Hi Greg. I am not aware of what you have attempted in the past apart from what you’re telling us here in this message to us all.
But I can hear the discouragement in your message and totally “get it”! You certainly seem like you have explored your current paths to a pretty full extent, so it is time for something else? But on reading your message, I began thinking along the same lines as Verity. Another port of entry especially at a fairly early period of entries into Oz? And while we might all want to not be sucked into Ancestry’s commercialism, they have ENORMOUS numbers in their databases. Yes, not all of them are useful! But the opportunities they offer are big enough to help swallow any pain of misgivings, if they might just end up getting us kicking the bricks out of that wall. And doing DNA through Ancestry, and perhaps trying using Diahan Southard’s book Your DNA Guide to help you down the DNA path, might just be a game changer! And that’s not to say I don’t understand the frustration . We can’t find my grandfather arriving into Oz in the late 1870s early 1880s, despite Oz records being much improved by then. And 6 Irish trips between 2 siblings have only given us tiny snippets that still haven’t broken down our wall! significantly! And as we all know, it’s a bloody long way and a very expensive trip from Oz/NZ to Ireland, and when you achieve little or nothing it’s more than just very frustrating! It took us about 15 yrs to discover all my g/father’s siblings! Partly because both he and our father had their children in their 40s and 50s, and partly because it seems no-one in ireland remembered there’d been one who’d gone to Australia! So we were trying to seek 2 and 3 generations of information across 4 -6 normal generational time frames. And like you, we were back in the period when Irish records were limited or non-existent, especially the RC ones! I get envious of other counties who have older records and also other religious groups who have records that pre-date the 1864 Civil requirement! And there’s no question it’s a lot harder to get early NI records. You’re not alone in these challenges by any means. So the empathy is definitely there. But maybe it’s time for a new tack. Good luck! Chris Owen nee McCormack from Melbourne > On 25 Apr 2026, at 17:12, Verity Morris via CoTyroneList > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Just a couple of suggestions from me: > Have you considered that Joe may have entered Australia through another port > such as Melbourne or Sydney before ending up in Queensland? > > Secondly, have you thought of building a research tree on Ancestry for > William and Margaret and their children with as many descendants as you can > find. So going out as well as down. > Put in your Joseph B Ewing as a hypothetical son and his descendants. Also > get the eldest person on your Ewing line to take a DNA test and attach their > DNA to that research tree. See if any DNA matches pop up through Joseph’s > hypothetical siblings and you can look at the centimorgan/segment information > to see if it fits into the expected range for that relationship. For instance > whether it could be a 3rd cousin once removed etc. > I’ve broken down some brick walls that way and if you’re lucky Ancestry > ThruLines can also be a tool to help pinpoint matches. Although those always > need to viewed as a guide only and double checked. > > Hope I haven’t confused you! > Cheers, > Verity > Sent from my iPhone > >> On 25 Apr 2026, at 3:53 pm, Elwyn Soutter via CoTyroneList >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Greg, >> I can’t answer all your questions but I can comment on a few things. >> >> You ask whether PRONI and PHS have exactly the same records. No they don’t. >> Similar but not always identical. Various records have been acquired over >> the years which, for one reason or another, were handed to one but not the >> other. And there are still some records out there than neither of them have. >> I have recently been transcribing Limavady 2nd Presbyterian church early >> baptism records which were discovered recently. Neither PRONI nor the PHS >> have them (though they will get a copy idc). I know of one or two churches >> whose congregations, for one reason or another, have not made their records >> available for copying. The Minister has the only copy and they can sometimes >> be very hard to access. >> >> Though coverage is improving, many Presbyterian churches records are not >> on-line anywhere. >> >> Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church (after which she’d usually >> attend her husband’s). So it’s common to find that the marriage and >> subsequent children’s baptisms are in different churches, and sometimes, >> different denominations. >> >> Not all churches kept baptism records or if they did, not all have survived. >> Presbyterians started to be a bit more methodical from the 1820s onwards >> but even then it’s patchy. So there are literally hundreds of Presbyterian >> churches with no marriages pre April 1845 and no baptisms before the 1850s >> and 1860s. Rev Charles Kennedy was Minister of Maghera Presbyterian church >> from around 1802 