Francis Bell Reilly, B. 1819

Greg,

You haven’t said what denomination the family was. I looked at the 1901 census for Armagh and there were about 195 Reilly and 10 O’Reilly in the county then. 133 were RC, and the remainder were mostly Church of Ireland with a few Presbyterians.

Unfortunately Kilmore RC parish records only start in 1845 and Loughgall RC in 1835, so too late for your family. There are some Church of Ireland records for Kilmore starting in 1789 and for Loughgall starting in 1706, but no Presbyterian records for either parish before around 1820. Copies of the Church of Ireland records are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. A personal visit is required to view them.

Elwyn,

Thank you for the prompt reply. As far as I know the family was protestant, Church of Ireland (Anglican in Canada). I will update my post.

For another relative in Donegal County (also C. of I.) I was able to search and obtain civil parish (Drumhome) death records using the IrishGenealogy website and get baptism records through RootsiIreland ( provided by another Ireland XO contact). Is the difference in access and availability due to Northern Ireland vs. Republic ?  I would like to due a search with Samuel Reilly as a parent for baptism records ( circa 1815 through 1850) or find death records for a Samuel Reilly circa 1860 - to 1890.( Samuel is the name of one of Francis's sons, and I did find a Samuel Reilly in Griffith's Loughgall and Kilmore parish land records). Also wondering about burial / cemetery / headstone records. Any suggestions for those research options

I do hope to visit Ireland in the next few years, with visits to both Armagh and Donegal.

Thanks again,

Greg Sannes

Greg,

Civil records in Northern Ireland are on the Irish genealogy site for 1864 – 1916 for births, 1870 to 1921 for marriages and 1878 – 1921 for deaths. For earlier deaths and marriages you need to use the GRONI site. Non RC civil marriage records start in April 1845. Birth & death records start in 1864. You can view the original certificates on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.

Rootsireland does have some Church of Ireland records on-line but it doesn’t have all parishes nor all the available years. You can search the site to see if it has the records you want for Loughgall & Kilmore. If not, a trip to PRONI is required. If you can’t get there yourself, then here’s a list of researchers in the PRONI area:

http://sgni.net

The Church of Ireland keeps burial records (most other denominations do not). Their burial records should be amongst the records in PRONI. They often include burials in graves without gravestones. (Only wealthier folk such as farmers could afford a gravestone. The majority of the population did not have one).  In addition to that you might try the Ulster Historical, Foundation site which has a lot of  gravestone records: https://www.ancestryireland.com It list 8 graveyards in Loughgall and another 8 in Kilmore.

Thank you Elwyn ! I will explore all of those research options.

Greg Sannes