Thread: Clarke/ Mcneill Family Ballymena

Hi Guys, I was wondering if anyone was related or had information on John Clarke and family. John was born c1892 in Ballymena to samuel Clarke a labourer who had died by 1918. John Clarke married Rebecca Mcneill on 23 february 1918 at christ church, belfast, I have his WW1 service records on that he states that he had 2 children George Mcneill born 14/04/1912 Ballymena who later married a lady called Elsie who was German and William Taylor Clarke born 02/12/1917 Ballymena - who married a lady called Tillie. When John left the Army after the war ended he bacame a labourer and john and Rebecca went onto have the following children all born in Ballymena.
Annie Clarke b 1921 married Cecil Mcveigh
Rubina Clarke b 1922 married Norman Bowyer
David b 1924 married Mia Thompson
Winifred b 1926 married Archibald Sillitoe
Thomas Clarke b 1929 moved to Australia on the big brother scheme and married an australian nurse and had a child before moving back to the UK alone, no details of the wife or child are known.
Moira b 1931 married Jack Carson.
In 1947 John and Rebecca where living in Alexandra st, Ballymena
I would be greatful for any information especially John Clarkes dob and mothers name

The family appear in the 1901 census at 66 Aberdeen St, Ballymena. Samuel aged 42 is a widower, so no mother's name from that, but you should be able to find the childrens' birth certificates and get her name from that.

Elwyn

Hi Elwyn thanks for that would I be able to see that online

do you have the names of family living with them x

Firstly let me apologise. I gave you the wrong address. The correct address is 115 Queen St, Ballymena.
You can see it free on line, on:

Click the 1901 drop down box, I suggest you type in Samuel Clarke for the name, 42 for the age, and Ballymena for the DED box. That'll bring it up. You'll see that all the family were born in Ballymena which is helpful. The census only asked for the County of birth but the Clarkes put the actual place. So that narrows the search if you are after birth certs.


Elwyn

The website is: @font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Courier; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } www.census.nationalarchives.ie

thank you so much Elwyn hopefully I might be able to go further back now lol

Let me know if you need any help. Statutory records of births & deaths started in Ireland in 1864. Protestant and non conformist marriages started in 1845. So you should be able to get back a bit further on the stats bit fairly easily. There are a number of pay to view websites but you can do quite bit for free using the indexes. Irish death certs aren't as helpful as Scottish ones as they don't give you the parents names. Irish marriage certs only give the father's names (not the mothers), and in earlier times they normally don't give the couples ages (it usually just says full age ie over 21 or under age with parental consent, or similar) which is very frustrating.

The censuses from 1821 to 1891 have all been destroyed, save for a few fragments. A bit of the 1851 Antrim census has survived but I don't think Ballymena is on it.

You may find Griffiths Valuation helpful. That's on line, and free, and was a sort of property census carried out 1856-62. (Google Griffiths Valuation).

Other than that you'll have to rely a lot on parish records for events prior to 1864/1845. Many church rrecords have been copied and are in the Public Record Office for NI (PRONI) but some are still held by the church. Your ancestors appear to have been Piskies, which is quite unusual here. generally Episcopalians in ireland would be Church of Ireland. I assume there must have bene a separate Episcopalian church in Ballymena. Don't know if it still exists. I do not know what records will exist for them. The PRONI website will tell you if they have them. (Search under church records). You can search to see what they have online but you have to go in person to look at the actual records. There are few church records prior to 1800.

Check the PRONI website for wills too. You might get lucky there.


Elwyn

Thanks for that Elwyn I'm a bit out of my depth with my Irish ancestors I found them on the 1911 census living in 8 Adair's Court Ballymena, I have John's ww1 service record and I know his dad died in 1918 in Alexandra Street, Ballymena, but I don't know where to find the bmd Indexes, I have checked proni and there was no wills for the clarkes so any further help would be great

OK, the BMDs are available on a couple of sites but for Counties Antrim and Down I find the best is Ulster Historical Foundation - Irish Genealogy Research Ireland, Ulster, Antrim, Down, Belfast: Home You can search the indexes quite a bit to identify the likely events, without payment, but you have to pay to see the detail. The actual certificates have both father & mother's names, as you would expect but you'll see the index only shows you the father. You'll then need to decide whether to pay to see them, or alternatively you can order them from the GRO in Belfast or Roscommon (Google them). If you use Roscommon make it clear that it's a research copy you want. It's cheaper. If you can give them all the data they need it's only 4 euro for a photocopy. If they have to search a bit they add a couple more euros on.

If you think your relatives owned any land, you can search for them on Griffiths Valuation (it's free). It was compiled over a period of years but dates roughly to about 1864. Filte Romhat Griffiths compensates a bit for the lack oif censuses, if your ancestors owned or leased any land.

I mentioned that a small part of the 1851 Antrim census has survived. I had a look at it and unfortunately Ballymena is not on it. (What has survived is on www.homepage.ntlworld.com/derek.hawthorne/Antrim).

A site you might find useful is Irish Genealogy which is an Irish Govt sponsored site giving you info re research in Ireland.

LENNON WYLIE is a collection of street directories and other useful Ulster sources. I think the 1913 Ballymena phone book is on it!

I mentioned that the censuses 1821 - 1891 are nearly all destroyed (some by fire and some on purpose). However before they were destroyed some data was extracted and has survived. Old age pensions were introduced in Ireland (in 1911). Nobody had any birth certificates - they only started in Ireland in 1864 - to prove they were eligible, so instead applicants claims were checked against the early censuses. Where the age was confirmed, some of the census details was transcribed. This has survived. So if your ancestors were old enough and claimed an old age pension, then there may be some early census info from that source. Go to: Pensear Irish Family History Pension Search

Ballymena is in an area called the Braid. A whole lot of local genealogy info, including gravestone transcriptions has been gathered on a website called The Braid

Your ancestors were Protestants and may have signed the 1912 Ulster Covenant (opposing giving Ireland independence from the UK). Most Protestants did sign. You can search it on line free, on http://www.applications.proni.gov.uk...nt/search.aspx It gives you their addresses and is a sort of extra census (of Protestants).

Finally your Queen St ancestors described themselves as Episcopalian on the census. I have never seen that before on an Irish census. I have searched to see if there was a separate Episcopalian church in Ballymena, but without success. The Church of Ireland follows the Episcopalian (Anglican) philosophy, and I think therefore that your relatives must have been C of I. In which case their church would appear to be St Patrick's, Ballymena, which has it's own graveyard attached.

That should keep you going for a few days.


Elwyn