Help with Irish research, finding a birth record for Desertmartin, Londonderry, Ireland 1784
I have tried for a long time to find some kind of a birth record for Joseph Wright, born in 1784 in Desertmartin, Londonderry, Ireland. I am somewhat confident that the date is correct because it is what is recorded on his military records found at—https://search.findmypast.com/record?id=GBM/WO97/1271/188/001&parentid=GBM%2FWO97%2F1271%2F717046
There are a number of other sources showing his military discharge and birth of children and a census record that we believe is him
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9R-BV3L
If you work in FamilySearch, his ID number is LLMZ-P3L
I would love to find his parents names because people keep adding another couple that are unlikely (the area is wrong and the mother would be 10)
Any help or direction from someone who understands Irish research would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Hi @Maxine Davie
Happy to help if I can. Do you know what religion Joseph Wright and his family followed? Any records that early that are relevant to his birth will be church records. Knowing his religion will help us know where to look and even if the records may have survived.1 -
Thanks for the reply. The record of his marriage and the birth record of some of the children are from the non-comformist and non-parochaial registers, and the census that I believe shows his family records all of them as and "established church" but not Roman Catholic, not Pesbyterian and not other Protestant denomination.
His British Army record shows that he was born in Desertinan in the county of Derry, probably in 1784. This is a link to a timeline I created that shows as much as I know about him and the family
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"Established Church" in Ireland means Church of Ireland. In England, it means Church of England.
A good place to start is the "Guide to Church Records" - comprehensive list of what Church of Ireland records (from what is now Northern Ireland) survived and where they can be found.
Denominations included are Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Non-Subscribing Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, Methodist, Moravian, Congregational, Baptist and Religious Society of Friends' (Quakers').
Normally, there will be more than one denomination of church in each parish. The denomination of a church can be identified in the Guide by the preceding code (for example, C.I. = Church of Ireland, P. = Presbyterian Church and R.C. = Roman Catholic Church).
The majority of parishes covered in the Guide are located within the six counties of Northern Ireland, however PRONI holds some records from parishes in the Republic of Ireland, particularly the border counties of Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Louth.
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thank you, that makes sense and I should’ve realized that. Do you think then that the census stating that he is a member of the church of Ireland would conflict with the birth records registered in a non-conformist church? Would that be common or should it make me question whether the census is really a record of his family?
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We sometimes see baptisms in a denomination different from what the family normally practiced. If the closest church was a different denomination, in a time that most people traveled by foot, a child might be baptized in a different denomination.
I would want confirmation - more than one record to support the conclusion.
It's always possible that his wife came from a different denomination, and that the children were then baptized/raised in her religion.
Another piece - as a soldier, available churches/chapels may have been limited to the Established Church of the location.
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thanks again. I’ll continue to look for any church records if any exist from those years. Is there anything else you might suggest?
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at the top of the page is a link to county pages. Go to (London)derry and see what is suggested there. Ireland. Do a Google search for Desertmartin+ genealogy and see if it returns any useful links. It very often does. As an aside Desertmartin is about 15 miles from where i live
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