The Jamisons of Antrim and Down, Northern Ireland

Welcome to my site for the genealogy and family history of my paternal family, the Jamisons of North Antrim, Northern Ireland, especially the Bushmills and Giants Causeway areas, and my great-grandfather William McDowell Jamison’s family.

(Update October 2019 – we have now traced my great-great grandparents and discovered they originate from County Down, so the net has widened for this blog, hence the site name change!)

The Jamisons were a large family and have spread across Great Britain (particularly Scotland and England) and beyond to Canada and the United States.

The Jamisons were probably part of the Protestant Scottish lowland migration to Northern Ireland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  More recently, the Jamisons were based throughout Belfast for much of the mid 20th century, so if you are an Ulster or Scottish Jamison and suspect we may be related, please feel free to contact us.

This website is an attempt to map and both all known surviving members of our Jamison family, and to trace our family tree; currently I’ve traced back to the early 1800s and hope to break into the 1700s very soon.

Jamisons of Giant’s Causeway – North Antrim Local Interest List Blog

Have a look at this interesting blog entry from NALIL on the Jamisons of Giant’s Causeway – this is the story that led us to a picture of my generation of Jamison’s great grandfather, William McDowell Jamison.

Is your name on our list or shown on a family tree on this site?

If so, we need your help. However insignificant you think your information might be, it may be vital in completing our quest. So if you’re a Jamison, Jameson or Jamieson from the areas mentioned above, or descended from one, we need your help. Please contact us and tell us how and where you think you fit into our family tree.

Jamison, Jameson, Jamieson? Although our family name is spelt Jamison, it is possible that you are related to us, as spellings have been a bit arbitrary in the past, even in our own family. Please take a look at our lists of family member names, and our family tree, to check whether we may be related.

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Finding Out More

We have used information from various census records for England and Ireland. A census was carried out in England in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891, and 1901. A census was also held in Ireland in 1901 and 1911.

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The Antrim Connection

No less than eleven presidents of the USA came from Ulster protestant backgrounds, six from County Antrim.

President Theodore Roosevelt, himself descended from Antrim stock, described the Protestant men and women of Ulster (or “Scots Irish” as they were then called) as:

“A grim, stern people, strong and powerful for good and evil, swayed by gusts of stormy passion, the love of freedom rooted in their very hearts’ core…” They suffered terrible injuries at the hands of the red men, and on their foes they waged terrible warfare in return. They were also upright, resolute, fearless, and loyal to their friends, devoted to their country. In spite of their many failings, they were of all men the best fitted to conquer the wilderness and hold it against all comers.”

NOTE: I moved this site to WordPress from Blogger in 2016 –  if you’ve been in touch and didn’t hear from me, please try again