Help with deciphering 1855 certificate

maddymoss · Post by **maddymoss** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:46 am

I need help in deciphering this certificate which refers to place names in Co. Antrim. This is my first effort at posting an image on the gallery so I hope it turns out okay.

On column 1 I can't make out the place name which seems to begin with Ben......??

Column 2 after 1841 Ber....sh??

Column 3 after 33 years ??????? County Antrim.

I think I have deciphered correctly the rest of the certificate.

Thanks,
Jim

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-924

STUARTDALGLEISH · Post by **STUARTDALGLEISH** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:07 pm

Hi Maddy,

Not much help I'm afraid. Had a look through all the Townlands of Ulster and the only ones I can find with BEN... are:-

Benburb, County Tyrone
Bernagh, County Tyrone, Parish of Killyman
Benagh, County Down, Parish of Newry

but none of these look likely.

I'm sure someone will get the answer

Cheers

Stuart

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:29 pm

The name after 1841 looks like "Bernish", but there's no townland starting with "Ber..." in Co. Antrim, but there are three by the name Barnish, -

Barnish 920 acres, Co. Antrim , Barony of Lower Antrim, Civil Parish of Connor, Antrim Poor Law Union
Barnish 104, Antrim, Cary, Culfeightrin, Ballycastle,
Barnish 170, Antrim, Upper Toome, Drummaul, Antrim

I think that the other one is meant to be Bentra, but an "n" has come in at the end to make it Bentran, -

Bentra 647 Antrim, Lower Belfast, Templecorran, Larne

I can imagine an Ulster accent leading to these spellings being recorded by a Scottish registrar.

David

Russell · Post by **Russell** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:04 pm

Hi Jim

The best I could get after the 33years bit was Marc..n

If you double click on the image to bring it up as a Word image, then double click on the image a secondary menu comes up which allows you to adjust the 'Brightness' to make it quite gray, then adjust the 'contrast' up to make the lines clearer. The problem is not having enough lower case letters on the document to make comparisons with.
The first letter could be an 'A' an 'N' or a narrow 'M'.
Don't know if it helps though

Russell

maddymoss · Post by **maddymoss** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 8:56 pm

Thank you all for your help. I feel I’m on the right track now. Just prior to logging in to TS tonight I discovered a daughter in law of the couple in question returned to Ireland to have her fourth child in Ballycastle, Antrim. So, David, Barnish, Ballycastle it is! I’ll do a wee bitty more work on the contrast and brightness as suggested and try and suss out the registrar's scrawl. Thanks again.

Cheers,
Jim

Researching Leslie, McCormick, McEwan, Carr, McNamee and Stanfield all Ireland, and Munro, Kilgour and Malcolm in Scotland.

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:04 am

This is my best effort at deciphering the chicken scrawl

First Column I cant make out his name
Bentran County Antrim Belfast
as DWW suggests

Second Column
1841 Barnish County Antrim
8 children 3 boys & 2 girls, 3 boys & 1 girl deceased.

Third Column
Jane McCormick
Maiden Name
33 years Macklin? County Antrim Her 8th child.