New Irish Research

by Katherine Canfield

Introducing Katherine Canfield. Katherine Frances "Kathie" Hall was born in Jacksonville, Florida. She is the daughter of George Allen and Frances Geraldine "Jerry" McNeil Hall, and the granddaughter of Hubert and Frances Marie "Babe" McBrayer McNeil. She is a descendent of Elisha David McBrayer of North Carolina.

She has just returned from a research trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she has uncovered some exciting NEW and valuable information about our connections to that country. Below are the emails and the information (in its entirety) that she has found and shared with us. With this new data we are now able to confidently connect our William, James, and David - immigrating ancestors - to Ireland. Thanks for sharing with us, Kathie.

email - 28 Sept 2010:

Just got back from Northern Ireland and have attached some info & photographs of Killyleagh (pronounced KILLY LAY by the locals). 

I spent a day at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) or rather at the library where they sent all their microfilms while they move premises. It was just my luck that PRONI shut down for 9 months to move 3 weeks before I arrived! Ha! Ha! I looked at every "McBrear" entry in the records (Birth & Marriages from 1692 to 1752) and came away with more questions than answers. I suppose that's typical in the geneology game.

I wasn't sure the McBrears in Killyleagh where the same ones in our family. The dates seem a bit off, especially if William's birth year of 1696 is correct, but baptisms don't always correspond with births - sometimes being years after the actual birth. James, though, (the first one) was baptised in 1701, so if William (the first one) was born in 1696. I don't know why he wouldn't have been baptised in 1701 when his brother was baptised. Do you ... know if it's possible our William's year of birth could be speculation rather than fact? May be hard to know for sure, I guess.

There are two William McBrears listed in the baptism records - both with the same father, Alexander McBrear. One was baptised in 1704 (which could be our William) and the other in 1716 (which has already been noted in (your) records). There are also two James' and two Agnes'. Sometimes, that means the original child died, but (as you'll see) Alexander was married in 1710, which probably means that his first children (James, William & Elenor) had a different mother, who may have died. (Please note, there were no burial records, unfortunately). It could be that both the first James & William could have been grown up enough to be out of the house when the 2nd James & William were born and Alexander & wife number 2 decided to name the new children James & William, too.

The most disappointing thing is that there is no marriage record for William and Rebecca Brown. That may only mean they were not married in Killyleagh. Perhaps they married in one of the surrounding villages or Cork where they would have probably caught the boat to the USA in 1736-ish.

There were LOADS of Browns in the records & I didn't have time to go through them all to find a record of Rebecca's birth. I'll have a look the next time I go to Northern Ireland if I can.

The photo of the 1st Presbyterian Church is the current church, which was built in 1820's. It stands on the ground of the one William et al would have attended. There were numerous old headstones (removed from their original location and leaned up against the garden wall around the church), but most of them were unreadable. The 2nd Presbyterian Church doesn't seem to have a graveyard, but the Church of Ireland does. I looked all around it, too, just to see if I could find any McBrears, but didn't.

So, have a look at the photos and the records and see what you think. I reckon either one of those Williams could be ours - or neither of them. I don't know how to find out for sure, but I'll keep looking.

Love, Kathie

email - 29 Sept 2010:

Of course you have my permission to use whatever I send you any way you wish. I am part of the McBrayer family and am happy to do all I can to help. Being as how I'm not that far away from Belfast or Scotland (comparatively), it's a pleasure to go and actually see the places we come from. I told Bob (McBrayer) I may go to Scotland next to look at that letter in Robert Burns museum.

I hope to go back to Belfast next year. My partner's mother's family still live there, so it gives us a good excuse to visit again. (note: she hadn't seen her cousins in 60 years until last week.) I'll try to get more time next visit to look at more records for the Browns  and will ask about the Rutherfords. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) have LOADS of records on microfilm & otherwise, so may have more on ships manifests. The office is currently closed until next year while they move to a new building in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast. When they open again (which should be April next year), they may emphasize ship records because the new building is in the old dock area of Belfast, which is being renovated in time for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic voyage in 2012. I saw the PRONI building when we did a bus tour of Belfast and was happy to know where I it was located. Their web address is www.proni.gov.uk in case you want to have a look at it yourself.

The records from Killyleagh's 1st Presbyterian Church I looked at were on microfilm, which had been temporarily moved to a small library on the outskirts of Belfast. I picked a good day to go there because when I pulled up in the car, the heavens opened on us! It was the only day it rained the whole week, which was good for us because we were inside all afternoon. I also visited the current Killyleagh 1st Presbyterian Church, but no one was around to ask about the actual paper records. I don't know if they let people look at them anyway, but it would have been nice to see the even if I couldn't touch them.

I HOPED you'd say you felt that Alexander's family was ours! I felt a bit discouraged when I couldn't find William & Rebecca's marriage - which would have proved to me beyond doubt it was the same family. But, from the extra info you already had (e.g. Hugh and Nathaneal about whom I knew nothing prior to my visit), it looks like they are the right ones after all.

I got a little booklet of Killyleagh village when I was there. If you'll resend me your 'snail mail' address, I'll send you a copy. It doesn't talk much about the McBrayer era, but it gives you a little history of the village and some current things, too.

I feel a bit happier now to think my efforts weren't wasted in Belfast, though, truth be known, it would have been interesting anyway. I was astounded to see illegitimate children baptised as well as legitimate ones! (I think one if Hugh's children was listed as illegitimate, though he later married the mother.) There were several of those illegitimate baptisms there, which gave both parents' names. In the English records (e.g. Church of England records) I've been looking at, they NEVER give the father's name on baptisms of illegitimate children. Glad to see the Presbyterians were more forgiving about those things - at least they were in 1700s.

Anyway, I'll keep looking around whenever I get the chance and pass anything I find to you.

Kathie

These are the records provided by Kathie: