Cannot find any info on Irish link to person despite considerable info else where?
Subject says it all really. But.
Here is Johnston Robertson Gibson.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LZJG-J84
There is considerable info on him in Scotland that we have gathered when he moved from Ireland to Scotland. But I cannot find and info on him in Ireland. He was born there.
According to my research :
Born 1847 Londonderry.
Died Oct 9 1923.
Married Mary Anne McDermid in Scotland.
Sept 1874.
His father Hugh Gibson
Mother Margaret Balmer (or Bulmer) Gibson.
We have a lot of info. But cannot seem to see any info regarding Ireland. When for example he came to Scotland anything like that. Or his existence in Ireland.
Can someone advise /help.
Thank you.
Comments
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@ColinM0288
An essential element of Irish research, especially before 1864, is religion. That's because civil registration of births began in 1864; before that time, you'll be looking for a baptism record. What exists, what survived, and where we look will depend on religion.
Have you tried RootsIreland? While they don't have images, they do have a good selection of extracts from non-Catholic records that may help.1 -
Thank you I will try that. You have brought up a good point which I didnt think of. I do think that they were Protestant. At least the family ended up that way. So looking at Roman Catholic records may find little.
This period of time 1850's the Roman Catholic population was increasing. It's possibly they left because of these pressures. All speculation. Anyway thank you will look at RootsIreland.
Regards.
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Given the names in the family its virtually certain they were protestant.
You did mention one point that I wanted to comment on. You said…
"This period of time 1850's the Roman Catholic population was increasing"That would not be correct.1850 was in the middle of the Irish Famine. Tens of thousands of Irish people, mostly Catholic, were dying of starvation. Over a million died within a few years of 1850. Additionally, it's estimated that another million emigrated from Ireland to places like Australia, Canada and the US in an attempt of avoiding starving to death.
Rather than a time of increasing population, the 1850s was among the largest falls in population that any nation has ever experienced, the vast majority of them Catholic. Even today, Ireland has not returned to the population of the first half of the 1800s.
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Thank you for your note—you’re right. My earlier comments were a bit careless. I’m well aware of the devastating impact of the Irish Famine and the countless lives lost, both in Ireland and on the journeys to other countries. I was reminded of this recently while walking past the famine statues in Dublin, and again just days later upon arriving in Toronto, where I visited Ireland Park—the Canadian counterpart to the Dublin memorial, with similarly powerful sculptures.
I’m not sure whether other countries or cities have created memorials to honour the Irish who perished en route or who helped build new communities abroad during that time. It’s a question worth exploring.
From conversations I’ve had with people in Ireland, I understand that only now is the country beginning to recover the population it lost during the famine and subsequent emigration. As I think you mentioned Ireland may be the only country in the world that, until recently, had a smaller population than it did in the mid-19th century. I believe this is documented somewhere in the Irish Emigration Museum.
What I was trying to express earlier is that a combination of factors—most notably the famine, but also political and social pressures—led to mass emigration. While all communities suffered, it’s clear that rural Catholics were especially hard hit. Of course, the full story is complex. With the recent appointment of a new First Minister in Northern Ireland, perhaps we’ll see some meaningful changes—but that’s a conversation for another site.
As for my own family, I have roots on both sides: "Johnston Robert Gibson" was born in Londonderry, and the Mahers came from Tipperary. So I descend from both Protestant and Catholic ancestors, all of whom left Ireland during that difficult period, settling in Canada and Australia.
Sadly, this historical awareness hasn’t brought me any closer to finding records of those relatives—especially those from Londonderry. The search continues.
Thanks for your thoughts.0 -
I found some information on my Scottish ancestor from Ireland in the newspapers, That may be a place to look and often those of Scottish descent were also landowners. You might consider looking there. The fact that they owned land was for sure a point of contention at this time.
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Thank you for that. They did have two children born in Ireland at least. So that's a possibility.
I assume for this I would need a subscription to a newspaper site. Unlike Australia which has pretty much a free newspaper search site.
Regards
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I heard once that people who emigrated would post things in the Newspaper as a way to communicate where and how they were doing. Your Australia papers may be worth taking a look at too.
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