James Armstrong

pinkie,

Statutory birth, death and marriage registration (in some jurisdictions called Vital Records) only started in Ireland in 1864, save for non RC marriages which were recorded from 1845 onwards. So you probably won’t find many statutory birth, death or marriage certificates in Ireland for this family. For earlier years you usually need to rely on church records, where they exist. Not all churches have records for that period and not all are on-line. 

There are copies of most surviving records for Fermanagh in PRONI, the public record office, in Belfast. A personal visit is required to access them. Access is free. This link explains what records exist, parish by parish:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/proni-guide-church-records

If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

Your family were Church of England (which in Ireland is the Church of Ireland). You say they lived in Magheraculmoney parish.  That’s an area around the village of Kesh on the shores of Lough Erne. That parish has baptism, marriage and burial records from 1767 onwards.  I don’t think they are on-line anywhere but there is a copy in PRONI. If you can get someone to search those, you may be able to confirm the baptisms, marriages and find burials of the various Armstrongs you mention. The records may also give you a townland (address) which would help establish where they were living then.  If any married post 1845 or died post 1864 you might also get statutory certificates but you would need to have some idea of where they were living to be sure of finding the right person. Magheraculmoney is in the civil registration district of Irvinestown. I searched for Armstrong deaths there 1864 – 1901. There were 235. 932 Armstrongs in Co. Fermanagh in the 1901 census.

There are few other records for Fermanagh in the 1700s (and practically nil for the 1600s) so you won’t find a lot of additional information, I fear.

You mention one Armstrong possibly going to the US and another to Scotland.  There are unlikely to be any records in Ireland confirming their departure  and so you would probably need to hope that someone has them on a tree on a public family to locate them. Sarah Armstrong (1792 to 1886) is on 12 trees on Ancestry. One (the Stead tree) has her father Robert (born 1748) dying 3.12.1817 in Drumcaghy (so you might want to search for a burial record for him to confirm that). It also indicates that some of the children are half siblings suggesting Robert Armstrong married twice. Thomas Armstrong (b 1790) is shown as dying 17.1.1845 in Ohio, US. Sarah is shown as being born in Tiriwinnee but I am unable to find anywhere of that name. I think it may have been mistranscribed. Drumcahy does exist though. It’s on the modern Edenclaw Road a mile east of Ederney Village. In 1901 there were 11 houses there, population 36. No Armstrongs.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Magheraculmoney/Drumcahy/

Co Fermanagh and some adjacent counties was very heavily settled in the early 1600s by people “encouraged” to move there from Scotland and Northern England.  

When King James I became King of England in 1603, he was already King of Scotland and so then became the first King of both countries.  For hundreds of years the Scottish Borders had been fairly lawless and travellers were routinely robbed, and cattle often stolen and herded across the border by moonlight. The folk from that area were known as Border Reivers (reiver is a Scots word meaning a robber).  The new King was particularly keen to stamp this out because he saw it as an obstacle to commerce between the 2 countries, and being joint ruler that bothered him more than his predecessors.

At the same time he had the problem of Ireland. The Spanish Armada had recently attempted to invade England and further invasions by the Spanish or French were feared. Ireland was seen as a possible jumping off point for such an invasion and understandably, the native Irish could not be relied on to support the English or resist any invasion. So the solution was to plant trusted settlers from England, Wales & Scotland in Ireland, in large numbers, to subdue the native Irish and be on hand to deal with any invasion. King James I was a Scot and so particularly favoured his fellow countrymen. Much of Ulster, was heavily settled by Scots. During the 1600s, some 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland representing something like 15% of the entire Scottish nation. They didn’t all come as part of the Plantation. Some settled in the 1640s when General Munro's 10,000 strong Scottish army was disbanded at Carrickfergus after the 1641 uprising, and a further batch came in the 1690s due to famine in Scotland.

As far as the Reivers were concerned, King James I decided to move large numbers of them to Ireland around 1610 onwards. He needed settlers in Ireland and he wanted to get rid of the Reivers from the Borders, or at least stop the criminality by breaking their control of that area. So moving them to Ireland was a bit of a masterstroke which killed two birds with one stone. So if your ancestors are Reivers, they probably arrived in the first 20 years of the 1600s, as part of the Plantation of Ireland.

There are no records of individual settlers at that time. We do know the names of the big landowners (Scots & English) but not of their tenants and others who followed them.  DNA might get you back to Scotland but there are no comprehensive paper records in Scotland or Ireland which record individuals names or arrivals.

If you visit Border towns like Selkirk, Hawick, Galashiels & Jedburgh, you will find a strong Reiver tradition with folk & food festivals every summer.  You can go for a Reiver walk by moonlight and have a 16th century banquet. The usual nonsense. For example, see:

http://www.hawickreivers.com

http://www.borderreivers.co.uk/Border%20Families/BORDER%20SURNAMES%20%202.htm

Armstrong is I think the second most common surname in Co. Fermanagh after Maguire. Their ancestral home in Scotland was Whithaugh Castle in Liddesdale, Roxburghshire and their chief lived nearby at Mangerton:

http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/AP/whithaugh.html

If you want a detailed read about the Reivers, a good book is Godfrey Watson’s “The Border Reivers” published in 1974, ISBN 0 709 4478 4. Plenty of bloodthirsty and cruel tales. The Armstrongs get regular mention.

