History of Lithgow in Northern Ireland

Erica Howton, once again I call on your research skills to help me unravel a mystery. Northern Ireland is a tough nut.

The possible marriage record I did find is for Newry, Northern Ireland, dated 1858. It mentions a William Lithgow but does not mention his wife's name. It's a civil record, not a church one. What kind of a marriage record is that??

Unfortunately, the marriage record didn't pan out; I found a more complete version and the wife's name is Mary Jane, not Rebecca: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGV8-1YR4

As always, fill in as much as you do know about their life in America, especially occupations and locations. You have to have a picture - urban / rural; trade / craft / fisher / farmer; religion / education; clannish / pioneer; before you can figure back to origins. A person from Belfast could be very different from a person from a tiny village. Also look for where else Lithgows went to in that era. For example I had a good Irish friend whose parents had gone to the Cotswolds for work, so she actually was quite English.

William's profile already contains profession, to the degree known: "Works in gas works". Lived in Philadelphia city proper; William and Rebecca both interred in Mt. Moriah Cemetery; Rebecca's death certificate does not list her maiden name, and no FindAGrave record for her. One son is also interred there as well; life and history of other son so far undiscovered.

It was a major coup chasing daughter Mary Lithgow's history back even this far, actually... couldn't be done from written records -- required a very aged relative's recollections (Mary lived with her family when she was a very little girl). The family seems to have had a knack of staying off the radar.

Vis a vis religion: could be anything, actually. I thought it was probably Catholic, but if there's a Scotland --> Northern Ireland history for the family, and an adoption in the way too, I have to admit I just don't know.

So -- if anyone out in Geni has experience doing genealogy in Northern Ireland itself, perhaps I could arrange a trip at some point. The question would be whether there was anything to be gained from such an excursion. I can definitely say that there's a severe paucity of records online before 1900 -- is this because there aren't any, or because they're just not online?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Erica Howton, do you know of any curators with specific experience of this kind?

Private User Your overview of Northern Ireland Records is needed.

Karl,

I have searched the records from www.rootsireland.ie for you and found one possible match:

William Lithgow
Born 22 December 1818
Baptised 27th December 1818
Father William Lithgow
Mother Bridget (Biddy) Cannon
Address at the time of his birth: Ardlough townland,Glendermott county Derry, Ireland
Denomination Church of Ireland

The marriage record you found for William and Mary Jane Smith is another couple as the name of this William was James Lithgow.

Another reason why I believe the record above is a possibility is because the Irish at the time used a very strong naming pattern, son born named after the paternal grandfather in your case William had a son William

Thank you!! Is there any indication of marriage to a wife named Rebecca?

This would be the same guy, I presume?

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9R-1BNT

The rootsireland site shows 4 marriage records for WIlliam Lithgow (if I don't include a birth year), but you need to pay to see them, and it's an expensive site. If there's no marriage record for Rebecca, I can't really be sure we've got the right guy even. If you can confirm with a yes/no on that, and if "yes" I'd be very grateful and might be willing to shell out.

Hi Karl,

I will check for you, but keep in mind that there could be a second marriage and it is possible he married in the US? When was the first child born to Rebecca and William this could be an indication when and where they married

There is no Irish marriage record for a William Lithgow and a Rebecca, according to Ancestry Rebecca was 10 years younger then William born around 1835 in Ireland, we know that the US birth years are often off by years.

First child was in 1864, in the US. The family lived in Philadelphia after emigration, but I have found no marriage record there, and usually there are decent church records from that period. That is why I suspect they were married in Ireland and emigrated together.

Private User, I did sign up for a month's subscription, and managed to fill out William's siblings, and come up with birth/date dates for William's father. Bridget Cannon, though, does not appear in any County Derry records other than the baptism records of William and his siblings. There are Bridget Cannons from other counties, e.g Antrim, but not a strong enough match to be sure its the right one. And records prior to 1800 seem lacking still.

Rumor has it that you are a good resource for what records actually still exist but aren't online. I would be very happy to learn that.

The other direction that might be worth pursuing is from Scotland. Records, when they were kept, were seemingly kept well. I know that the Douglass clan was scrupulous, and so seemingly were some branches of the Crosiers, at least in England. Lithgow, too, is Scottish, although the source of the name predates the Roman Empire -- it's a shortened form of Linlithgow, and there's a town to this day, not far from Edinburgh, which is apparently where all Lithgows came from originally:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Linlithgow,+UK/@55.9759499,-3.637...

That's not the same as doing genealogy, though. If there were records that would help tie my Lithgow ancestor back to Scotland I'd love to know about them. If you have any pointers I'd love to hear about them.

Hi Karl, sorry I was not online it was Easter here, family visiting
Did you have a look at the links and sources I posted in the Irish portal ? https://www.geni.com/discussions/101805

When it comes to protestant records just over 50% of the Church of England records were destroyed during the troubles in Ireland mainly record from before 1864 only the records that were not kept in the public record office survived as they were held in the local churches. Pre 1800 there are hardly any records in general records are available from about 1800 some parishes as late as 1830 or even later till civil registration was rolled out in 1864.

The question is when the Lithgows came to Northern Ireland a lot of Scottish people arrived in Northern Ireland with the plantation of Ulster between 1609 and 1690, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster