Trotters of Bailieborough

Statutory birth registration only started in 1864 in Ireland and John & Mary will have been born before that. There won’t be birth certificates for either of them. You might get their baptisms though. You haven’t said what denomination the couple both were. Looking at the 1901 census of Cavan all the Trotters listed there were Church of Ireland. Most of the Doherty families were RC, though there was 1 Church of Ireland and 1 Presbyterian household.

The RC records are on-line on the nli site. It’s the RC parish of Killann and their baptisms go back to 1835 but there’s a gap between 1849 & 1868, which could be the very period you need. But other denominations are probably not on-line. The Church of Ireland in Bailieborough has baptisms from 1824 and marriages and burials from 1809. There’s a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast.

Wow, thank you so much for the quick reply. I think their marriage record stated they were church of Ireland, although a family member seems to remember them coming from different denominations causing some problems. What is RC (sorry if it's a silly question)?

I've just had a thought - Roman Catholic? 

Yes RC is Roman Catholic. The marriage may have taken place in the Church of Ireland but it doesn’t mean they were both members of that denomination. Your family information suggests it was a mixed marriage, so obviously in that situation if you want a church wedding then one party has to compromise on where to marry. (Or marry in a Registry Office which is what a lot of mixed marriage couples did).

Tradition generally was to marry in the bride’s church but that wasn’t always the case. And I suspect this marriage was one of those exceptions. I’d guess the Trotters were Church of Ireland and the Doherty family RC. So those are the respective records you need to search. You should have the father’s names from the 1877 marriage certificate. You can easily search the RC records for Mary’s birth on-line free. See:

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

According to my guide to Church of Ireland records, the originals for Bailieborough are in the Representative Church Body library in Dublin with a duplicate copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast.  The church itself doesn’t have records for the years you need, having sent them to the RCB library for safekeeping. The guide also says there is “some coverage of this parish on rootsireland” which is a subscription site. So that means that their transcripts don’t cover all the available years. If you don’t find the Trotter records there, you or a researcher might need to go to the RCB library or to PRONI, and look them up in person. 

Thank you so much for your help. Do you know if coming from different denominations would have divided a family? 

Yes, different denominations sometimes divided families. Occasionally it still does, I am sorry to say. Family hostility was sometimes a factor in a couple's decision to leave Ireland. (Though there were often economic drivers too).

Hi Elwyn. I’ve just noticed that Mary Elizabeth Doherty was born in Antrim not Bailieborough. Would I still search on the NLI site? Thank you so much for your help so far 

The question is what does Antrim mean? Does it mean the town of Antrim or the county of Antrim?  This link shows you all the RC parishes in Co Antrim. There are about 25.

https://www.johngrenham.com/browse/counties/rcmaps/antrimrc.php#maps/

You may need to search all the parishes but I would start with Antrim town. Now the RC parish of Antrim was only created in the 1870s (due to population expansion) and so for a baptism in the 1850s or 1860s, you need to search in Drummaul. Prior to 1873, Antrim & Drummaul was the one parish.