Hi Greg, I hear you. The frustration with the lack of success and resources is hard. My family is pre-famine where the records are, at best, spotty. So this is very well trod territory for us so I get it.
I would suggest looking at doing triangulation including chain migration. At that point, you might find more records or general information. Triangulation is basically working with known general facts rather than specific facts to narrow down records and areas. That may be as far as the records will take you but it may also lead you to other groups with other records. This is criteria such as religion, trade specific details (example: were they subsistence potato farmers or did they diverse farming (different crops, livestock, weaving or other cottage industry). Or a silversmith is more likely to be from a larger, more wealthy area and not a poor farming area.), name spelling, name pronunciation (don't discount this one. It can tell you a lot.), cooking styles, etc. Chain migration is part of that. Basically, for various reasons, specific areas were under pressure during specific periods of time, and due to information and discussions in the community, you see several household moving around the same time to the same place. So, your neighbour in Ireland may still be your neighbour after migration. You may have even sailed together on the same ship. That can help narrow the right or potential communities down. That in turn can lead to other historical societies, churches, newspaper snippets and archives. Also, be careful with working with family information. It's usually half fact and half legend. It started as a specific fact that got unintentionally twisted over time. So keep an open mind around the information and where it will go. It usually leads some where important and can fill in a lot of blanks especially with the triangulation. You may never get the "proof" that you seek but it may give you new chances and fill in what happened to them in a less academic way. I'm not sure how certain you are about the parents being correct but, there could be two reasons other than the fragmented records, that you aren't getting results. First, there may be a trauma or scandal there. If so, the records get even more fragmented, opaque, read wrong and often, intentionally, do not exist. These were often pregnancies started out of wedlock. Also, rapes that resulted in children were shockingly common. When that occurred you really see the records start breaking down especially the child's records. The death of a spouse, especially when they were younger, and especially if it caused hardship and/or trauma fragments the records, often heavily. This can last for more than 4 generations by which time the records are even thinner. The second is I'm wondering if you are chasing the wrong parents? Often, if most to all the siblings, show but not your person it's either the wrong parents or a trauma or a scandal. I get that the the idea of trauma and scandals in our own family tree may cause cognitive dissonance but, especially through so many generations, it's going to be there somewhere. Also, if you really know Irish history, it's shocking that any of our families survived. It's a testament to how tough we are. I hope something in all of that helps you out someone else. Good luck. Colleen On Fri, Apr 24, 2026, 10:10 p.m. greg.limpet--- via CoTyroneList < [email protected]> 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] > 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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