till 1838. When he retired his successor asked him if he >> had any baptism, marriage or other records to hand over. No was the answer, >> he hadn’t kept any. >> >> Even when Ministers did keep records, like the rest of us they made >> mistakes. I know a Presbyterian Minister here in Ireland who told me that >> even today the odd baptism gets overlooked. But in the older registers you >> often see 3 or 4 blank lines where it looks likely that the Minister >> intended to insert some entries but never got around to it. Or it will say >> “a child of….” because the Minister has forgotten the name and sex of the >> child. So plenty of gaps and omissions. >> >> A lot of Irish research comes to stop around 1800 due to the general lack of >> records. >> >> >> Elwyn >> >> >> >> On Saturday, 25 April 2026 at 06:20:31 BST, Gordon Wilkinson via >> CoTyroneList <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Greg, >> The only suggestion I have is that you may be able to access the e-files of >> the Aussie National Library in Canberra (<www.NLA.gov.au >> <http://www.nla.gov.au/>>). I suspect that even as a Kiwi you may be allowed >> free access to these records. Such as Trove, which has most of the early >> Aussie newspapers and hence shipping information, which may help locate >> arrivals &c. >> Regards, >> Gordon >> >> https://www.library.gov.au/ >> >> On 25/04/2026 2:39 pm, greg.limpet--- via CoTyroneList wrote: >>> Further to this, we are back from our trip which still leaves me with no >>> link from our Joseph B Ewing to his parents from Irish records. As I said >>> we can see on this site and in Proni microfilms several children of William >>> Ewing and Margaret Reid, but no Joseph, reputedly their eldest, born around >>> 1841. >>> >>> Also, we find no marriage of William and Margaret, maybe around 1838-41. >>> >>> My question to Les and other admin of this site: >>> >>> what other parts of N Ireland can be accessed on this site or associated >>> ones that might include further afield - eg Omagh or even Belfast? I’ve >>> manually looked around Leckpatrick - Urney, Camus, Ardstraw index pages -no >>> luck there. >>> >>> (it is possible they moved for some reason) >>> >>> Birth / Baptism records of these two parents would likely be in the region >>> of 1810 +/- some years. Maybe these would be a clue for finding the birth >>> of Joe as first child. >>> >>> Early 1800s births seem very limited in the data available. >>> >>> Note they were definitely Presbyterian, so are all these records on your >>> site? Can I find more from the Presbyterian Historical Society, or is >>> everything in Proni anyway. >>> >>> This note is after feeling that we have come to a dead end, and not knowing >>> if we are missing something on this site, or it might be elsewhere because >>> of location. >>> >>> We have never had any luck finding useful emigration or immigration records >>> from Ireland to Queensland, Australia around 1861 for Joe. >>> >>> We did find immigration into Queensland for William and Margaret and their >>> other children around 1866. >>> >>> Please let me know if I’ve missed something you can spot. Thanks !! >>> >>> Greg Ewing, Nelson NZ >>> >>> >>> >>> ================================= >>> Send a Message to the List - [email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected]> >>> List Archive - >>> https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com >>> Join the list by sending an email to - >>> [email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected]> >>> To receive the Digest version, send an email to - [email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected]> >>> Unsubscribe by sending an email to - >>> [email protected] >>> <mailto:[email protected]> >>> ================================= >> >> ================================= >> Send a Message to the List - [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> >> List Archive - >> https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com >> Join the list by sending an email to - >> [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> >> To receive the Digest version, send an email to - [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> >> Unsubscribe by sending an email to - >> [email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]> >> ================================= >> ================================= >> Send a Message to the List - [email protected] >> List Archive - >> https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com >> Join the list by sending an email to - >> [email protected] >> To receive the Digest version, send an email to - [email protected] >> Unsubscribe by sending an email to - >> [email protected] >> ================================= > ================================= > Send a Message to the List - [email protected] > List Archive - > https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com > Join the list by sending an email to - > [email protected] > To receive the Digest version, send an email to - [email protected] > Unsubscribe by sending an email to - > [email protected] > =================================
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