Bell Co. Down circa 1850-1900

[plays54]

Searching for John Bell who married Margaret Fitzsimmons. Their son William John Bell married in Glasgow in 1901 aged 22 (John Bell deceased and Margaret remarried Cooke (?)). Unable to find any record of their births, marriage or deaths, or birth of William on Scots Origins or official government records - only marriage and death of William.

Assume they are recorded in Ireland. Names and approx birth and marraige years show up on Ulster records - but no access.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Paul.

[jemmifer]

                      Hi Paul try this site it has Birth and Marriage records for Bell

                             http://www.ancestryireland.co.uk/

                                             jennifer

[plays54]

Jennifer,

Thanks for the link - already reviewed the site and made a preliminary search. John Bell and William John Bell and Margaret Fitzsimmons are there and in the right timelines.

Do you know if membership guarantees viewing of records - or do you still have to purchase credits???

As I don't have the exact years of birth or marriage (or locations)there could be some trial and error in viewing records.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

[teap78]

Hi Paul you can become a pay per view member, or pay a subscription yearly etc and get to view at a reduced rate for example if you are a pay per view its £6 to view and the subscription membership its £4 to view. I paid £6 yesterday and was able to view 5 marriages for a Margaret Mullan none was mine unfortunately and the worst thing is you cant chose between births and marriages its 5 of one or 5 of the other which means paying £6 each time.  
Id rather go to their office and pay £15 sit there all day and get all the info i need, then again thats easy for me as i live in Belfast. Im never paying £6 to view again. 

Colette

[plays54]

Colette

Sympathise with you entirely.

I don't mind paying to get the information and eventually download a scanned copy of the record.

I have managed with about 90-95% success to track down some 50-60 BMD records of direct relations on the Scotland's people website. Each record costs about GBP 1.00 - GBP 1.20 including initial view. In all you have to buy batches of 30 credits for GBP 6.00, and you have about 5 days to use them up - and unused credits will be extended provided you buy a further 30 credits before the five days have expired. This at least gives you time to run several searches and cross refrences before committing to view the record. The more information you gather the less chance you have for error and a wasted download.

Having had also some success with the Scots Origins website which is free and which is useful for preliminary searches I thought I would try the Irish Origins website - yearly membership about GBP 30. However it did not compare with Scots Origins or Scotlands People and BMD searches were useless unless you had sufficient information to hand already and were really only looking for copies of official documents. Without any or minimal info I found the site useless. In fairness to the website, they did give me a refund of membership as I registered my complaint immediately.

I get the impression that the Ulster website will be much the same and to "gamble" GBP 6.00 a time on a "common" name with only the year and general location is asking a bit much.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Paul.

[GaryOB]

Hi Paul
Have you thought of checking Belfast.
In the Glenrvel online "Timelines" which is a collection of newspaper extracts I found reference to a couple of possible names.

Apr 1882 - "John Bell of Christopher Street and William McCausland of Arnon Street, were seriously injured in the course of their work as bricklayers, in Derryvolgie Avenue, Malone Road.  A scaffold they were standing on collapsed causing them to fall."

Apr 1872 - "A boy called William John Bell was admitted into the General Hospital suffering from severe laceration of the arm by coming into contact with the moving machinery in a printing office.  The arm had to be amputated." Not sure if this is too early for your William John and probably too young to be the father.

So, a bricklayer or a one-armed man, does this sound familiar?

Gary

[SEBROFA]

Hi Paul

I am also looking for William John Bell.  There are so many of them. My William John had a large family with Mary Jane Flack.  I haven't yet been able to find a marriage certificate.  Family rumour has it that Mary (my ggrandmother) died young.  I haven't found any proof yet. They had a son called William John too! He was born in Belfast on July 5th 1875.  Perhaps he had son with the samename?  There are lots of them.  Willing to share anything I have with you.

Anne