One of the most famous songs in Ireland, after Danny Boy perhaps, is the Parting Glass. A lament performed here by Liam Clancy & Tommy Makem. However it started life as “Armstrong’s Goodnight” and was reportedly written by Sandy Armstrong, on the eve of his execution in Scotland in November 1600 for murdering the Warden of the Middle Marches (an area of the Borders). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqcdTinjKvA

Thank you so much for all your valuable information Elwyn...I will print it off and go over all the hints you have given me.

I have been reading lots on the Border Reivers and would dearly love to trace back to them but I am thinking that

getting much further back might not be possible.  I have had my DNA done but have yet to find Reli's in Scotland.

But during my travels in trying to trace my families i am constantly learning about our history...Thank you so much

Cheers Linda

Linda,

The connection to Scotland would be 400 years ago. I am not sure that the average DNA test offered by the usual ancestry sites really goes back that far, so it's not too surprising you haven't got a match with anyone in Scotland. Good luck anyway.

Hello Elwyn,

I am descended from James and Jane Armstrong, through their youngest son John.

Thank you for your interesting post.  I had not considered that Robert had married twice, so this makes a difference to the data I have.  It was always the Robert and Isabella camp, or the possibility that I had the wrong parents for James.  In some online trees, William and Elizabeth are listed as James' parents - not documented, of course.  I have seen the Embarkation details which state James' parents as Robert and Isabella, both deceased at the time of departure, so took this as fact.

I doubt that I would have anything new for you as my first documentation is that of James and Jane's marriage in 1810.  It always stops there.  I am more than happy to share what I have.

Regards,

Dianne  

Dianne,

I am not connected to the family. I am just a volunteer for Ireland Reaching Out whose role is to try and provide some answers or point to where you might find more information. Linda is probably the one you need to swop information with. Good luck anyway.

Elwyn 

Thanks Elwyn.  I will re-post.

Hello Linda and Pinkie,

I am descended from James and Jane Armstrong, through their youngest son John.

Thank you for your interesting post.  I had not considered that Robert had married twice, so this makes a difference to the data I have.  It was always the Robert and Isabella camp, or the possibility that I had the wrong parents for James.  In some online trees, William and Elizabeth are listed as James' parents - not documented, of course.  I have seen the Embarkation details which state James' parents as Robert and Isabella, both deceased at the time of departure, so took this as fact.

I doubt that I would have anything new for you as my first documentation is that of James and Jane's marriage in 1810.  It always stops there.  I am more than happy to share what I have.

Regards,

Dianne  

Hi- I am also researching the Armstrongs. My great great grandparents are John and Elizabeth Armstrong (born Simpson). They had 2 kids--Lydia and my ggfather George Simpson Armstrong . George was born in New York City on October 21, 1853, but because their names (John and Eliz.) are so common, I don't know when they emigrated from Ireland. (or where they were from) I actually didn't know about Lydia intitally until I was researching who else was buried in the same lot as my ggrandparents. Supposedly Lydia was born in Ireland in either 1845 or 1848 and emigrated in 1852, but did not see her name as an emigrant, so it is all possible but not sure about probable.

Someone had sent me a marriage between a John Armstrong and ELizabeth Simpson in Killoe in 1826, but no baptismal record for a Lydia. I am following this conversation so if I find anything that might help, I will let you know.  Lise

Hi Dianne and Lise

Dianne my records have John Armstrong married to Mary Deane...I have a little on this family

I am a descendant of John's  sister Catherine who married George Mortimer Woodhouse

Lise i have gone through my records but no mention of any with the name simpson but I will keep

my eye out :) 

my email address is ldpink@bigpond.net.au if you would like to contact me

Wouldn't it be wonderful to more info in Ireland and eventually back to Scotland :)

hopefully talk soon cheers Linda PInk

Hello Lise,

My John Armstrong was born in Ireland in 1833 and emigrated to New South Wales (Australia) in 1838.  I have checked my records and do not have anything on a John Armstrong who emigrated to America.

I tend to keep anything which might be of interest down the track, so I will make a note to contact you if anything comes up.

Kind regards,

Dianne

Hi Pinkie,

Sorry for the late reply but I have just found your posting! I am very interested in your reference to Sarah Armstrong (and Robert McClelland) & wonder if I am looking at the same family.

Most of what I have about my McClelland family so far is:-

Allowing for interesting misspellings of their surnames, I have found records for Robert & Sarah McClelland & their sons James, Andrew & John (with his wife) travelling to Australia on the "Wilson" (departed Greenock (Scotland) 3-9-1841, arrived Sydney 7-1-1842). I also have the church marriage listing for a John McClelland marrying Jane Fitzpatrick 15/7/1841 in St. Marys Church, Ardess, Magheraculmoney about a month before they sailed. I believe John & Andrew were twins but don't know any more about Andrew & James & their families.

I have been told the family was large & have seen various online listings showing John & Jane McClelland having had 12 living children & one deceased. My great-grandmother was Isabella McClelland, the ninth child & she married Samuel Dillon (born Armagh) at Foxground, NSW in 1875.

My research so far on the McClellands has been limited but some has been fruitful. If I am right, there may have been a story behind why their surnames were misspelt & their ages etc wrong on the "Wilson" passenger list..

Do you have any further information on your Sarah Armstrong (and Robert McClelland) to confirm that my Robert & Sarah McClelland are the same couple?

Regards,

Thomas2sam

Hi ...Lovely to hear from you....yes I am related to Robert & Sarah McClelland who immigrated to Australia 1842.  If you email me ldpink@bigpond.net.au  I would love to hear from you and we can work out If we are both on the same tracks....look forward to hearing from you...Cheers Linda