Carson Family

School attendance records are in PRONI in Belfast, in the SCH series of records. They are not on-line and a personal visit is required to view them. Not all have survived and you really need the name of the school to search effectively.

Re Joseph & Sarah Carsons deaths, if it was before 1864 then there won’t be a statutory records. Unless they were Church of Ireland there won’t normally be any burial record and so unless they have a gravestone, you may not find any record of their deaths. (The majority of the population couldn’t afford a gravestone).

Dear Elwyn, thanks for the reply, will put that on the lst of things to do when I make it over there. Will just keep looking. Regards Greta

Hi Adding photos of my Grandad William Robert Carson from Magheralin to New Zealand 1926. Cheese factory manager.

Dear Elwyn

I am very excited as I have just booked a conferance (catte) so I will be coming to Ireland in August. I plan to spend some time doing some family research. I will consentrate on my Carson and Boston families from the Magheralin area. Do you know if I will be able to look at the COI Magheralin record in the church and the minute book for around 1890 to 1921 as GtGt Granddad was a sexton.

Do you mind if I ask more questions?

Kind regards Greta Harman (nee Carson)

Hi fellow Kiwi

Your entry intrigues me as another person who's family originated in Magheralin and ended up in New Zealand. I recently returned from a trip to Ireland and visited a number of sites around Magheralin. There are Bostons buried in the graveyard attacehd to the ruins of the old church (Thomas 1889, Mary Jane 1891, Malcolm 1926 and Rachel 1915). Sorry, I didn't take a photo of those graves. It's possible there are many more buried in the cemetery over the road which is still in use. 

My family links are to the Savage family from Lismain, Magheralin but they left there 100+ years ago. Family members first moving to Tullylish and Banbridge (just down the road), Whitburn in Scotland and then to New Zealand in 1874.  I have a number of DNA links to Carson family members in the USA who are somehow linked to the Savages and Forsyth but none of us can work out how.

Best wishes

Me again - plan to spend some time at PRONI in Belfast as they allow you to personally research these records and take pictures. I ran out of time to look at the Magheralin records in detail. The PRONI website has great details on what is available.

And allow some time to be a tourist and visit the Titanic Museum which is almost next door to PRONI - it is awesome.

Green Kiwi,

This is a summary of the records listed on the PRONI guide to church records for the Church of Ireland, Magheralin:

Baptisms, 1692-1871; marriages, 1692-1782 and 1785- 1845; burials, 1692-1863; vestry minutes, 1692-1902; annotated transcript of vestry minutes, 1702-1855.

Extracts from diocesan records relating to Magheralin parish, 1600-1850.

Extracts from parish registers, 1784-1853.

Subscription list relating to the building of the church,

c.1840; pew register, 1844.

The originals of the above records are apparently all held by PRONI in Belfast. The church doesn’t have a copy (as far as I can determine from the Church of Ireland guide to their own records).

The following records are still held by the church:

Baptisms, 1872-; marriages, 1845-; burials, 1864-; churchwardens’ accounts, 1766-94 and 1862-72; cess applotment, 1834; registers of vestrymen, 1870-; preachers’ books, 1873-.

They are open to the public but there is a fee for viewing them. (It used to be something like £12 an hour but you’ll need to check with them). You should make an appointment well in advance of your visit to Ireland. Here’s the contact details for the parish:

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/find-a-church/parish/12520/magheralin-…

I am pretty sure there is a mistake in the Minister’s phone number. The code for Northern Ireland is 028, not 048 as shown.

Feel free to ask any other questions you have.

Thanks for the replies good to know. There are two Boston families from Magheralin not related.

The Forsyth/Savage link is a bit of a mystye to me too. My Dad said that a Whinney Forsyth came to NZ with her two? three daughters with no husband with all their furniture but packed up and went back. In the 50's daughters where at university? and a model? Whinny was a cousin/relation of my Grandad Willian Robert Carson. But I can not find who she is. Well to do family horse breeding in Ireland??

If you eamil me charolais@xtra.co.nz I will send you my full tree's. My Granddad has no father on his birth cert so I have a link to lots of people that I can not work out:)

Regards Greta

Greta,

I have sent you a message.

Hi, my father is Noel Carson (born 1953) father Norman Carson (born 1913) Norman was son of Richard Carson (married McCrory 1911) Richards father was John Carson. 

I've just started trying to research family tree.

Emma