So Waringstown straddles both Down and Armagh, eh? Is that a result of changing boundaries over the years? Does that mean I have to check church and civil records for both counties? Or do the civil parishes take precedence? I'm having a terrible time getting a grip on poor law unions, civil parishes, townlands, etc., and Waringstown being in both Down and Armagh isn't helping any! Regards, Julie Anne Parks Searching: Parks, Finley, Doherty, Donnelly, Flynn, Mahoney, McAvoy Hettrick, Cassidy, Donahoe, Donahue, Timmons, Winrow

Hi again Julie, I assure you that we locals have the same problem with townlands, parishes, baronies, poor law unions, local registrar's district, superintendent registrar's district, polling district and county. You are probably best to deal with townlands and church parishes. The townlands are unique - there are very few townlands that are divided, with parts in different parishes etc. In the likes of Griffith's valuation and the tithe applotments the townlands are grouped into poor law unions. The registrars districts are based on these groupings. Townlands are grouped also as church parishes and parishes grouped as baronies. Just for your information: Civil registration (of non-Catholic) marriages started in 1845. Civil registration of births, deaths and all other marriages started in 1864. LDS have issued sets of CD roms containing 'selected' birth and marriage registrations for UK (including Ireland). I do not know the exact details of the selection process. On the set I have there seem to be marriages 1845-1850 and 1864-1866, along with births 1864-1872. I do not know the exact geographical coverage of the data. The only complete census that is available here (Northern Ireland) is that of 1901. The 1911 census is available in Dublin. There are fragments of the 1851 census for County Antrim. Some sets of census returns were destroyed in 1915(?) as part of the war effort. Most church records that had been put in "safe-keeping" before 1922 were destroyed in 1922. That included the vast majority of early church records and most of the remaining census returns. Church of Ireland (Established Church, Irish Church) from before 1864 are regarded as public records and no permission is needed to extract data from them. Presbyterian church records are available on film at the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI) but permission must be obtained from the present church minister before a copy of the film may be made. Irish genealogy is not easy!! You have the advantage of a relatively rare family name PARKS. Best of luck. Norman Parkes http://www.parkesfamily.btinternet.co.uk/ for MANN and CHESTNUT of North Antrim

JParks1393@aol.com wrote: > So Waringstown straddles both Down and Armagh, eh? Is that a result of > changing boundaries over the years? Does that mean I have to check church and > civil records for both counties? Or do the civil parishes take precedence? > > I'm having a terrible time getting a grip on poor law unions, civil parishes, > townlands, etc., and Waringstown being in both Down and Armagh isn't helping > any! > > Regards, > Julie Anne Parks > > Searching: Parks, Finley, Doherty, Donnelly, Flynn, Mahoney, McAvoy > Hettrick, Cassidy, Donahoe, Donahue, Timmons, Winrow > > > The village of Coagh also has half the village in Tyrone and the other half in Londonderry / Derry and therefore different postmen lol