Parish histories in newspapers


I have discovered that the Londonderry Standard newspaper which became the Derry Standard from 1888 occasionally published complete parish histories in its pages. I am aware of four parishes that were covered in the county but I am sure there are many more yet to be discovered. 

The four parishes are Banagher, Faughanvale, Glendermott and Tamlaght Finlagan.

'Banagher, it's early plantation days' Derry Standard 20 August 1900

'Faughanvale parish' Derry Standard 12 Nov 1900

'Some items of historical interest about the Waterside/Glendermott parish' Derry Standard 17 Feb 1902

'History of the parish of Tamlaght Finlagan (Ballykelly) Derry Standard 13, 18, 22 & 25 May 1908 (this is a substantial history).

I have a copy of the history of the parish of Tamlaght Finlagan (which I uncovered in the Presbyterian Historical Society in a file on Ballykelly Presbyterian Church, the article having been cut out of the paper so it was hard to decipher all of the dates). The article was written by J.H Eakin a local historian and contains many genealogical sources of information: Here is the outline of the parish history:

Tamlaght Finlagan (Ballykelly)
1. Its Early People
2. The Plantation of Ulster
3. Sir Randloph Beresford
4. 1630 Muster Roll Fishmongers' estate
5. 1641 rebellion
6. 1663 Hearth Money roll (for the whole parish).
7. 1688 and the Siege
8. 1740 Protestant Householder's survey (whole of parish)
9. The Morrisons
10. Emigration
11. The Land in the Latter Days
12. The Phillip's estate
13. Churches - Presbyterian church in Ballykelly (including a list of elders at Synod of Ulster 1704-1817), Bovevagh/Myroe/Largy
14. Churches - Episcopalian & Catholic

J H Eakin in his conclusion thanked Mr Tenison Groves Blackrock, Dublin and Mr J.W Kernohan AM Belfast who were both professional genealogists who furnished him with the hearth rolls & other sources, which were transcribed before the destruction of the PRO in 1922.

It seems likely that the paper covered other parishes in the county probably in the years 1900-1910 - the British Library has a full run of the newspaper and an examination of the paper for the first decade will almost certainly  bring into light other parish historie
s.


In addition, the Derry Journal published a detailed history of the parish of Magilligan by the Rev Walter Hegarty. Entitled, 'The Ard of the MacGilligans' the 25 part history of Magilligan parish was started on Wednesday 2nd December 1936 and ran weekly until the 19th May 1937. 

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