Hi, I support Ray, a most experienced researcher, in what he is saying about shaking as much information loose from the Australian and other records as you can. The more you do this the more profitable your time searching will be on the various Irish sites. The aim of my suggestions is to be so familiar with names that you can have many 'a ha' moments when looking through records rather than just skimming through over the course of an afternoon. For me this would include: A) Finding out about Irish naming conventions The 1st son was usually named after the father's father The 2nd son was usually named after the mother's father The 3rd son was usually named after the father The 4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother The 5th son was usually named after the mother's eldest brother The 1st daughter was usually named after the mother's mother The 2nd daughter was usually named after the father's mother The 3rd daughter was usually named after the mother The 4th daughter was usually named after the mother's eldest sister The 5th daughter was usually named after the father's eldest sister B) Noting the information about the family's religion in Australia - RC, Presbyterian Church of Ireland? Important to know this in Irish searching. c) Making lists of the names and dates of birth of the siblings John, William, Margaret, Susan, Alexander and James and children of the siblings who came to Australia. I feel sure that they will all have followed, to an extent, the Irish naming conventions. I think if the parents had died in Ireland before the younger ones emigrated they would be especially likely to remember, in their naming patterns their parents and possibly grandparents. The Irish, though not as likely to follow conventions rigidly (being Irish!) do tend to remember these type of events in their children's names. To help in my searches I keep an excel spreadsheet listing the names/dates of birth and where /who they were named for. Just a few comments spring out already.... The youngest James may have been named for an older brother who died. Not knowing the dates of birth for William or Margaret it would seem a large gap to cover between 1822 and 1836 - 14 years and only 2 children. You have not advised how you know both parents had died in Ireland when the later three emigrated. In NZ, admittedly, it was common for older family members to sponsor out younger siblings and this did not imply that the parents were dead. I mention this because 1856 is quite close, relatively speaking, to when civil registration of BDMs in Ireland began (about 1864) and if you do not know for certain then a search on FS for the Irish parents may find them. D) armed with the excel spreadsheet I would next do a search on the Irish census of 1901 and 1911. Even though these are well after the time when some of the family emigrated some may have stayed behind and they will be following Irish naming patterns and additionally will often remember the children who emigrated in the names of their own children in Ireland. Also when you are looking in the census you will be looking for the oldest ones alive in 1901 as they may be siblings/cousins of the ones who left to go to Australia. Not necessarily looking only at Tyrone records but look for Simpson then look at all the oldest ones and note their locations and the names of the children who are still living with them. Some times you get multi generational families. I have had a quick peek and have found a 72 year old James (born 1829) in Seskinore in Tyrone who has a son called James Alexander (known as Alexander). They were Church of Ireland. Also a David Simpson born 1831 who has two of his daughters with Maggie and Lizzie as names. E) again armed with the excel spreadsheet I would look on the site for Griffiths Valuation. The site is down at the moment for maintenance. GV was a listing of all the land/landownership carried out by Mr Griffiths across Ireland in the 1850s. So if James Simpson, the father, owned or leased land his name will be on this list. To do a check (triangulate) I search for the spouse's family as well. Normally/generally they will be in the same locality. So if you find a James Simpson in a town land in Tyrone then often you will find an XXX Thompson holding land nearby. I did a quick look on Ancestry and there is an Alexander Thompson holding land in GV. On another database the common parish in Tyrone for a James Simpson and an Alexander Thompson is Carnteel. Alexander Thompson is in Derrycreevy as is this James Simpson. F) While this may be the people you have only one snippet that links both of these families to Tyrone. Hopefully you will take Ray up on his offer to look at the writing! Presumably you have got all the marriage and death certificates for the Australian siblings to see if any have a place of birth other than Ireland ad to see if any of them have extra first names? Don't forget to search the whole of the wonderful Tyrone site where I found this gem - book Simpson sons and daughters, 1735-1986 : descendants of Thomas Simpson and Elizabeth McFarland of the Scottish Lowlands and County Tyrone, Ireland / compiled by Waunita Farrier Groh. 1986  http://www.cotyroneireland.com/churchrecord/killymanbaptisms.html heaps of Simpson baptisms but you will need to check and double check that the parents names (James/Mary) are