McGreece family Fermanagh / Tyrone

William McGreece b 1804 / 1805,  am unable to find details of birth place, birth date or details of his parents                       .Variations of McGreece encountered include McGreese, McGrease, McGriece, McGreice, McGrice, McGrieve, McGrace     
Have a burial record for a Sidney McGreece 29/4/1859,  Boa Island, Templecarn, Donegal.   [ Definitely not Sidney b 1827, married Patrick Gallagher /Gallacher and died in Girvan, Ayrshire,Scotland in 1914 ]   So could possibly be William's  [ b 1804 ] mother given naming patterns !!                                                                                                                                Apprenticeship records show a Wm McGreece of Trory Parish [Fermanagh]  apprenticed to Francis Adams of  Clonelly  as shoemaker at age of 10 yrs  1/3/1814, recommended by Rev Mr Tuthill for Lord Bishop of Clogher;  my Wm McGreece's occupation was a shoemaker !!                                                                                                                                            William McGreece and  Jane Cashore [Cashon] were married at Tubrid Church, Kesh 19th July 1826 and  have 4 children's baptisms recorded at Tubrid Church, Kesh, Fermanagh            Anne Jane b 1833, Alexander b 1835, John b 1838, Thomas b 1841        However 2 earlier children, Sidney [female] b c1827 and William b c1829 birth places are not known                  Jane Cashon's parents possibly  David and Jane [Johnson]

Hi Malcolm,

It certainly looks like you have made a super start on tracing your family history!

As you probably already 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. So for County Fermanagh, the Fermanagh Genealogy Centre would be a good place to contact and also Roots Ireland.

If your William was indeed a shoemaker, this could be the same person.

I hope this gives you another place to search, and hopefully, your fellow members and some industry partners will be able to add to this list!

Martin

Hi Martin,
               Thank you for your reply.  I am afraid I am a long way for the start of this research; have spent more than 15 years on this on and off, paying researchers in Ireland to look at church records initially !!
Even with the all records available online currently have been unable to progress any further. Hoping to find someone with some personal knowledge or family records.   Have a number of instances of this family in Fermanagh and Tyrone, few in Donegal but unable to link with any certainty.  Instances also in Scotland and USA.
Wm McGreece, wife Jane and daughter Ann Jane emigrated to Australia in 1857 followed by son Alexander and his wife in 1859. Wm's first child Sidney m Patrick Gallagher and moved to Scotland.  These families are well documented
Quite a number of McGreece / McGreese family around townland of Kinine, Co Tyrone
            Hugh McGreece b c 1807, Patrick b c 1807, James b c1819
Eleanor Magreese m David Ingram,  1806 Ardess, Magheraculmoney, Co Fermanagh
Regards
Malcolm

Hi Malcolm

I think your approach is sound. Once you have exhausted church registers (which are the building blocks of family history) it makes sense to reach out to wider family history community in the hope that you can make contact with someone with knowledge/oral traditions, which may not be found in any historical documents and/or captured in any database, that shed new light on family origins.

Hello Malcolm,

As Brian mentioned, finding a family connection in the wider community would be a very helpful route to try and fill in some of the blanks you have from your years of research.

One other possible place to try would be the Ulster American Folk Park County Tyrone, who has a family history research department on site.

As you also mentioned, you have engaged previous researchers to gather some of this information, have you contacted Tyrone Roots and see if they can help you?

Martin

Thank You Martin,  Will certainly give your suggested sites a go
Malcolm