Burgess of Carrickfergus Castle - a representative of the borough with a right to vote. It also appears he was heavily involved in the setting up of the first Presbyterian church in Antrim.
At about the same time adverts exist for a Robert Hilditch who was trading out of Belfast. This must have been either William’s brother, or son.
From then on the family start slowly to spread out, but invariably centred out from Carrickfergus, so you see them in Belfast, in Ballyclare, Ballyeaston and about as far north as Ballymena - but almost all are mostly found in that roughly triangular area of Belfast, Carrickfergus and Ballymena. This is undoubtedly the same family, despite the alternative spellings of the surname.
There are certainly plenty of alternatives in my own twig of the tree. I was very fortunate indeed, given the appalling state of Irish records, that my grandfather stayed in contact with his uncle , and namesake, Thomas who had emigrated to Montreal about 1880 and as the French Canadians couldn’t pronounce Hilditch had changed it to Hillrich/ Hilrich, as witnessed in family letters and by the visit of a cousin in WW1. Likewise another cousin, John, had emigrated to the USA as Hilleridge, ending up in Cedar Rapids. It was also my grandfather who related that the family had first lived in Ayrshire, before moving to Glasgow for work, though he hadn’t realised they had cone from Antrim to Scotland.
Think I can now have a better stab at my Irish Ancestry, though much must be surmised from surviving scraps and some assumptions, the main one being they followed the Scottish naming pattern, first son names after paternal grandfather, second after maternal on, and so on. I’ll post more on this later.
So what do you think? Does all make sense?
I’d love to hear back what you think.
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Time to add infabout my own branch, which have been so elusive.
My great grandfather was called Hugh Hilditch, born about 1854 -1913, most likely in Belfast. He worked in the linen trade as a calico printer, which was a skilled job as it required mixing the dyes.
He had a number of siblings
1. John, 1847 -1917. Married Anna MacKenzie. Emigrated to Cedar Rapids USA as John Hilleridge
2. Margaret 1849. Believed she emigrated to Canada with brother Thomas and never married.
3. Robert, 1852. Married Isabella in Glasgow and had George (1879-1882) and Agnes (b/d 1880). After Isabella’s death he married a widow, Hannah Lees, in England and helped to raise her children.
4. (Hugh 1854-1913 - see above)
5. Elizabeth (1856 - 1939) married William Wilton, b 1854, a sculptor. Had 6 sons and 4 daughters, many born in the USA, before returning to Belfast.
6. Edith 1858. Cannot track her down.
7. Thomas 1858-1930. Married Isabella Raymond (1856-1900) in Belfast. Emigrated to Canada from Glasgow and settled in Montreal as Thomas Hilrich. Had children Robert John Raymond, 1877; Mary Edith 1879; Thomas jnr 1886 - 1921 (died of wounds from being gassed in WW1, leaving widow and 2 children) ; Hugh Charles 1856-1951), William 1891, and twins Edgar and Reginald 1896.
8. Samuel (1861 - 1937. ) married firstly Esther Jane McNally (1866-1894) and had Agnes (1892-94) and Catherine (1889-1895), then remarried and had Mary Anne (Minnie) b 1896 and Samuel (1899). All born in Belfast. Neither Minnie nor Sam ever married or had children. Samuel senior) worked for Harland and Wolfe on the ship’s boilers, and worked on Olympic, Titanic and Britannic. My father recalled visiting him at his then home in Down pre world war 2.
There was another sister called Agnes who went to Cnada with Thomas, but again I can’t find any reference to her or her year of birth.
My great grandfather Hugh married 3 times-
1. In Belfast to Jane Armour (1852-1880) in 1872. They emigrated to Scotland where Jane died of TB. They had one son, also Hugh, 1873 -1886. He died aged 14 of appendicitis in England.
2. In Glasgow, Scotland in 1884 to Isabella Ritchie. They had 2 sons , Archibald (1885-1886, named for his maternal grandfather), and Duncan (b/d 1889). They had moved to England by the time Duncan was born but his mother died at his birth of heart failure, and he was taken back to Glasgow by his maternal grandparents, where he died a few weeks later. Isabella is buried in an unmarked grave at Mossley cemetery, Ashton under Lyne.
Hugh, as mentioned earlier was a calico printer, and worked at factories owned by members of the CPA - the calico printers association. This was a group of owners who shared information and training, and employees could move around between the factories for work and training. This is how he ended up in Denshaw which then was part of Yorkshire (now considered part of greater Manchester though it’s miles away), at Denshaw Vale Printworks. There he married his third wife, Ada Graham, 1866-1935 in 1890. They went on to have 10 children together. Hugh and Ada are buried together at Denshaw church.
Hugh and his siblings were the children of Hugh Hilditch and Agnes, known as Nancy, McConnell, who married at Donegore church in 1844 - just one year before civil registration which would have given the name of their fathers. However the register notes Agnes was ‘of Ballywee’ and Hugh was of ‘Ballyeaston’. Agnes was in a census so know she was born in 1821, and there is a baptismal entry for Agnes McConnell of Ballywee in 1821, the daughter of Andrew McConnell and Eliza Boyd.
However Hugh is more of a mystery. I assume he would have been born about 1815 - 1821.
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I would love to find the name of Hugh’s father. There are 2 or 3 possibles.
Ballyeaston covers the tiny cluster of cottages that is Ballyhamage. In the later lists, a Robert and a John Hilditche are both listed there. They could be brothers or father and son. There is also a Robert listed there earlier, born about 1777, married to Ginny who is almost certainly their father and who records the death of a young grandson named Robert Hugh. Either of these two could be his father. My Hugh - as Hugh ‘Kilditch’ - was certainly witness of a wedding of a Thomas HILDITCH,aged 21, flax dresser of Ballyhamage - son of Thomas, to Annie Dougherty of Ballyclare 11th January 1866. I suspect going by the age this was a nephew - so it could be
Robert
Thomas
Or John.
Just to add to the mix there was a Hugh just down the road who was publican of an inn in Ballyclare, but he died in 1812. However if Hugh was older than Nancy then it’s possible.
Hugh senior must have died between 1873 to 1877 as he was first listed as being deceased on the marriage entry of 1877. By that time his widow Nancy / Agnes was living in Glasgow with her sons Samuel, Robert and Hugh. They are all listed there in the 1881 census, and Nancy is a widow. They must have gone there with John and Thomas as well, as both emigrated from Glasgow about 1880. Yet I can’t find a death entry in either Scotland or Ireland for their father Hugh. I know Nancy returned to Belfast with youngest son Samuel - and can’t find her death entry either, as Nancy or Agnes - in either Scotland, Ireland or even England.
The other aspect is that both Ballyeaston registers survived. The family are not mentioned in one, the other is reported as being faded to invisibility. My father paid for an examination of the latter to see if it was possible to do anything to get the print back - but no - every page (at least at present) remains apparently blank.
So any thoughts?
I’m sure they are all brothers, uncles etc, but can’t make sense of it except I’m pretty sure the elder Robert was either the father or the grandfather. However the first son was called John. Is that a clue? Or was there an earlier child who pre deceased him?
Any thoughtful suggestions welcome!
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Hi
I have Hilditch on my family tree too
my great great grand mother Elizabeth Scott, parents: Margaret Hilditch B in WHITEHOUSE ANTRIM-1862 AND John Scott 1858
Margaret Hilditch parents- Thomas Hugh Hilditch Born 1832 Ballynure Weaver. and Eliza Jane Mcquillan
Thomas Hugh Hilditch parents - Francis Hilditch Born 1788 Weaver and Margaret Watts 1795