Hi, I am trying to find my Great Great Grandfather, James Grace, who emigrated to South Africa around 1859. He was married to a Mary. His death certificate just says born in Tipperary, Ireland and that is pretty much the only information we have for him. His children Eliza, Edward, William and John were all born in Grahamstown, South Africa. Any more information would be great. Thanks PamR.
| Additional Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 1st Jan 1840 | |
| Date of Death | 2nd Jun 1879 | |
Hi there, this link below....when you open it if it asks for a name enter james grace and tick the box.
5465983.pdf (irishgenealogy.ie)
The area Doon is on the Limerick Tipperary border. The address is where they were at the time of the marriage, not where they were originally from.
Mary has her address as Dromsally
James has his addess as Doon Glebe.
Margot
familysearch.org has a baptism record (digital photo copy) of the baptism of Eliza Grace born 20 April 1860 parents James & Mary Grace. Baptism in Grahamstown Cathedral, St George
Thanks for the leads. With having his wife's name, I was able to find Mary's death details too.
@pmmfamilytree, do you have a date of birth for Edward Grace, son of James & Mary, as I descend from that line and although he had 13 children, no-one seems to know much about him. I have found his death certificate and marriage certificate so have an idea of when he was born but if you work backwards from the date of marriage and the date of death, you get to two different birth years. I was unsuccesful trying to find birth or baptism records for the 3 boys. I have a lot of family history and information regarding most of the 13 children and their descendants, but onlu know the name of James's parents (Gerald and Eliza)
It was through Edward's death certificate that it mentioned his mother and father but no maiden name for Mary so it was great to get the marriage certificate from Margot.
Meant to ask a moderator, I see the date of birth is shown as 1 January, 1940. Is this because I didn't know the date so it defaults to 1/1/1840?
You ask....
Meant to ask a moderator, I see the date of birth is shown as 1 January, 1940. Is this because I didn't know the date so it defaults to 1/1/1840?
Can you upload the record you did see please.
Sometimes the only way to find the true birthdate is to look through the Catholic Baptism records by parish. https://registers.nli.ie/
You would need to search by Parish and the marriage registration does not seem to help with finding birth parishes. Time, patience and of course luck.
I have not discovered any records for the birth of Edward. Perhaps a South African mailing list from rootsweb? I did have one Great Uncle who emigrated to Cape Town from Silvermines and, yes, his death records did not have the correct year of birth. I did have his baptism however. Good luck and happy hunting.
Hi Margot, meant to say 1/1/1840 not 1940. Not sure where the screen shot went to? It shows 1 January 1840 so I guess I'm trying to determine if the date automatically defaults to 1 January as date of birth if you only put in 1840 as the year of birth.
James Grace.......... His father was Gerald Grace, as stated on the marriage.
This is Gerald Grace in the Griffiths Valuation records in 1851.
Griffith's Valuation (askaboutireland.ie)
I noticed that this post is also in another notice board.
This birth 01.01.1840 is this James if so please state the Parish?
I'm confused, I only created an ancestor, James Grace, on this notice board and put his date of birth as 1840 with no month and day as I had no other information. Really don't understand how it got to be on 2 notice boards. However, I did get a notification from a Dave Boyle who threw me a curve ball and had found a microfish entry of a James Grace marrying a Mary Meehan in Kilkenny on 23 February 1846 and asked him for the actual certificate if he can find it so I can try and verify which information is correct. Don't want to have the incorrect relative information. I guess all I can do is keep on plugging at it.
Hi Pam, this is the link from a James Grace search in this site.
Trying to find details about James Grace | Ireland Reaching Out (irelandxo.com)
I see what has happened, Dave replied on the the above link, then I did.
There is a very good chance that there are duplications with same names in different parts of Ireland.
I usually tend to keep to the Ireland sites as you can see the actual documents, having said that they are not always in one site so you have to use both.
If you ever see a record in any paid sites, always go back to the Parish Books to confirm.
Have you got a library where you could see AncestryWorldWide?
This does have ship records. Also when you search the name it gives hints on the right side of the page.
Looking at both post......you didn't say what year James died...........
Is this him?....................Probate 1879 from familysearch............father Gerald and Mother Eliza (cannot make this out, looks like Almond or Alment ?????
South Africa, Cape Province, Kimberley, Probate Records of the Supreme Court, 1871-1937; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BG-83SD-G?cc=2521616&wc=Q64T-V53%3A1590123703
I went by the year that they left for South Africa...1859 and looked for a marriage 1859 or before.
That's is the one I sent. So it looks like the Father is Gerald.
I quite agree you don't want incorrect information.
Lucky I had all the names, places and years for both of my familes, I just needed actual dates.
Hope this is correct for the death of James.
Thanks Margo, I had found that death certificate for 1879 for James Grace and the dates all seem to tie up. Dave Boyle on the other site said that the marriage certificate of James and Mary from 1858 in the Parish of Doon (United Church of England & Ireland) was not Catholic so that's a little confusing as they baptised Eliza in a Catholic church and both Edward's marriages (first wife died) were in Catholic churches and he baptised all of his multitude of children in the Catholic church. I guess we'll never know why. Maybe James & Mary ran away to get married and the Catholic church in Doon wouldn't marry them?
Hi this is the link to the Catholic Church.
Parish of Doon | Cashel & Emly Diocese | Thurles | Co. Tipperary (cashel-emly.ie)
If Church of Ireland you would need to go through PRONI (Public Records of Northern Ireland)
The Church of Ireland Church is now a Restaurant, going by the web site.
If as Dave Doyle says the marriage was in 1846, then poor James seems to be 6 years old when he married.
This is going by the age on the Probate record.
Thanks for the update.I really appreciate your help as I wouldn't have got so far if it hadn't have been for your input. All the paper trail and relevant dates in South Africa point to your marriage certificate from Doon being the correct parents of Edward so I'm just going to go with that until proven otherwise since no-one in the family (huge I tell you as Edward had 12 children) knows any better. You mentioned above that they left for South Africa in 1859. Do you have a record of this that I can include in the family history? They do have an Ancestry library in Vancouver, Canada where I live but I called them and they are closed to the public at the moment due to Covid restrictions.
You ask..........
You mentioned above that they left for South Africa in 1859. Do you have a record of this that I can include in the family history?
No, you put..........................
I am trying to find my Great Great Grandfather, James Grace, who emigrated to South Africa around 1859
I said I looked for a marriage 1859 and before.
Sorry, I just thought you maybe found proof of him arriving in South Africa in 1859.
Hi, This is where you would need to look in Ancestry, I did search FamilySearch for any ship records, I think they only have USA ones.
Thanks, I'll do some more digging.
