The 13 Vennard family trees so far identified represent a compilation of those records in the public domain, but mainly rely on the civil registration of Irish births (from 1865), marriages (from 1845), deaths (from 1865) and parish records. Records were made of the variations in the spelling of Vennard (Venard, Vennart, Venhart etc.) but there were also many other inconsistencies that occurred due to the majority of individuals being illiterate at the time. Inaccuracies also occur in ages at marriage and death, and several births were not recorded in the early years of civil registration. The parish records are patchy, with many being destroyed in 1922 when a bomb hit the public depository in Dublin.
The exercise was undertaken in the hope that I could link my family (#1) with other Vennards in Ulster, and thereby delve further back into my origins. All Irish Vennard descendants concur that the Vennards (original spelling uncertain) were French Huguenots that fled to other European countries following their persecution in the 16th Century. It is not known how many original Vennard individuals settled in Ulster or when. It is unlikely that the 13 family trees so far identified are all descended from one individual; it is however likely that several were linked. Many were living in the Townland of Targaraghan, Co. Armagh in the late 1700's / early 1800's (#3, #4, #7, #8, #9, #10, #12) whilst others were in other regions and counties (#1, #2, #11, #13).
The following summaries concentrate on the earliest documents within each Vennard branch. Fuller and more recent information has been recorded in family trees in .ged format, but these contain more personal information on individuals provided by their descendants and also on those still living. As such these will not be downloaded on the site, but information may be made available with permission from within the family.
With many individuals nothing further is known after their birth or marriage, and it is suspected that several emigrated e.g. all the Vennards identified in Scotland from the 1881 Census onwards originated from Ireland, as did many in England; several also emigrated to North America.
It is hoped that publishing these basic facts may encourage Vennards throughout the world to make contact and stimulate an exchange of information. Over 4,200 individuals within these trees have so far been identified. Several hundred "Vennard floaters" also exist on file that I can't link in yet Maybe someone out there can help to complete another part of the jig-saw!!!!!!
--Sue Turner (2002)
It seems that these folks tended to go toward England, with subsequent
world wide connections. Click on this link to see family #1 chart ( PDF). Family chart #1
Family seems to stay in the Belfast, Ireland area. Although William Henry emigrated to Canada in 1928.
This family has links in the Portadown and Belfast Ireland area, and Annie Vennard (Jelly) to Australia. James and Mary Magill went to Conneticut in the late 1880's.
A branch that went to Scotland and England.
He has now been linked into Family #3b
Cloncore, Ir., Glasgow, Scotland and New York. Introduction of a new branch to these pages...
The one known son of James and Margarite emigrated to New Brunswick,
Canada and subsequently moved into Ontario. The grown children moved to
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada and Michigan, Iowa and South
Dakota in the United States.
The full family chart of 2489 individuals is 117 pages long, and is 392Kbytes. You have been warned!
More Connections to Glasgow, Scotland. There are links to New Hampshire and to Canada.Family chart #12
Several of the family ended up in Canada, not exactly sure when...Thomas family came over in 1927, but others seemed to arrived much earlier.Family chart #13
Synod #18 This family left Ireland and went to Wigan.Any information would be appreciated