William Todd Born Armagh

[westernchicky]

We have a death certificate for William Todd our ancestor who died in Aust. 17/8/1909. It states he was 72 years of age and was born in Armagh, Ireland.(Abt.1839)

He had been in Qld. Aust. for abt. 29 years. His parents were William Todd, (born abt.1802) Herbalist and mother Mary Hampton.

We know a lot about his life in New Zealand from 1864, his marriage to Mary Bruce Keith and after her death in 1874 his subsequent return to Scotland to marry her sister Rachel Bruce Keith  in 1878.

His mother now being called Eliza, his new wife Rachel, a Mary Ann Todd and a Hampton Todd, came to Sydney, Australia in 27.9.1878 on the "Whampoa" from London.

We would desperately like to find some record of the family in the UK around his birth in 1839, where they originally came from and also where any other siblings went to.

There must be many other branches of the family still to be found around the world.
Any help would be most gratefully received as we have been going around in circles for a long time.

[aghadowey]

Welcome to Rootschat. Unfortunately the information you are looking for is before the start of civil registration in Ireland.

Have a look at Introduction to Irish Records and My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?.

[westernchicky]

Thank you for your reply. However I have read the links suggested and am still a bit confused as to whether all is lost or I still might find out something somewhere.  Am I wasting my time continuing searching and if I paid someone, would they be able to find out anything.  I WAS hoping that a family connection  somewhere in the world would see my post and contact me

[aghadowey]

Irish research for pre-registration dates such as here depends on several things-
1) you need to know where the family lived (parish if not actual location not just a county- although Armagh can be either the county or the city) and their religion (to see if any church records survive)
2) if you are fortunate enough to have an uncommon name or be searching for a well-to-do family you can sometimes find information about a family
3) a relative might see this topic and get in touch- search engines such as Google pick up Rootschat posts very quickly. Meanwhile, start searching online yourself if you haven't done so already. Also, track down all possible branches of the family in Australia- you can often discover that one person/branch has different details and by putting clues together you might find more information
4) luck

[ansimi]

You actually have quite a bit to go on by the standards of Irish research. I think your chances are good of finding some record for your family in Ireland and learning exactly where they came from.

The occupation of herbalist is a huge clue because it's not very common. You may find that William Todd in a street directory. You may find a death record for him. You may find a marriage record in Ireland for one of his other children. All of those would list an occupation and let you know you had the correct William Todd. There's also a good chance that others in the family may have taken up the same or similar profession.

I'd also suggest focusing in on the earliest times of your ancestor leaving Ireland. It sounds like he went to New Zealand first? 90% of the time, I've found other relatives emigrated to the same place around the same time. The mass exodus of Ireland wasn't random. People generally chose their destination carefully and went somewhere they had connections.

Good luck!

[rathmore]

http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/1878/09/107/wha.htm
travel under steerage on the ship

http://mariners.records.nsw.gov.au/

[CassandraR]

Hi,
You have ancestry that my husband shares.
Mary Violetta Todd was my husbands Great Grandmother through her son George Bruce Cliff.
William Todd and Mary Keith Bruce his Great great grandparents.
Feel free to get in touch, Cassandra