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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Donegal => Topic started by: Blueskyraven on Sunday 30 July 17 22:50 BST (UK)
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Desperately seeking any info on my missing Grandfather James Ward b. Ireland ( most likely in Donegal )b. 1910 approx
fact : lived in Halifax Yorkshire in 1931-1932
family legend: Jim Ward- Irish Catholic- joined Royal Engineers approx 1932- served in WW2 -returned to live in Halifax Yorkshire - worked at Redmonds Engineering- never married-was cousin of Royston Lewis of Halifax, Yorkshire.
Our family dna results are a match with the following people........
Matthew Ward b. Donegal , Ireland and his wife Elizabeth ( Betty ) Crossan b. Donegal, Ireland. Matthew and Elizabeth had at least 4 children- Neal, Henry, Margaret Jane , Susan all born in Donegal between 1835 and 1857 before emigrating to USA .
Our guess is that a sibling of Matthews is my ancestor so If we can find the record of the Irish marriage of Matthew Ward and Elizabeth Crossan and their Parents BDMs or census, we should be able to find the common ancestor leading to my Grandfather James Ward.
I have searched high and low online. I have made contact with a lovely USA Ward cousin descended from Margaret Jane Ward who is helping but as I dont have access to paid records at this time I am asking for help here. Thank you ahead of time .
NB I am unable to access war records as James Ward is not named on my Mothers birth certificate.
NB: there is a James Ward b. 1910 died Sept 1964 in Halifax Yorkshire which may or may not be my Granpa
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Your not going to find BMD or Census for the early Ward family, BMD for Catholics start 1864, the only chance is church records but many don't survive from that time.
http://registers.nli.ie/
The earliest compleat Census for Ireland is 1901.
You might be better looking at the Royston Lewis connection, have you any idea when he was born?
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Oh Okay thank you. I will try that , Royston Lewis would have been born around 1930
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I wouldn't have a clue about UK registration districts but you could try finding Royston's birth here
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/
I don't see a Lewis/ Ward birth on a quick look but the connection could be to James' mother.
Are you sure Royston is deceased, if not we shouldn't be using his name here.
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James Ward Family search born 1901 died 1964 (63)
http://www.familysearch.org
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I do not know if this will help, but you might want to broaden your search outside of Donegal. My great-grandmother was Mary Jane Ward (b) 1836 in Dungannon, Armagh. She married Joseph Muldoon also of Dungannon. They emigrated to Pennsylvania sometime prior to the birth of their son James in 1862.
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The surname Ward is found all over Ireland- I've got some traced back to Tipperary- but the original poster would be best to start with grandfather James Ward and work back through the many Irish records online.
Grandfather James Ward b. Ireland ( most likely in Donegal )b. 1910 approx
Is an exact date of birth/day and month of birth known? (this will help to find a match in 1911 Irish census & birth certificate)
Did he ever marry? (if so, marriage certificate would hopefully list father's name & occupation which would help in searches of 1901 and 1911 Irish census, Irish vital records, etc.).
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I do not know if this will help, but you might want to broaden your search outside of Donegal. My great-grandmother was Mary Jane Ward (b) 1836 in Dungannon, Armagh. She married Joseph Muldoon also of Dungannon. They emigrated to Pennsylvania sometime prior to the birth of their son James in 1862.
Dungannon is in County Tyrone, not Armagh. Since it's not that far from the Armagh border then perhaps they lived in County Armagh but gave the name of the nearest town. It's also possible that they were referring to the Catholic Parish of Dungannon which covers part of Co. Armagh- https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0214(earliest records start 1821)
Older records on pay site- https://www.johngrenham.com/records/rc_church.php?churchid=0214&parish=Dungannon
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The Tyrone/Armagh discrepancy on Dungannon concerned me years ago and had forgotten about it till you pointed it out again. As you point out it is possibly a proximity issue. The source was a letter from their daughter's religious order providing her bio info they had on record, it listed the birthplace of her parents as Dungannon, Armagh. I took that as their preferred county of origin and have been misrepresenting the geography without explanation since. Thank you for reminding me that accuracy is critical in this area.
Have not had much luck with the parish records, there are Wards and Muldoons everywhere and no way to link them with the available on line records. Found some possible links via the DNA tests to relatives in Pennsylvania, but there was some family drama years back I do not know the details on, but my Muldoon grandmother is buried in a different cemetery than my Gatins grandfather.
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Are you looking for the same person as Blueskyraven is looking for??
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Probably not after re-reading his posts while comparing to my timelines. Maybe a cousin connection, but while the names are similar not enough detail to make a match. The Irish always reuse the same generational name patterns and this leads to so many hopeful but ultimately failed connections. My Gatins line usually names first born John, the McFadden use Charles and so on. Also gets fun when they all marry women with same first name. Had a PA marriage certificate I thought was for my grandfather, John Gatins marrying Mary Muldoon, till I studied it more carefully and the age of the John Gatins was off and they both had the wrong names for the parents. I appear to have two or three contemporaneous John Gatins in Johnstown PA all born within five years of each other, at least two of which married Marys.
Sorry this is such a long winded response when a simple "No" would have sufficed :)