Hassen Mullen

My great grandmother Bridget Hassen was born 2 Feb 1863 ish in Londonderry (death cert.) Passenger list to NZ says Donegal ? Parents were Catherine Mullen and John Hassen. I have never been able to find any Irish records for the family. Can you please help? 

Hi Rosanna,

It’s great to hear that you are tracing your Irish Family History!

As you may or not know, before 1864 records were kept in the form of church and parish records and while some of these have regrettably been lost over the years, all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based genealogical centres.

There seems to be some confusion between Bridget's death certificate and the ships passenger list as to where she stated she was born. Would you be able to post a photo here of her death certificate and the passenger list so that we can have a look?

The surname Hassen or variants of it including Hassan, focus on areas of Northern Ireland being more common than County Donegal.

We have a very useful community post regarding some helpful research tips which you may wish to have a look at too.

I'm sure our Industry partners and fellow members will most likely have some advice also.

Martin

Hi Rosanna

Your problem, as you know, is that online databases of church registers, primarily http://www.rootsireland.ie , doesn't appear to record birth details of any children to parents John Hassen and Catherine Mullen which, of course, means you hold no clues as to which parish in Derry and Donegal to concentrate your research.

The database of Derry Genealogy on RootsIreland.ie records no less than 15 Hassen households headed by John in mid-19th Griffith's Valuation. But as this source names heads of household only it provides insufficient information to confirm the nature of the link, if any, between any of these Hassen households and your Bridget Hassen.

Hi Martin and Brian,

Thanks for your replies, that is exactly the problem I have been having regarding records Brian, always hoping something  might turn up one day but hasn't so far. I've  attached passenger list  Martin.
As you may notice she states her age as 23 on the record. On her marriage cert August 1884 she is 21. So there could be a middle ground there or she was much younger?? I'll  get death and marriage certs up soon.

Hi Rosanna,
  Well, there's no doubt, that one is Donegal. I am not spotting a date on that passenger list, how much of discrepancy are we talking about between the age on her Marriage certificate and this?  With women, it can be a vanity thing and you find the older age is usually the right one, There are those times when the age has been fobbed to allow them to marry but this being the 1800s the legal age requirement for girls would be 12.  Of course, I am just speculating, as who could say for sure.
Looking forward to seeing those other Certs. Hopefully they will help shed some light on things.

Gordee

Hi Gordee,
Passenger list is for  ship Forfashire 26 June 1883, marriage is 13 August 1884, death is March 1933 age 70 years. On my grandfather's birth cert in 1897  which I will post  too she is 35 from Londonderry.  Keeping in mind that her husband probably registered births as on marriage cert she puts her mark so assuming she couldn't read or write. Searching through boxes for my genealogy as are moving house ,thanks for your patience.

Hi Rosanna

I suspect that unless you can locate the birth of Bridget or one of her siblings in church registers in either Derry or Donegal and/or identify a source at your end that identifies the parish of origin of your Hassen family your best hope lies in making contact with someone in wider genealogical community and/or DNA 'match' that connects you to a 'genetic cousin'  with knowledge/oral traditions, which may not be found in any historical documents, that shed new light on the origins of your Hassen ancestors. 

I am very familiar with the fact that Derry or Londonderry as a place of origin in record sources can refer to the city, the county or port of departure. In the 19th century the catchment area of port of Londonderry for emigrants departing Ireland were counties Derry, Donegal and Tyrone.

Thanks for that Brian.
Here is the marriage cert.

Hi Rosanna,

Indeed, the marriage certificate doesn't shed much more light on the issue. It even creates a bit more confusion.

I think you may well be at the current limit of your present research and following up on Brian's suggestions of getting in touch with a group that may be researching the same name, or finding a genetic match are your best bets at the moment.

Sometimes in genealogy research you just hit a wall and you have to leave it for a little while. Collecting information from the era, or from other branches of the family may sometimes help, especially if you're lucky enough to find sibling information.

It's part of what makes genealogy research both great and extremely frustrating at times (but ah, when you manage to get a brick out of that wall and you can see to the other side!).

Warm regards,
Cornelia

Thanks Cornelia,
Yes I agree with you and Brian.... going to look for a same name research group to start with.