How do you prove a connection?

calibelle

I'm back with another question.....
I'm doing really well with my tree and managed to get one branch back to my grt grt grt grt grandfather which is mostly from older family members memories and a lot of birth & baptism records with parents names on ancestry!
But I'm stuck on a few things - firstly there seems to be various members of my family that have no record - there is nothing for birth,death or marriage. Is that the time period? I'm guessing from their children and grandchildrens ages it'd be the 1830-1840 period, is there any better way of searching for this or is it a bit of a lost cause?

Secondly my grt grt grandparents are causing me huge problems, I know both their names and have even seen the ruins of my grt grt grandmothers childhood home - after a check on griffiths valuation I found her father (who matches surname wise) but after that its all blank- literally no one of that name has been born in any period on any of the websites I checked

To make matters worse I also found the man who owns the land which has been passed down at least since griffiths valuation times but he died without marrying not long after that so I'm also wondering how we got the land! Its all in the same surname so its definately a family connection of some kind. Is there anywhere I could go to get this information?

Lastly howw do you prove someone is related to you? Obviously I get the father and son etc but realistically if there is 4 mary maguires born in 1808 and none in the correct area how would you go about creating a link?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

dido2

I haven't gotten that far back just yet, but in terms of the woman you are trying to find a link to, have you tried just searching for the surname and see if any other names came up that might be right, a lot of the time what a person was known as wasn't necessarily what they were named at birth, of course you probably already know that too!!

pinkypinky

For the 1830s and 1840s, you will have to find the baptism and marriage records to establish links, as you correctly say there are no civil records in Ireland from that period (unless you are talking non-Catholic, when after 1845 they recorded marriages).

Re: the land - you can check in the Valuations Office to see who has owned the land since Griffiths right up to today. If it's the same surname, then we're probably looking at a nephew or cousin getting the land after the man who died without kids. If it's a big plot of land, you could also see if the Registry of Deeds had any record of a land transfer and there's a small chance that he might have a will (National Archives) that says "I bequeath my land at XYZ to my brother's son...."

calibelle

Thanks for replies, in relation to my grt grt grandmother I have tried just searching her surname but the only match in the right area is her children - its 1856 time so the record must be somewhere - I have 3 women with the correct name born within a 5 year span of the age she put on the census, they all live in the county just not in the right place!

Pinky that you for the suggestion, I know who had the land since griffiths valuation - after the unmarried man died it went into my grt grt grandparents hands and passed from father to son ever since - unfortunately my cousin who now owns the land didnt keep any of the old records :mad:

I did however have an idea during the night....this unmarried man (peter) and my grt grt grt grandfather (pat) (with the unfindable daughter!) had plots of land very close to one another and have the same surname so were probably brothers. I think that when peter died the land passed on to pat who then gave it to his married daughter....who coincidentally married her cousin with the same surname also...there is no record of the marriage either so I'm thinking with the whole cousin thing they went off somewhere else for the big day!

shanew

The dates available for various parishes vary - many RC parishes (especially rural) dont have records before the 1830s, and there are quite a few where records dont even go back to the 1850s. You have to check the availability for each parish - the Irish Times Website has maps and details that are worth checking - see : http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/index.htm


Shane

calibelle

shanew wrote: »

The dates available for various parishes vary - many RC parishes (especially rural) dont have records before the 1830s, and there are quite a few where records dont even go back to the 1850s. You have to check the availability for each parish - the Irish Times Website has maps and details that are worth checking - see : http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/index.htm


Shane

Thanks Shane I had a look at that link and according to that data it goes back to 1809 for all records in the NLI, births go to the same year in the LDS family history Library and back to 1799 in the east galway family history society (which i think is roots ireland?) so really there should be something!