Records accuracy

[Elwyn 1]

Just not sure why this brick wall at a fairly early stage in grandad's side.

There are plenty of RC parishes that don't have any records for c 1850 (they were either never kept or have been lost), and there are also a few parishes whose records are not on-line. For one reason or another some parishes have not had their records copied and the parish priest still retains the only copy.

[runmerry]

I wonder if you've considered Poor Relief Applications.
I've had a couple of great breakthroughs from them regarding parents names.
One helped to confirm the correct parents and the other gave completely different names
from the death registration both of which helped considerably.

Since the applicant was there at the time of application they presumably gave the correct info if they knew it.

Regards
Jen

[Orlaith17]

Oh, that's interesting, thank you.I hadn't thought of that. They operated in Ireland? People applied for charitable help? Can I get those records through Ancestry or do I have to contact their records office directly?

[runmerry]

I think you might have to contact the record office directly, I've only ever seen Scottish ones and always locally.
I don't know if they are available on Ancestry, I've never used it, perhaps someone else who has can let you know.

Apparently Poor Relief was established in Ireland in 1838

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-r ... tablished/

if you Google 'Poor Relief Ireland' there's lots more about it.

Sorry I can't be of more help, the only vague Irish connection I have is an ancestor
who ran off with a soldier and got married in Ireland and neither of them were actually Irish.

Regards
Jen

[Elwyn 1]

There are Poor Law records in Ireland. Those for the 6 counties of what is now Northern Ireland are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. Those for the Republic of Ireland tend to be kept in the local county record offices.

However I don’t think the Irish records are the ones you need. It’ll be the ones for Ayrshire that might throw up a clue (assuming Thomas spent most of his life in that county, after arriving from Ireland). If a person claimed under the Scottish Poor Law system, the interview usually checked whether they were native to the area in which they were applying. If a person had lived in a parish for less than a certain period of time – 5 years comes to mind – they could be sent back to their previous parish to claim there. And that might be an Irish parish. So the Poor Law interview recorded an applicant’s parish of origin, and often next of kin there. That is why Poor Law applications can be helpful in genealogy. The applicants weren’t always sent back to their previous parish but the file might contain a record of where they came from in Ireland.

I believe the Ayrshire Poor Law records are in the county record office.

http://publicrecordsearch.co.uk/scotlan ... c-records/

[Orlaith17]

Thank you. It has to be worth a try. What I really want to confirm is the names of his parents. I have his marriage certificate from Scottish records and his parents are named on it. Im just not entirely sure if the names are accurate.

[Elwyn 1]

Well the information on that certificate can only have come from him. It ought to be accurate, unless he had reasons for wanting to put inaccurate information down. I always favour marriage certificate information over death certificates because the informant on a death certificate may never have known the deceased’s parents and a mistake is therefore more likely. Whereas for marriages, most people ought to know their parents names.