correct. http://www.cotyroneireland.com/tithe/killyman.html http://www.cotyroneireland.com/tithe/aghaloo.html http://www.cotyroneireland.com/places/freeholderreg.html Cheers and Merry Christmas from Cathy in NZ On 24/12/13 10:11 AM, "marg o'leary" <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you very much for that. > > I do have the Australian information already, there is some discrepancy > between records at different times giving birth places, but Tyrone is the most > consistent for the family overall. Certainly William worked as a blacksmith > later as did his brother John. > > What I am needing is information about the Tyrone end please. > > > > regards > > Marg OLeary > Port Stephens > NSW > > [email protected] > also [email protected] > > From: ray15 > Sent: Monday, December 23, 2013 9:20 PM > To: marg o'leary > Cc: [email protected]eb.com > Subject: Re: [CoTyIre] Simpson family of Tyrone, Omagh 1850s to Australia > > Hello Marg, and welcome to the CountyTyroneIreland (CTI) list. > > I will probably make a few different postings to the list, to try to help you. > But as most of what I want to say has been posted previously, to save time and > effort I will try to find hyperlinks to those relevant responses to other > people, and post those links for you. > > For the moment though, I have looked online at the NSW State Records listings. > One item which you mention is that William SIMPSON arrived in 1853 with his > wife Eliza -- and if I have the correct people, also with their 1-year-old son > William. > The State Records' free online indexes show TWO separate arrivals in 1853 for > a William SIMPSON and family. One did not have a wife named Eliza, and they > all came from Fifeshire in Scotland. > > The only family shown arriving in 1853 (I accepted that year given by you as > their year of ARRIVAL in Oz -- so did not check the 1854 arrivals for William > SIMPSONs), arrived on the Talavera in September 1853. That one shows William > as a Laborer. If he was a Blacksmith I'd have expected that to be shown > instead of Laborer, as surely there would have been an ongoing need for > blacksmiths in oz at that time. Anyway, that shipping list gives HIS > birthplace/native-place as being in County Monaghan; his wife's as being in > County Armagh; and their son's as being in Belfast, County Antrim. So he is > not showing any County Tyrone connection there. It was usual to marry in the > wife's parish; so you might find a marriage for them in County Armagh. > Or, as their son was born in Belfast, it is possible that they might have met > and married in Belfast itself (the wife's parish church at that stage of her > life might have been in Belfast if she had moved away from her birthplace). > > Here is a hyperlink to the page from the "Kate" showing the arrival of this > family, and the above information: > > http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.asp?Page=NRS5316/4_4791/Talavera_5 > Sep 1853/4_479100062.jpg&No=5 > > I have not done the search myself, but have a look here at > www.familysearch.org for the MARRIAGE of William and Eliza, as that might give > you other info. > > This same link might have marriages for others in the family too. : > > https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347 > > > > I tried a similar exercise for the John SIMPSON who you say 'migrated' in > 1849. > The only ARRIVAL in oz by that name who I can see listed on the NSW State > Records' online indexes, arrived in Dec 1849 and came from Yorkshire. > > Here is a hyperlink to the page from where I obtained that information: > > http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.asp?Page=NRS5316/4_4786/Blonde_27 > Dec 1849/4_478600460.jpg&No=9 > > >> From the foregoing, it seems to me that there are families here which seem to >> bear no relationship to each other --- or else I am misunderstanding what you >> have written, or I am conducting faulty searches (always a possibility. >> haha). > > I have therefore not tried searching any further, but you can try to find > Margaret KNIGHT's arrival the same way and see what it says for her. > > Good luck with it. > ray in oz > > > On 23/12/2013, at 7:21 PM, marg o'leary <[email protected]> wrote: > > hi all, > > am new to the list and hoping for some pointers to researching in Tyrone. > > The family I am tracking is that of James Simpson married to Mary Thompson. > Possibly of Omagh. > > I don't know how many children they had all told - but the following went to > Australia. > > John migrated age 27 in 1849 , so born about 1822, which would make his > parents born abt 1795 perhaps. > > William followed in 1853 with wife Eliza Thompson, I think these men were > blacksmiths. > > A sister Margaret (mrs Knight) arrived before 1856 > > and the last three children, Susan 20, Alexander 18 and James 16 arrived in > 1856, and certainly when they arrived, both parents were deceased. They were > sponsored by the tow older brothers. > > Alexander had the name of the place he was born as something that reads like > Delgr Tyrone, and I wonder what that was. > > I would really like to know more of this family's background in Ireland and > if there were more family members. > > Most grateful about advice of where to look. > > regards > > Marg OLeary > Port Stephens > NSW > > ------------- > Our community web-site: http://cotyroneireland.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message