Thanks for correcting me - please carry on! You're the expert here.
I began this difficult search years ago... I think I posted a request on here in about 2016, but nothing came of it at the time. Since then I've tried to collect more family stories and recollections to try to improve the chances of success. And hopefully there are more records online now.
I have a reasonably full picture of the later years of John (son of James) who can be found working in England from 1861 onwards, till his death 40 years later (he died in England). John told people that he was born in 'Belfast' in approx. 1834/5, and he came to live permanently in England. (It's possible he came to England by himself; there's no suggestion from the censuses of any Irish blood relatives or people of the same surname [except his wife & children] ever residing or staying with him.) The quest is to find out exactly who John's father was, so we can look backwards, but all we have of use is a name on John's marriage certificate from 1874, i.e. James, with the designation 'butcher'. It does not say 'deceased', so there is a chance James was still alive in 1874.
John christened his first child Eliza. There's no Eliza easily visible in John's wife's family, so could Eliza be John's mother's name, we wonder.
I'm happy to conduct a very extensive search through every possible church, it doesn't matter if there are thousands! - this is a long-standing family mystery we really want to solve.
So, a 'butcher' could have been a farmer, with a shop in Belfast, you say? I like that idea.
If most Mc(A)Tamneys in the area are Catholic, is it likely that one would be so different e.g. Presbyterian? - would one 'break away' from the usual pattern? Or was that too unusual? The "Orange Man" connection could well be an invention of my great aunt's, so I treat it with great caution.
Should I be looking at the Catholic records first, since they could contain what I want?
If so, do you know a way of bringing them into better focus on my screen?
D :-)
