Thanks Chris for your most kind and generous comments and welcome back to CTI 
Welcome to the Premier Website & Research Tool for Cos. Tyrone, Donegal, 
Londonderry & Fermanagh Genealogy 
(cotyroneireland.com)<https://cotyroneireland.com/index.html>; we have missed 
you! Such generous recognition is a rather rare event for a very small band of 
volunteers. I respond on behalf of Jim McKane and state that we both work hard 
to continually offer useful and relevant resources for family historians with 
forebears from the north-west of Ireland. It is an ongoing project with an 
extensive archive of free to search records unique in Ireland.

We also thank Elwyn Souter for his ever-useful and valuable responses and input 
and the valuable contributions from Andrew Oler who contributes transcriptions 
of Abercorn Estate records, each of which contain hundreds of names

We have many interesting records awaiting attention and completion. Thanks 
everyone for your support,

Len Swindley, Melbourne, Australia

________________________________
From: Chris Owen via CoTyroneList <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, 10 March 2024 4:58 PM
To: CoTyroneIreland.com Mailing List <[email protected]>
Cc: Chris Owen <[email protected]>
Subject: [CoTyroneMailingList] Re: Looking for the White family in and around 
Carnatrentagh

Sorry Louise as a fellow Aussie in Victoria, I can offer NOTHING!  However your 
comprehensive request struck me as so well constructed. So great job!

But most of all it demonstrates how hard it is for Aussies and Kiwis (our New 
Zealand neighbours across the water) to get close to difficult Irish records.  
The Americans are much closer and more likely to be able to head off to Ireland 
at some point.  I think if they had 20-30 hour flights to reach Ireland like we 
do, there’d be much less visiting!!!!  It’s bloody hard  from here!

But then along comes Elwyn with the most extraordinarily array of deeply 
knowledgable answers and fabulous help for you Louise!  Apart from the somewhat 
disappointing news that you need to visit PRONI in person for the best chances 
of info!

I just wanted to say BRAVO  Louise and BRAVO Elwyn!

A long time ago I was on the CoTyIre list and left.  On rediscovering it in the 
last few months I am struck by how many million times better it is these days!  
So thanks to those who put in the hard yards for us poor lost souls so far 
away.  And there are some very generous volunteers on this site

I thank you most sincerely!  But jokingly also bow in your general direction!  
That would work wouldn’t it? If I bowed West-Nor-West? But seriously you really 
are stars!

Again thanks
Chris Owen
Melbourne Australia


On 10 Mar 2024, at 16:39, Elwyn Soutter via CoTyroneList 
<[email protected]> wrote:

Louise,

The most comprehensive set of Presbyterian records for Ulster are held in PRONI 
in Belfast. None of the PRONI collection are on-line and a personal visit is 
required to view them. Some Presbyterian records are on some of the pay to view 
sites but many have never been put on-line. So if you can’t find the family on 
rootsireland then PRONI is probably your best bet. The PRONI catalogue is 
on-line and you can see what churches exist and what years the records cover.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/guide-church-records

There are 2 townlands called Calhame near Letterkenny. One is in the parish of 
Leck the other in Conwal. In Leck there is Leckpatrick Presbyterian church with 
baptism records starting in 1838, also 2nd Strabane with records from 1844. In 
Conwal, Letterkenny 1stt and Letterkenny 2nd both have records from 1821. 
Letterkenny 3rd start in 1841 and Trenta in 1836. Copies of all these records 
are in PRONI.

Obviously if yours are the Leck family then there are no records for the years 
you probably need. If you widen your search, there are quite a lot of 
Presbyterian churches in Derry and Donegal, so potentially quite a few to work 
through, and not all have records for baptisms in the 1830s.

The 1831 census of Co Derry has survived:

National Archives: Census of Ireland 
1911<https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/>

If you search it you will find that there were Presbyterian households headed 
by a John or Jno White in the following parishes: Aghadowey, Balteagh, 
Kilcornaghan, Upper Comber & Kenaught. So you could start with them. The 
Donegal 1831 census did not survive and so there you might just have to work 
through every Presbyterian church in the county.

Most farmers should be listed in the tithe applotment records (they were a tax 
on land). The records can be found here:

The Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-37 
(nationalarchives.ie)<https://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp>

Searching for John White in Donegal I found them in Clonleigh, Donagh, 
Kilmacrenan and Urney (Urney parish is actually partially in Tyrone as well as 
Donegal. It straddles the county borders). Not every parishes tithes in Donegal 
have survived though and so there might have been others that are lost.  And 
the tithes don’t tell you what denomination they were.

As far as Presbyterians in Donegal are concerned, they are mostly in the 
eastern half of the county. As you probably know they are descendants of Scots 
who settled in the area in the 1600s. The better farming land is in the east of 
the county so they mostly headed for that.

Death registration started in Ireland in 1864. I searched 1864 – 1901 for 
Hannah White. I did not find a single one in Co Derry. There were 2 of the 
right age in Co Donegal. One was in 1881 aged 85 in the Letterkenny 
registration area. However she was married to a James White. The other was in 
1870 aged 75 in Donegal Town. However that year is not free to view yet and so 
you would need to order a copy of the certificate to find the details. If 
that’s not her then your Hannah probably died before 1864. Making her hard to 
trace. (Presbyterians generally didn’t bother with burial records by the way).



Elwyn

________________________________
From: Louise Clarkson via CoTyroneList 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Sent: 10 March 2024 3:32 AM
To: 
[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Cc: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>>
Subject: [CoTyroneMailingList] Looking for the White family in and around 
Carnatrentagh

Hello list, this is my first posting with you. I am very keen to place my 2 x 
great grandfather, John White, in his correct family tree. Information about 
his origins is scanty. There is a death registration, but I am sceptical about 
some of the facts, particularly the name of his father and mother, and his age. 
He claimed he was 23 when he married. Family history says he immigrated to 
Victoria, Australia as a ‘very young man’. He then travelled to Dunedin, New 
Zealand and married in a presbyterian church 1865 to Mary Nelan (or Neilon, or 
Nellin etc). Mary could have been a young Catholic woman from Kerry, or maybe 
Clare. Throughout his life, he was a miner for gold, and worked in a paper 
mill, and transporting stone. He and Mary had 12 children, 11 of them married 
and also had large families. Among the childrens’ names were Prudence and 
Dinah. Twins occurred in their families for a few generations. John White 
appears to have been an elder in the Presbyterian church. There are many John 
Whites in passenger lists, and I have not been able to place him as yet.
DNA came along, and I found strong matches to people in Pennsylvania US called 
Tease. I found familiy trees with Prudence and Dinah, and twins. It looks like 
John White may belong in these families. They are documented with death certs 
that point to origins in Calhame, Letterkenny, Donegal. They are all 
Presbyterian. I produced a possible family tree with a Prudence White marrying 
John Tease, and her sister Dinah marrying Samuel Tease. their parents were 
James White and Hannah Galley. I found death records for them.
I need to find baptismal records in this area - however a researcher I employed 
could not find a possible birth for a John White with these parents. He could 
be a cousin, and I considered the possibility of John being an illigitamate 
child of the family. Can anyone help me with directions to Presbyterian 
archives? I can’t find any records in roots.ie<http://roots.ie/>.
Best wishes, Louise in Perth, Australia
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