Hi Sharon,
Welcome to my world, I have been researching this via the internet for almost 7 years without a whole lot of luck as there are simply to many missing records every where no matter how hard I look or where I look.
The paper trail I do have includes my father Lavern Ray Henderson JR to his father Lavern Ray Henderson SR to his father William H Henderson to his father Joseph Henderson and ends with the birth of Joseph's first daughter Catherine Henderson in 1833 born in Canada. This is solid with plenty of sources.
The problem for me starts with the Michigan death records that have Joseph's death listed twice with 2 different dates -- The first recorded death date of December 16, 1895 seems to be the more solid of the 2 recorded dates but is only half recorded on film -- only 1/2 of the book got included in the photo that was taken.
The second recorded date of death has lines drawn through the entry as if in an attempt to cross out the entry but it remains readable and this photo does show both sides of the book with entries to Joseph's parents Feb 10, 1896 This is the false record https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FH6L-N86?from=lynx1&... The names James Henderson with Johanna Clark as the mother can not be verified with any kind of paper trail or sources. The closest I can find are a couple married in the 1820's - 16 or so years after Joseph's birth.
When the name James George Henderson showed up on My Heritage I was thrilled beyond words as Margaret and James Henderson have the time line with Joseph's birth so exact I thought a miracle had taken place.
Margaret and James have 2 sources attached to them starting on April 13, 1798 with their recorded marriage and the baptism of their first son also on April 13, 1798 the next child born William Edward born in Ireland in 1803 then blank of 4 years where no child was born and where I personally plugged Joseph's birth of 1804 into as the nex child born was then Wilson born in 1807 with 2 daughters born after Wilson.
It was logical for me to assume that these could be his parents given his birth year and they not having a child born during those years of 1804 to 1807-- again not paper trail of any kind to be found as Ireland did not require birth records until the middle 1890s and any baptism records for the Presbyterian church are not online and there is a large gap in the records they do have between 1803 and 1825 ( poof records disappeared )
Right now however the only real hope to find any kind of a paper trail will be with the ship company that transported people from Europe to the US and Canada during the time frame of 1830 to 1832- most of the Irish people would have left Ireland for London, England to board ships there for transport to Canada or the US and I do believe that all went to Canada first as the cost for the trip there was less than the trip to the US.
Unfortunately, for me and any one else looking for records of people crossing into the US from Canada, there were none recorded until the mid 1890's Big help that one turned out not to be. Even James George Henderson II appears to have gone that route and settled in Vermont where he was a farmer until close to his death in 1866 when he sold his farm to his then brother in-law for $2.00 an acre and died about 8 days later.
This is my story so far and while it is not pretty I assure you it is a factual as I know at this point in time, I am looking forward to the results of my DNA test to show me where my family line is at through the Clan Henderson Genealogy group.
Happy reading, William Henderson
