George Smith Antrim - help with tracing

[Loquitur]

Looking for some help tracing my Irish great great grandfather and family.

George Smith

Born circa 1827
Father David Smith - Mechanic

Enlisted in Royal Artillery
Lisburn
14 December 1847 moved to England thereafter. First record of 1851Woolwich Royal Ordnance Hospital

Connection with Durham Street Belfast on his discharge papers 1868

I wonder if anyone could help me with this side of the family.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Loquitur]

I was wondering if anyone had any pointers to resources which may help me on my Northern Ireland leg of the family?

[Elwyn Soutter]

Statutory birth, death and marriage registration  only started in Ireland in 1864, save for non RC marriages which were recorded from 1845 onwards. For earlier years you usually need to rely on church records, where they exist. You obviously need to know the precise denomination and have some idea of where the person was born in order to search the correct records. Not all churches have records for that period and not all are on-line.

RC records are mostly on-line on the nli site:   

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

For other denominations, the churches usually hold the originals but there are also copies in PRONI, the public record office, in Belfast. A personal visit is required to access them. Access to the records there is free. This link explains what records exist, parish by parish:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/publications/proni-guide-church-records

If you are unable to go yourself, you could employ a researcher. Researchers in the PRONI area: http://sgni.net

[Loquitur]

Thanks, Elliot.

That’s very helpful.  There is nothing in his army records which indicate a religious denomination and its not something that has occurred to me until you explained the two different sources.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/go-groni-online

Is there any benefit of in joining the above to search as it only contains historical records and given we are taking the earlier quarter of the 1800s the two may reconcile both George and his father David.  The name Smith itself doesn’t stand out to me immediately as Irish name.

Lastly there is reference to a Belford in his later military records and also Durham Street in Belfast was a place he would return on discharge from the Army before returning to Norwich around 1869 at the end of his army life.

I can’t seem to reconcile the Belford with Shankhill and Belfast but I guess parts of the county change name over time?

[Elwyn Soutter]

The NI Direct site won’t help you as that’s the statutory records which start in 1864.  (It’s the NI equivalent of GRO Southport). I assume he died in England.

Smith/Smyth is a very common name in Ireland. It’s in the top 10 of Irish names.

The 1868 street directory has just 1 Smith in Durham St. He was Thomas, a rail porter, who lived at number 21:

https://www.lennonwylie.co.uk/dcomplete1868.htm

There is/was nowhere called Belford in Belfast then. There was a Bedford St (mainly a manufacturing and shop area). Could it have been Bedford?

[Loquitur]

The Belford could just be a transcription error for

Belfast
Belford

I will start to examine the link you sent for George Smith as a labourer before his attestation in 1847 he would have been 20-21 yo.

And his father David Smith a mechanic would more than likely died by his discharge in 1869 given was born circa 1827.

Thomas Smith could be related.