Looking for Burns Family in Belleek

Colleen,

Patrick’s birth was before the start of statutory birth registration in Ireland (1864) and unfortunately also before the local RC parish started to keep baptism records. (RC parish of Templecarn, 1851 for baptisms, 1836 for marriages). So you may struggle to find any documentary record of him in Ireland before his departure for Canada.

Many emigrants from Fermanagh at that time left from the port of Londonderry/Derry (usually for either Quebec or St John NB). There were 2 main shipping agents there at the time. One of them – J & J Cooke – kept pretty good records of their passengers, including their townland in Ireland. Those records are available on various databases. They can be found on the PRONI e-catalogue. Have you searched them?

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/search-archives-on…

Several Burns families farming in Belleek in 1832 in the tithes. If your family were farmers in Ireland, then one of these may be your ancestor's family. The tithes were a list of those with land. Labourers, serbnatnts etc without land were not listed.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/fermanagh/tithe-applotment-books/parish-of-belleek.php

Griffiths Valuation (1862) lists just one Burns in Belleek. She was Ann Burns who had a house and garden in the village. So the name was not common in that area by 1862.  This might be her death certificate:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

By way of general background I have attached a transcript of a letter in PRONI's records in Belfast that gives some general information about emigration from Fermanagh and surrounding counties in 1847.  Won’t help with finding your family but might provide a broad sense of the period.

Perhaps you might post a message on the Belleek Heritage FB page:

https://www.facebook.com/BelleekHistory

I hope this is helpful. Good luck.