More geneaology help?

Question

How on earth can you trace an acestor from vague "IRELAND" born in 1781!

His name is John Gregg - way popular and I don't know if records really exist. Have no idea what town area born as he emigrated to England pre-1841. The only information on the census is born in Ireland 1781-ish

Thanks

Answer 1

This is kind of generic.. but you can edit for the country.

I personally mentally divide my research.  Recent involves the type of vital records that we normally are used to.  WHEN those exist, is flexible for each location.  UK, I believe is 1837... US depends on the state.

Pre vital statistics, both US and UK have the census. "We" in the US have between 1790 to 1930 open, with varying amount of info. UK is only open to 1901.  

Once you get before those types.. there are records, but they are hit and miss.  If I say church records.. that does not insure that the church he attended (baptised) still exists. There are wills, land records.. many other kinds, but you need to become familiar with a locality background, so you have a better idea. What I am trying to explain is that pre census research is very possible. It is much less likely to be online. For me.. who started research when NOTHING was online, this is no biggie. For others.. it is a whole shift in thought.

Among other things.. it can be critical to have alternate records of John, after he was in England. Example.. a land document for him, MIGHT have info embedded in the body.. a witness may be an Archibald Gregg, who you would guess to be related. Archibald is less common of a name.. you might luck out, run a search for Archibald, and stumble onto a huge file online about him, which shows his death place (same town as your John) but includes data that someone found his baptism in a parish in Ireland.

Have you found John's place of burial? A female Gregg in the same plot, born in 1750s is red flag for mom. What about John's wife? Do you have data about her? Was her family from Ireland?

Just an example.  The gist of this is that you are moving into a more intense type of research.  Yes.. totally possible, but often involves such things as LDS family history library, where you can get microfilms of original records to search (once you have a clue as to location).  

Answer 2

Mental Mickey has it down...and the others have good advice to.

Regardless, try to determine his religion, since you're already into church record territory, and it will help if you know if he was a Northern Protestant or a native Irish Catholic. His religion will probably be the same as his descendants. His occupation would help, and might also have been carried on by some of his children.

Don't forget to search out http://books.google.com/ . Search through "Full View" --- you can download these books for free. This will give you some background history regarding the time period and migration tendencies during that time. And, if he was a reverend or socially important, you might hit the jackpot.

Happy hunting. With a little luck o' the Irish, you'll break through the brick wall.

Answer 3

First thing to do is to write down everything you know about him that will help in your search.

There are census records, immigration records and birth and death records out there.  Doesn't always mean you will find exactly what you are looking for.  But, you could find a lot more than what you are searching for.

I've been doing genealogy research on my family for a while now.  Some ancestors I still can't locate.  Others have netted a lot of information.  

Answer 4

You won't find a birth certificate since civil registration began in 1864. But you can try church records like baptisms, parish registries, or marriage bans.  Other useful resources would be newspapers, another census year, land records, ship lists, or military records.  You may have the best luck with the English immigration documents or death records. You can also try to find another relative who's records would give you some clue as to a more specific location, it won't help you pinpoint it probably, but at least give you an idea of where to start.  

Answer 5

Welcome to the Ireland problem.

Irish records as I'm sure you might be aware were held in the Four Courts building in Dublin when the Irish Public Records Office was destroyed in a huge explosion and fire at the height of the 1922 civil war.  Pretty much everything went up in flames.  Put simply, not a lot of Irish genealogy survives.  If it's not already up on the Mormon IGI database at familysearch.org, it's pretty safe to assume that the church records you are after don't survive, and as you say, since the English census only usually specified a country of birth "Ireland", you don't even have a county to narrow it down to - and with common names, this can be a real problem.

Genealogy in this part of the world can be a real headache.  I've tried.