Relations’ Records
Research your ancestor’s close relatives for clues to their origins and movements
Try the lateral approach. Much like identifying neighbours who may have come from the same place in Ireland you can also try to identify siblings of your Irish-born forebear, who may also have emigrated. A census return, employment record, application for poor relief or prison record for a sibling or cousin of your ancestor may point to your relation’s place of birth in Ireland. However, identifying your ancestor’s siblings can be challenging. If they also immigrated to the same area, they may appear as witnesses to your ancestor’s marriage, sponsors to the baptism of your forebear’s children or an informant for the death of a family member. You may find an aunt, nephew or sibling living with your ancestor at the time of the census. You might also look at the occupants of the same street or tenement who share the same surname; could they have been siblings or cousins? A sibling who married in Ireland prior to emigration and who had children born in Ireland might be easier to locate, because there is a greater chance that Irish records relating to their children survive, compared with the survival of records for your ancestor’s generation. If you can find your relation’s siblings in Irish records, you have most likely established their place of origin in Ireland.
You may be in luck if your forebear emigrated to Scotland
If you are fortunate enough to have an Irish ancestor who turns up in Scotland, then you will be much better served by Scottish records. Scottish civil death and marriage records should record not only the parents of all parties, but also whether they were married or deceased at the time of their child’s death. If your forebear married in Ireland and then emigrated, then birth records for their children in Scotland may include a reference to the date and the place where the parents married in Ireland. Because marriages usually took place in the parish of the bride, this should enable you to identify your maternal ancestor’s home parish. You can access Scottish records online at the excellent website scotlandspeople.gov.uk.