Looking for any information about possible relatives/ancestors of my 4th-great-grandfather Samuel Madden. This is a longshot, as the records that I do have about Samuel Madden aren't very specific, and he left Ireland before any of the more reliable records started being kept.
I don't know a birthdate or exact birth year, but based on his age inferred from later documents, he was born around 1816, give or take a year or two. His birthplace is also unclear, as I have only found it mentioned in one record, and that only said 'Monaghan Ireland'. I have no information about any siblings or family he had. So yeah, not a great amount of info to go on.
He emigrated from Gravesend to New Zealand on NZ Company's ship Bolton in 1839 (arriving 1840). Seems to have lived in Wakefield, Yorkshire for at least a short while before emigrating. In NZ he married Johanna Connell and had five children, moving around different parts of NZ and spending two years in gold-rush Victoria before dying in 1862 in NZ.
Samuel died at a place called Castlepoint, and there is only a small pioneer graveyard there without church-specific areas. His wife's family were definitely Catholic, but both of his surviving sons Charles and Robert were buried as Anglicans, and some later generations of the family on Robert's side (my ancestors) were Presbyterians, so I can't say for sure what church Samuel may have belonged to.
I have tried to search for historic Maddens in Monaghan online, but all that has really come up are the Madden family of Hilton Park near Clones. Samuel does seem to have been a name used in their family in the past, and my great-grandfather had the middle name Hilton, but I doubt there's any real connection.
Any help finding information about Samuel's exact birthdate/birthplace or his family would be greatly appreciated!
