Rousom, born Dublin 1804

[Old Bristolian]

I have an Elizabeth Rousom who married in Bristol in 1824 and who, in later Censuses gave her birthplace as Dublin. Having never encountered Irish records before, can anyone help & give me some idea of where to start searching & what the likelihood of finding her birth might be?

Steve

[Christopher]

Hi Steve,

What denomination was Elizabeth?

Christopher

[Old Bristolian]

Hi Christopher

All I know is that she married in a C of E church, although her descendants soon opted for civil registration only. One granddaughter was certainly a catholic, claiming her Irish ancestry as a reason!

Steve

[Christopher]

Hi Steve,

There may be problems finding information about Elizabeth in Ireland. You'll need to establish whether she was born in Dublin city or Dublin county. You'll then need to establish in which area of the city the Rousom family lived or which townland in Co. Dublin they lived.   

The surname's not mentioned in either the 1796 Flax Grower's List (Spinning Wheel Census) or in Griffiths Valuation 1848-64. The names nearest to Rousom shown in the extracts of the Valuations on John Hayes www.failteromhat.com website are Rousan or Rouse. There were several families bearing the latter name but only one Rousan in Ireland ... Joseph Rousan, Seamount, Ardamine. Wexford

Christopher 

[Old Bristolian]

Thanks Christopher

I've got very little to go on - she always gave "Dublin" as place of birth on the census records & the only record of the surname is on the marriage register. I've often wondered (as Rousom is unusual) if the name was Rawson or even Rouse or something similar

Steve

[Christopher]

You'd possibly have a slightly better chance with the Rawson name, Steve.

There were three families with that name in Dublin in 1848-51 when the Valuation took place.

Mark Rawson, Churchtown, Upper Taney. Dublin
Richard Rawson, Nassau Street, St. Annes. Dublin
Miss Anne Rawson, Ranelagh, N. Mountpleasant Avenue, Lower St. Peters Dublin

Christopher

[Old Bristolian]

I wonder if I might ask about Elizabeth again. Christopher outlined the problems after my first enquiry - I've now found out that she was definitely Catholic and her gignature on the marriage certificate (very nicely written too) could be either Rousom or Rousam. Any further ideas anyone? The date of birth she indicates was 1805/6

Steve

[shanew147]

You still need a little more detail to search for records, as the date is quite early and not all RC parishes have records back that far. Ideally the name of the town, townland, parish or section of the city.

Do you have any family details to help narrow the search ?
e.g. father's name, names of any siblings etc.

Most of the RC records for the city area are available free on IrishGenealogy

As mentioned above you need to allow for variations in spelling when searching.
Also note that RC records sometimes include details like first names in Latin

[shanew147]

just three 'Rousom' entries that I see on IrishGenealogy - a death/burial in 1794, a baptism in 1858, and a witness to a marriage in 1860. 'Rousam' doesn't show any results.

Just one (duplicate) marriage showing for Rowsam, and quite a few (c120) entries for  Rawson - see : Rawson -  no Elizabeth that I could see in the correct timeframe.