James J. Elliott (1805 - 1886)

Thanks for that information. At the moment I am not quite sure which branch of James family the Ydna match to me comes from, so I will investigate a bit more. Mixed religion marriages of Presbyterian & Catholic were not that unusual in Ireland in the 18th & 19th Century. My great grandmother was baptised Catholic, but married a Presbyterian. In Ireland it is not such an issue with records after 1850 as they were all civil registered but prior can be a problem as it depended on how good a church kept records. Londonderry Protestant Cathedral has records back to 1642. Some of my Presbyterians are named in the 1680's. But then there is nearly an 80 year gap to the next record. Same record problem applied to Catholic Church records as Presbyterian, very little information given & it would be necessary to know exactly where the family were from. One problem I see regularly in trees is trees showing children in Ireland being born in different locations. I have to say this really would not have occurred very often, so you need to be wary of these details. The families really did not move far at all. One other point to do with James Elliott's ancestors. It was stated one of them was killed in the Siege of Londonderry 1689. Unless the man was a named officer it is impossible to say. There are no records for who died in the Siege. There was one Officer, William Elliott who served, but did not die, I believe, at the Siege. But it seems every Elliott family from the North West of Ireland want to claim him. I have seen no detail of where he was from, so how can anyone lay claim to being connected. Rob