The McKernons

McKernan (and variant spellings) is a common name in Co Down. Statutory birth registration didn’t start in Ireland until 1864. Before that you need to rely on church records where they exists. To do that you really need to know what denomination the person was as well as having some idea of where in the county they lived. Do you know the family denomination?

I searched for a death for Mathew McKernan 1864 onwards (when death registration started0. I didn’t find one so that suggests either he died before that, or he had left Ireland.

Some McKernans in Co Down on this site:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/genealogy/SURNAMES/Mc/McKenMcK…

Hi Elwyn

Many thanks for getting back to me. I'm afraid that I don't know where in County Down the family lived. Elizabeth married in a Protestant Church in England so I assume that was the faith that she was born into. But that is as much as I know. 

Alison

Unfortunately there’s a lot of protestant churches in Co Down and not all of their records are on-line.  There’s copies of most of the surviving records in PRONI in Belfast but without some idea of where in the County they lived it would be a mammoth task to go through them all. (200 churches perhaps?).

The Church of Ireland is slowly putting on its surviving record son-line (on the irishgenealogy site) but it will be several years before that task is complete. So you might want to search there in a couple of years time. If however the family was Presbyterian then those records are mostly only available in PRONI.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of protestant churches in Co Down and not all of their records are on-line.  There’s copies of most of the surviving records in PRONI in Belfast but without some idea of where in the County they lived it would be a mammoth task to go through them all. (200 churches perhaps?).

The Church of Ireland is slowly putting on its surviving record son-line (on the irishgenealogy site) but it will be several years before that task is complete. So you might want to search there in a couple of years time. If however the family was Presbyterian then those records are mostly only available in PRONI.

Many thanks for coming back to me Elwyn, I appreciate it. 

Alison