The Burtchaells of Co. Kilkenny, those styled by Fr Jim Burtchaell in his published genealogy as the Leinster Burtchaells, were staunchly C of I.  HOWEVER, there was and still is a line of Burtchaells, living cheek to jowl with the C of I Burtchaells around Graiguenamanagh, who are RC.  Fr Jim styled them the Clohastia Burtchaells.  (We're still trying to find the connection between the two, because there MUST be one.) Then these same, staunchly C of I Burtchaell boys, when they immigrated to the new world, mostly married RC girls and the whole damn line converted.  The only Burtchaells who remained C of I are the Canadians, who continued to be Anglican.  You would be hard pressed to find a single Protestant Burtchaell in the USA. And I'm still trying to sort out the religions of the Canadian boys and girls who married into the Canadian Burtchaell families.  I have found Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists in the same family, among the siblings and parents living under the same roof on one census!  Then on the next census, many of them will again have changed religious affiliation, and not just because they eventually married those staunchly Anglican, Canadian Burtchaell women.  I suspect that in Canada they just attended whatever Protestant church was within walking distance!  And then, of course, there is the problem that a lot of these early denominations banded together to form the United Church of Canada.   My great-grandparents joined the United Church, but their son (my grandfather) utterly refused to join and saw himself as Wesleyan Methodist all his life, with no church available to attend, so that if he ever went to church, it was to his wife's Anglican Church. I think the general feeling in Canada has largely and historically been that if you are Protestant, just as long as you are not attending a Catholic church, you're okay.  And I'm sure the reverse has been true, also. Linda Ford On Monday, March 9, 2015 1:43 PM, Dave H via <fermanagh-gold@rootsweb.com> wrote: Indeed I have a Methodist Minister..all his records, g/stone. kids all registered in C of I and as you say the C of I was the established church and where I'd have advised you to look. Their religion in new country is an indicator of what they might have been in Ireland.... Presby in new country most probably Presby in Ireland... RC  in new most probably RC here etc etc... These give clues as to most probable church, g/yard etc in Ireland as a starting point. That's all I'm saying! I used to try to help people by looking up their names while going through Church records for myself... I've asked people to give me everything they had, I emailed them and asked "Is that everything?" and get a "Yes". Upon getting home I'd report which Protestant churches I checked and that I didn't find them only to get this reply.... wait for it wait... I'd get "Oh, why did you look at those Registers, mine were RC"..... UNBELIEVABLE.... ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!! Never ever again!!! On 09/03/2015 20:11, Bonnie Anderson wrote: > It can be confusing to know what religion someone in Ireland was before > the family migrated to Canada.  In Canada, my family were Wesleyan > Methodists.  In Ireland I find them in Church of Ireland registers as > early as 1820.  Once a person like myself (4th generation Canadian) > realizes that C of I was the established church into the 1870's then one > can look there for early records. > However, something that makes me think that they might have been > Methodist in Fermanagh (please correct me if I am wrong) is that the > 1820 marriage in indexed among the Marriage License Bonds. > Another, is that a cousin of mine whose family has lived in Devenish > Parish as early as the 1700s years told me that the people in the > lowland areas of Devenish were mostly Methodist.  A Fallis cousin told > me our family has been Methodist for many years. > Bonnie Anderson > ================================== https://www.google.ie/ ================================== http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/placenames/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FERMANAGH-GOLD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Linda, The ref "Father ?? Called these the xxxx xxxxs", I think refers to the nickname of that branch of the family. This subject has been discussed many times. Where there are a number of families with the same surname living in an area, each family will have a nickname by which they are known to locals. I think that is what Father XXXX ? is referring to. Viola