Irish in Co Durham

[scarbro]

Re Irish marriages. I have searching for ages for a marriage in Co. Durham between George McDonald and Mary Kelly around 1850. George was from Mayo and Mary from Roscommon. They lived in mining communities eg Birtley, Winlaton. Have you any marriages, please in your lists that might fit?
Many thanks for your time
Scarbro

[WolfieSmith]

www.brsgenealogy.com

A website for searching Irish BMD parish records. Coverage is patchy but growing. Its expensive, 5 Euros to view a record, so not recommended for blanket research. But it if you have an ancestor with a fairly unusual name, or if you can cross-check bride and grooms names on the free search facility, it may be worth a punt.

Alan.

[No-one]

Dear JTA

Thanks for the info about St Cuthbert's Church.

My Loftuses were indeed in Durham City - Framwellgate in 1851 and therefore St Cuthbert's would seem the right place to look. Unfortunately, the online Bishop's Transcripts are not available for that period, nor is there anything on Durham Records Online etc.

I may put in a request on the Look Up board....!

With thanks and best wishes

Moni

[Mr J T Arthur]

Re Irish marriages. I have searching for ages for a marriage in Co. Durham between George McDonald and Mary Kelly around 1850. George was from Mayo and Mary from Roscommon. They lived in mining communities eg Birtley, Winlaton. Have you any marriages, please in your lists that might fit?
Many thanks for your time
Scarbro

All I Know is that they were not married at St Patrick's, Felling during that period. You did not state their religion but if they were Catholic, the churches to check are St Joseph's, Birtley and Sa. Mary and Thomas Aquinas, Stella.

Good luck,
J.T.A.

[Heinz 57]

Re Irish marriages. I have searching for ages for a marriage in Co. Durham between George McDonald and Mary Kelly around 1850. George was from Mayo and Mary from Roscommon. They lived in mining communities eg Birtley, Winlaton. Have you any marriages, please in your lists that might fit?
Many thanks for your time
Scarbro

Hello Scarbro,

I have dozens of ancestors in the Birtley area from Ireland. Crawford and Charles are their surnames. They arrived c. 1890's. Do either of these surnames look familiar to you?

Lynn

[scarbro]

Dear all.
Many thanks for your suggestions re George McDonald and Mary Kelly. They were married c 1850 as their 2 daughters Mary and Margaret were born Birtley c 1852 and 1854. I have found the family in the 61, 71 and 81 censuses but not in 1851. I am assuming that they came over to Co. Durham post 1845-7 in the Potato Famine.
Regards
Scarbro

[Heinz 57]

Dear all.
Many thanks for your suggestions re George McDonald and Mary Kelly. They were married c 1850 as their 2 daughters Mary and Margaret were born Birtley c 1852 and 1854. I have found the family in the 61, 71 and 81 censuses but not in 1851. I am assuming that they came over to Co. Durham post 1845-7 in the Potato Famine.
Regards
Scarbro

Do you know the route they took from Ireland to Co.Durham? It has puzzled me for years. I'm sure they were all using the same trasport. For example did they sail in to the Tyne and make their way south, or did they sail over to a coastal town in Cumbria and make their way across land?
I'd love to know.

Lynn

[scarbro]

Hi Lynn
I would imagine the vast majority came in through Liverpool and/or maybe Stranraer. I have a lot of relatives from Ireland who lived in Hull and I think they came in through Liverpool as they lived and got married in Ormskirk. Whatever, the mining in Co. Durham certainly gave them a livelihood, albeit very hard. In 1 census the McDonalds moved to the West Riding to work in the mills but later moved back to the mining in Winlaton/ Gateshead.
All the best
Scarbro

[Mr J T Arthur]

Dear all.
Many thanks for your suggestions re George McDonald and Mary Kelly. They were married c 1850 as their 2 daughters Mary and Margaret were born Birtley c 1852 and 1854. I have found the family in the 61, 71 and 81 censuses but not in 1851. I am assuming that they came over to Co. Durham post 1845-7 in the Potato Famine.
Regards
Scarbro

Do you know the route they took from Ireland to Co.Durham? It has puzzled me for years. I'm sure they were all using the same trasport. For example did they sail in to the Tyne and make their way south, or did they sail over to a coastal town in Cumbria and make their way across land?
I'd love to know.

Lynn

The route they took would have mainly been determined by where they were travelling from. Most of the Irish who came to the North East were from the provinces of Connaught and Ulster but as the marriages of St Patrick's, Felling prove, they came from every county of Ireland. Many of the Ulster folk entered through Maryport in Cumberland and worked their way east, often on foot. The Connaught folk mainly sailed from the port of Sligo via Derry Belfast and Glasgow on route to Liverpool. For these passengers travelling to the North East who could afford the fares, the quickest way was to leave the boat at Glasgow, hop on a train to Edinburgh and from there catch a boat to one of the ports on the Tyne or Wear. After Tyne Dock was opened in 1859 this appeared to be the most common port of entry based on the oral tradition of one of my ancestral lines originated in Sligo. After eighteen years of research, I have found little or no evidence that the Irish came to these to these parts via Liverpool though my great-grandfather who came from Co Klidare in the province of Leinster probably travelled that way as he had already been to America and back before heading for the Durham coal fields. I have yet to learn where my Co Monaghan ancestors entered the country but I suspect it was Mary Port.

In the case if your family Lynne, if they came to Birtley as late as the 1890's, that was fifty years after the Famine so there is a strong possibility that "chain migration" brought them there.

J.T.A.