Descendants of James Higginson and Evelyn Ussher of Belfast

[TylerNZ]

Hi

I am trying to find out anything I can about this couple who were living in Sydney Street West Belfast in 1942. They had at least one son John born in 1942 who emigrated to New Zealand and died recently. I am in New Zealand also and am struggling to locate much about this family in the usual places. I cannot find any records of their deaths. Ideally, I would really like to find out if John had any siblings and whether any of them are alive and I would also like to find birth records for James and Evelyn. If anyone could offer me any help or advice I would be really grateful.

Fran

[Elwyn Soutter]

James & Evelyn married on 25.12.1939 in the Belfast registration area. You can view their marriage certificate on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.

GRONI is the only repository for birth, death and marriage records in what is now Northern Ireland, from 1.1.1922 onwards. (Ancestry and other websites don’t have them).

Births in Northern Ireland within the past 100 years, marriages within the past 75 and deaths within the past 50 aren’t searchable on-line. They are open to the public, just not on-line. If you know all the key details eg exact date and place of birth, parents names etc, you can order a copy of a certificate from GRONI for £15. https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

But if you don’t have all the information, you need to get in touch with them to get a search done. Contact details for ringing or e-mailing GRONI:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/contacts/contacts-az/general-register-office-northern-ireland

So for John’s birth and that of any siblings, your only option is to contact GRONI. Likewise for James & Evelyn’s deaths if they were within the past 50 years.

Here’s a birth for an Eveline Ussher in 1907.  Hopefully the 1939 marriage certificate will tell you if it’s the right family:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1907/01701/1674652.pdf

Parents marriage in 1907:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1907/10078/5665712.pdf

Family in 1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Shankill/Sydney_Street__West/177696/

[TylerNZ]

Hi Elwyn,

Thank you so much for all your help. You are amazing!

Do you know if there might be a newspaper database that might hold newspapers for Belfast that might have birth notices perhaps? Or perhaps a religious database that might have birth or baptism records for the 1940s? I'm just trying to think outside the square a little ...

Thank you again so much for your help with this.

Fran

[Kiltaglassan]

Do you know if there might be a newspaper database that might hold newspapers for Belfast that might have birth notices perhaps?

Two subscription sites that hold Northern Ireland newspapers.

British Newspaper Archive https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
Irish Newspaper Archives  https://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

KG

[Elwyn Soutter]

If the children were baptised in the 1940s the records are probably still held by the church. They are very unlikely to be on-line. Most churches respect the 100 year privacy rule and don’t allow baptisms less than that to be published on any public database. You can usually access them at the church but you would need to know which church. There are 50 Presbyterian churches in the Belfast area and probably  about the same number of Church of Ireland. The church of Ireland also charges for access to records held at the church (£19 an hour I think if the Rector does the searching and £12 an hour if you go in person and do it yourself, though there are probably no in person visits allowed at present due to Covid).

Something else to watch is that Rootschat’s policy is not to give out information on anyone who might be alive. So whilst we can assist taking your research backwards we can’t take it forwards very much, not directly to living descendants anyway.

There is a tree on Ancestry (Coates) that has the Ussher family I found in the 1911 census.  It has some siblings for Eveline/Evelyn and her parents deaths – Margt in Belfast 20.7.1977 and John 24.9.1948 Belfast. It doesn’t show anything about her marriage or her children.

I found a burial for Margaret Ussher in Roselawn cemetery Belfast. Grave S 686.  She’s the only occupant. Her last address was 16 Archdale Drive, Belvoir Estate, Belfast. John Ussher is buried in the City Cemetery Glenalina extension. Plot Z 319. He died at the Royal Victoria Hospital but his last address was 90 Sydney St West, Belfast. Also buried in that plot is John Ussher died 16.9.1965 aged 57 & William Ussher died 23.12.1930 aged 19.

https://dof.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialsearch/BurialSearch.aspx

Abstracts (summaries) for probate files in Northern Ireland up to about 1967 are on-line on the PRONI wills site.  The site is down at the moment but when it’s back up you could search for wills for anyone who died pre 1967.  The wills themselves are not on-line, post 1916 anyway, but PRONI can copy them for you (for a fee). Obviously they could give you details of family alive at the relevant date.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/search-will-calendars

Margaret Ussher was still at 90 Sydney St West in the 1960 street directory:

https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/scomplete1960.htm

[gaffy]

I'm wary about the following, for I've been caught out several times before on a name combination that I imagined was unique... but co-incidentally turned out not to be.  So the following comes with that HUGE health warning... ie. to note, until it can be ruled in or out.

The name combination that I found is a 'James and Evelyn Higginson' of 91 Ottawa Street, it occurred in a newspaper death notice in the Belfast Telegraph of 18 October 1952, the deceased was a Frank Higginson, stated as the husband of Emma Jane, the address was 17 Upper Meenan Drive, James was described as Frank's brother.

Other 1952 newspaper notices for Frank's death included (and trying to avoid reference to living persons):

- brother and sister-in-law Joseph and Elizabeth Higginson of 71 Riga Street;
- brother and sister-in-law William and Dorothy Higginson of 46 Montreal Street;
- sister and brother-in-law Rachel and Christopher Donaldson of 49 Columbia Street;
- sister and brother-in-law Margaret and Harry Robinson of 68 Goldsmith Road, Leyton, London;
- sister and brother-in-law Elizabeth and William Gibbons of 11 Highgreen, West Circular Road;
- sister and brother-in-law Ellen Jane and Charles White of 68 Goldsmith Road, Leyton, London.

The burial record for Frank is here:
https://dof.belfastcity.gov.uk/burialsearch/BurialSearch.aspx?GraveSection=E6&GraveNumber=2B&CemeteryName=Dundonald%20Cemetery

So when I tried to track back using the various names (above), I wondered about these folk ...
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Shankill/Derry_Street/151248/

... who were James Higginson and Ellen Jane Preston:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1896/10505/5825996.pdf

Is anything registering in terms of surnames? 

[TylerNZ]

Thank you all so very much. You guys are wonderful. Gaffey, I too had wondered about those names in the 1911 census, they do very much now ring a bell. Thank you.

If I was there I feel a pint would be in order for all of you, but due to the great distance and of course Covid-19, I'm sending you all a virtual pint and a hug instead!