James Charters 1819-1910 unable to find his parents

Question

My great grandfather was born in Ireland. Married in 1845 to Mariah Ramsay in Port Hope Ontario. There is no record  for his parents in Ireland or Scotland.

Comments

Hello, Jean, and welcome to WikiTree. What document gives his date of birth and birth location? The death record? Significant amounts of Irish civil records were destroyed and you can read about that here https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/irish-records-burned.html along with some encouragement about how to research anyway. I have retagged your question to include Ireland and perhaps one of the Ireland Project people can assist further.

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tag Grosse_Isle project, an Irishman who arrived in this era likely went through the quarantine station there, might be some records of him.

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The limited biographical information in the 1880 Grey Co. atlas that you reference in your sources is confusing.  It says that he was born in Co. Cavan in 1838 and came to Canada in 1846.  This does not agree with his age in the various censuses and suggests that he misinterpreted the questions.  I have seen that in several other cases.  For example, he could have said that he came to Canada in 1838 and to Grey Co. in 1846.

In any case,these county atlases often contained written biographies of individuals that is the source of the summaries in the online database.  So, it would be worth your while to check out the printed version of the atlas if you have not already done so.  Many public libraries in Ontario received printed reprodutions of most county atlases in 1967 and they can be consulted in their reference rooms.

If James Charters and Marie Ramsay married in Ireland in the 1840s, it might be worth your while to check out whether there are church registers still available for Co. Cavan parishes for that period and whether they contain marriages.  I would not get too hopeful.  Even when you find a relevant entry, they can be very limited.  Some times father's names are given and sometimes locations (i.e. townland) but mostly not in my experience.  The National Library of Ireland has an online collection of many registers.  Unfortunately, they have no name search facility and it is very tedious to try to read the registers page by page.  For what it is worth, here is the link.

https://registers.nli.ie/

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Just some further ideas that may help you along.

Irish civil registrations are mostly available online at https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp

Since if James Charters married in Ireland in the 1840s it would be before civil registration of marriages and therefore not in this database but the death of his father might be.

There are four entries in the database for John Charters deaths in Cavan and one on Co. Monaghan that might be worth not ignoring.

If you search this database, it might be useful for you to remember that the following registration districts are relevant (Note: some districts span county borders).

Baillieborough, Bawnboy (pt of), Cavan, Cootehill (pt of), Enniskillen (pt of), Granard (pt of), Kells (pt of), Oldcastle (pt of).

If James Charters' father John Charters lived long enough for his death to be registered in the civil registrations for Co. Cavan, he might be in the database.

There were three entries in the database for John Charters deaths in Co. Cavan, all in the Cavan RD.

1. An entry for which no image is available online for John Charters 77 yrs old died in 1868.

2. John Charters, died 16 Nov 1877, married, 77 yrs old, labourer, address Bridge St., Cavan (i.e. town).  Death registered by Anne Charters.

3.  John Charters, died 17 Dec 1879, widower, 87 years old, residence Corlismore (townland).  Registered by Patrick Charters.

There was also an entry in Cootehill RD for the death of a John Charters, widower, died 1 Sep 1876, residence Derrygooney.  Jane Baggan informant.  Derrygooney is a townland in Co. Monaghan on the border with Co. Cavan.

Although many records from the 19th century were destroyed in the fire in 1922, some remain.  An important one is Griffith's Valuation.  You can access it here https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

If James'  father was alive in the early 1860s and living in Cavan, he should be there.  There are 5 hits for John Charters in Cavan.  Four represent the same individual in Ballintemple civil parish.  He leased two properties in Corlismore townland that were land only and two properties in Mullyamly townland that had a house, other buildings and 35 acres.  So, he lived in Mullyamly.  The other John was in Lisduff townland, leasing a 10 acre farm.

If James' father was alive when the Valuation survey was collected and he lived in Co. Cavan, he was likely one of these two.  Of course, he could also have had a son John who took over his property.

Answer 1

I've added sources to his profile.

Per his death record, his father was John Charters and his mother's maiden name was Kenny, both born in Ireland, one reference found indicating James was born in County Cavan.

No marriage record found, possibly married around 1843 in either Ireland or Upper Canada. First son, Thomas, was born in Upper Canada about 1845.