Searching for 3rd GGF Thomas Clark or Clarke

Mike,

Methodism took a lot longer to become established in Ireland as a separate denomination than in England. In Ireland there was considerable resistance to separating from the Church of Ireland. In 1816 the main body of Irish Methodists (the Wesleyans) took the decision to allow baptisms in their preaching houses or chapels, but it was a practice which was only gradually introduced so that it wasn’t until the 1830s and 1840s that it became fairly standard. Because of continuing loyalty and other factors, many – including Primitive Wesleyans - continued to use the Church of Ireland for baptisms for years after this and it was 1871 before all Methodists routinely performed their own.

For Methodist marriages, the earliest that I am aware of, date from 1835 (Belfast Donegall Square, the first Methodist church in Ireland). However in the mid 1800s there were only a few Methodist Ministers (Methodism relied heavily on lay preachers). So that shortage led to the continuing practice of marrying in the Church of Ireland. In addition, in the early years, many Methodist Meeting Houses were not licensed for marriages so that too contributed to couples marrying in the Church of Ireland.

So to summarise, you are unlikely to find many Methodist baptisms before 1820. Few marriages before the 1840s and only a handful for many years after that. If there are no Methodist records in the location you are researching, I would search Church of Ireland records instead, as that’s the most likely place to find the relevant event.

Not many Methodist Meeting Houses have graveyards and so they may be buried in public or Church of Ireland graveyards (which are open to all denominations). 

In your case very few of the records you need to search are available on-line. You probably need to go to PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and search the Church of Ireland & Methodist records for Armagh. If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

There are 29 parishes in Armagh. Not all have records for the years you need but where records do exist the majority have been copied and are held in PRONI. (Access is free of charge). Some Church of Ireland records were held centrally in the PRO in Dublin, ironically for safe keeping, and were lost in the 1922 fire during the Civil War, and a few Methodist records are still held by the relevant circuit (which involves writing to the local Minister asking for a look-up). But the majority of surviving COI & Methodist records for Armagh can be accessed at PRONI.

Elwyn, Thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Really appreciate the link to the reasearchers as well, Mike