Looking for Pyper family

 I believe my gg grandfather Robert Pyper (Piper) farmed in Lower Corndale, Tamlagh Finlaghan, Newtownlimavady and was born around 1830. His wife was Martha McIntyre. She died and he remarried Margaret McMillian and after Robert died my g grandfather Robert Wilson left for US then Canada in 1883  I would like to find out if my gg grandfather had siblings  we just visited the area in june but couldn’t make a connection 

Thank you Miriam

I have some of this info but what confuses me is that there is conflicting into about my great grandfather Robert Wilson. We thought he was born In 1863 but the records don’t go back to that year. I find it hard to believe there was another Son born in 1864 and they named him Robert as well!  I didn’t even know my Robert Wilson had arobert in his name until a month ago!  

I believe there was an older brother Hugh and William and younger Martha just need to figure out if these two are actually the same person!  

We know according to Canada Census in 1891 it says there is a Wilson, William and Robert so we assumed all three were brothers, so confusing!

Thanks for all your help

Tammy,

In general, people in Ireland in the 1800s didn’t celebrate birthdays and, as Miriam has explained, they often had little accurate idea of their ages. Most ages on official documents were just a guess. If officialdom required a date of birth they often just made one up.

Alexander Irvine was born in 1863 in Antrim town and became a Minister living in the US. This extract from his book “The Chimney Corner revisited” perhaps explains why people often had to guess their ages:

“My mother kept a mental record of the twelve births. None of us ever knew, or cared to know, when we were born. When I heard of anybody in the more fortunate class celebrating a birthday I considered it a foolish imitation of the Queen’s birthday, which rankled in our little minds with 25th December or 12th July. In manhood there were times when I had to prove I was born somewhere, somewhen, and then it was that I discovered that I also had a birthday. The clerk of the parish informed me.”

Though most of the pre 1901 Irish censuses have been destroyed some fragments still exist and those include the 1831 for Corndale. Here’s Hugh Pyper in 1831.  His family at that date consisted of 5 males and 2 females, all Presbyterian:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Kennaught/Tamlaght_Finlagan/Corndale/6/

Presbyterians in Ireland don’t use the parish system so which church you attended was a matter of personal preference. There are several Presbyterian churches near Corndale: Ballykelly (records start in 1699), Largy (records from 1848), Myroe (records from 1850), Derramore (1825), Drumachose (1837), Limavady 1st (1832) and Limavady 2nd (no baptism records). Let’s hope your family attended Ballykelly. There’s copies of all those records in PRONI in Belfast. They are not on-line and so you need to go in person to look them up. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

I spotted this probate abstract in PRONI’s wills site:

The Will of Robert Pyper late of Corndale County Londonderry Farmer deceased who died 6 November 1879 at same place was proved at Londonderry by George Wray Hamill of Limavady Presbyterian Minister and John Patchell Junior of Drumballydonaghy Farmer both in said County the Executors. Effects £253 15s.

The will itself is on the PRONI wills site. It mentions his wife Margaret and the farm goes to his eldest son Wilson.