I’ve been digging into the origins of my 5x great grandfather.
Records seem to indicate he is from County Antrim in Ulster.
The thing is I think he may be the child of a high born Lord.
There is a lot of circumstantial evidence and people he associated with in the colonies including the names of some of his children. He was an associate of a few proprietors, Allen Family (Ira, Ethan, and Ebenezer all pop up) and he was established with the earliest noted Settler of the area, as well as a wealthy Dr. Billings.
I have checked PRONI online but the issue I’m running into is he may or may not have been recorded in the traditional sense. Also those records need to be reviewed in person.
I’ve also started checking the Haldimand papers in case there is in anything those accounts that may tie him to arriving in Quebec and then moving down to VT.
I’ve used AI tools to give me tips and advice and most of them have revealed pay walls or recommend hiring an on the ground genealogist - the recommendation was hire two genealogists one here in the US to scavenge additional records from where he was located in VT in the 1700s and then a second one in Northern Ireland who specialize in these families. The stateside genealogist would be to assist in going through the records I have located and really help establish his timeline here.
Before I go down that path I guess I’m looking for any last ditch place to look before consulting experts.
I have his whereabouts from about 1780-1830. I suspect he was a minor or arrived in VT around 1780. By 1783 he was selling his first property, which was a second division of proprietor rights on 100 acres - the thing is I can’t locate how he actually obtained this property, just the record of him selling it.
The 1830 census says he was between 60-70 years old - meaning he was born sometime between 1760-1770. His children and spouse all moved West; he passed away sometime after 1831 but likely before 1837 when they moved.