William McMillan

Births/Baptisms/Marriages/Deaths ? pre1790-1800 ? The reality of finding documentationpertaining to births/baptisms/marriages/deaths in Ireland prior to 1800 ? particularly in rural areas? is that they simply may not exist. Some registers for urban areas pre-dating 1800 may exist ?though often these can be fragmented- as there was an increased need in cities or larger towns todocument the population. Please also note that the Church of Ireland was the official church of thecountry and therefore the bulk of information that does survive for earlier periods is often fromthese registers. ROMAN CATHOLIC: Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is -http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ?browse? an overview of availablerecords per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possibleassistance. CHURCH OF IRELAND: Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870-are publicrecords. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyedin the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, althoughsome are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church BodyLibrary in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/. The Anglican Record Projectis has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf PRESBYTERIAN: Presbyterian registers are held in three main locations: in local custody, in the PublicRecords of Northern Ireland (PRONI) http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm and atthe Presbyterian Historical Society http://www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com in Belfast. PRONIhas microfilm copies of almost all registers in Northern Ireland and also lists of records held by thePresbyterian Historical Society. For the rest of Ireland, almost all records are in local custody. It candifficult to locate these as many congregations in the South have moved, amalgamated, or simplydisappeared over the last sixty years. NEW ZEALAND: Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left,who they might have travelled with?..etc.? Generally, more information was given at the port ofarrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at, this could be a goodplace to find more information -and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin. There are lots ofbooks and documents available about the Irish emigration to NZ. There is a website you could lookat: http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/irish/2 for information about the Irish in New Zealand.

Thanks for the information. I have managed to find out a lot about them since I posted that message.

William McMillan - Born 25 February 1839, Newtonards, County Down. Baptised 1st Newtonards Church. Married Mary Jane Harrison 17 July 1858 in Newtonards. Parents - Joseph McMillan and Mary McCann / McKinn. Would be interested any information about them. Has a brother Joseph McMillan born 2 June 1836. Would be interested in any information about the parents and brother.

Mary Jane Harrison - Born 24 September 1836, Newtonards, County Down. Parents - John Harrison and Maria Sweeten.

Hi Marcus... spotted your post from years ago.  Im connected to the same line. Did you find any further updates? Id love to know the greater story.

Please advise.<brianmac  at  remax dot net dot nz>

big thanks.