presbyterian records in Dublin?

[aghadowey]

Here's the PCI's website with links to a few Dublin congregations at the bottom of the page-
www.presbyterianireland.org/congregations/index.html

[annieoburns]

You may get the marriage you are looking for in the civil marriage register as there is a record of 'non Catholic' marriages that goes back further than the 1864 date when registration generally started for BMD's in Ireland.

St Thomas's Church of Ireland church was on Marlborough Street parallel to O Connell Street but it was destroyed by fire in 1922 and nothing remains.  The charred records are in the church library on Braemor Road.

The Representative Church Body Library is open Monday to Friday 10 to 1, and 2 to 5
RCB Library, Braemor Road, Churchtown, Dublin 14.  You should phone in advance of a visit as it is a small place.


I came accross this bit too

Presbyterian Parish records for the counties of Northern Ireland are kept mainly in P.R.O.N.I., although some records are also available on microfilm in the Presbyterian Historical Society in Belfast. Records for congregations in the Republic of Ireland are usually held locally by the minister.
Note: There is no one finding-aid that records all Presbyterian congregations in Ireland, from the 17th to 21st Centuries. Consequently, it will require research simply to identify whether records for a specific congregation and time-frame survive, and where they can be accessed

[aghadowey]

If there's a query about any particular Presbyterian church I have copy of History of Congregations and might be able to provide dates of existing records, etc.

Note: I was in Belfast today with the intention of checking something at the Presbyterian Historical Society but was told that it was closed as there's no librarian at present (ight be open with temp. cover for a few hours on Wednesdays but best to check beforehand).

[Miss Trees]

Annie,
You might be right about the civil registration. I did a search on pilot.familysearch.org (which has turned up a few excellent results for me lately) but didn't see anything promising.... it might be easier if I knew the bride's name... but I was hoping to get this from Henry's birth records. However just found out (and I don't know why I never knew this before) that there is a family history centre right near me. It's closed for the next couple weeks but I will be heading there as soon as it opens to see if it returns anything more!


aghadowey -

that's good to know about the Historical Society before I jump on a plane  for a Genea-oliday
I think your History of Congregations would be the same as what they have on their website? I'm going to read into it a bit more closely this weekend.

[Miss Trees]

Just an update to my own post and maybe this will help someone else, not sure.

I am very much a visual person (and not knowing the geography of Dublin all that well, being over 10 years since I've been there) I decided to create an online "google map" pinpointing approx locations of known past and present Presbyterian congregations in Dublin, and their approx dates. It has given me a few clues where records for my family could have been generated and where they might have moved to.

If anyone is interested I can make the map public although it's very much a 'work in progress' and not near complete.

[kintree]

Georgina

The registers of the former Marys Abbey Presbyterian congregation are held by the Abbey Church (often called Findlaters Church) on Parnell Square (formerly Rutland Square).

Contact details:

http://web.mac.com/abbeychurch/Site/Meet_Abbey.html

Adrian

[Miss Trees]

Thank you Adrian
I tried contacting the church last week as this seems the most likely one. I imagine they would be too busy to do any kind of 'research' for anybody but I was hoping I could perhaps hire a researcher if I knew they actually had the records there.
So far no reply.

[cliffordcochran]

I believe my family attended the Abbey St Presbyterian Church in the 1820s-1830s.  They were Scottish and apparently that church was called the Scots Church.  Where are the records currently located?  Thanks for your helpful post.

The Presbyterian records do exist (well mainly exist!) but many of the churches have closed.

My g-grandfather was the minister at the Abbey St Presbyterian Church, which is now closed, but I did manage to fine that the records had been transferred to another Presbyterian church which is still operational, and they were kind enough to extract the information that I needed.

You would need to find what was the original Presbyterian church(es) in St Thomas and St George.  If there is a Dublin resident reading this they can give you that information much quicker than I can research it! Then if it is closed email or phone a neighbouring Presbyterian Church to see who held the records.

I should add that 100 years ago in Dublin (and in Scotland) there were various "flavours" of Presbyterianism, as every so often there was a schism on some deep point of principle, and half the congregation would move down the road and set up a new church.

[shanew147]

As far as I know the best places to try for these are PRONI and the Presbyterian Historical Society in Belfast.



Shane