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Aghanloo Old graveyard

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Situated about two miles outside of Limavady, Aghanloo Old Graveyard resides in the townland of Rathfad. It sits on a raised hill on a bend in the road overlooking the main road to Magilligan (OS reference  C679279). Aghanloo New graveyard can be found at Aghanloo Church of Ireland in the parish of Drumbane, which was built in 1826. Aghanloo Church of Ireland, Drumbane, Aghanloo There are many old headstones in this cemetery but many are indecipherable On a recent visit I copied some of the older headstones that were still legible such as that for the Henry family of Dirtagh, Aghanloo. Henry of Dirtagh headstone HENRY: Erected to the memory of John Henry, Dirtagh, who died June 4 1861 aged 84 years. Also his wife Rachel who died July 18 1862 aged 70 years. Also their son William Henry who died March 20 1891 aged 61 years. I believe that this Henry family resided on a farm of about 44 acres in Dirtagh that they called Flowerfield. John Henry's wife was Rachel McM...

What's in a name?

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SURNAME VARIATIONS: The onset of civil registration of births in 1864 proved to be a catalyst in the process of standardizing the spelling of surnames in Ireland. However, there are some surnames where their spelling in early documents bears no seeming relation to their spelling in later documents. Some examples of modern spelling of the name compared to older usage: Alexander - McCalsenor & McElsinor,  Ballentine - Bannatyne Bradley - Brillaghan, Brallahan, O'Brillaghan, O'Brullaghan Connor - McNogher, McNogher, Nogher Cummings - Kimin, Kimming, Miskimmin, Miskimmings. McCumings McAfee - McDuffee,  Patton - O'Payton Pollock -  Poake, Polke & Poague Trainor - McCreanor & McCraner Uprichard - Pritchard, O'Prichard & Bridget The latter surname Uprichard is reputedly of Welsh origin and the surname is strong in the area between Banbridge and Lurgan. The registers of Donaghcloney Church of Ireland are well preserved and f...

Rev Samuel Butler first Minister of Magilligan Presbyterian Church

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Magilligan Presbyterian Church in Margymonaghan townland The Rev Samuel Butler, the first minister of Magilligan Presbyterian Church from 1814 through to 1862 seemed to have an interest in family history as some of the entries for baptisms and marriages are unusually detailed. An example of two marriages are given below and give the names of those present at the weddings: Marriage No 103 John Fleming son of William Fleming of Liverpool unto Sarah Ross youngest daughter of William Ross farmer of Ballymulholland, Magilligan. The bride groom lives with his uncle Conolly Fleming of Drumavally. The marriage of the above pair John Fleming & Sarah Ross took place in the house of the bride's father William Ross on the evening of Wednesday the 21st August 1839 with consent of friends. Some of the company present were Mr & Mrs Thomas Ross of Ballymulholland - Abraham James Moody of Gortmore and his brothers John and Henry Bruce Moody & sister Margaret Ann Moody. Of Mr Wil...

Marriage pre-civil registration: some thoughts part two.

Continued: The banns of marriage are the public announcement in a Christian church that a marriage is going to take place between two specified persons. The purpose is to enable anyone to raise any legal impediment to it. Obligatory notification of the intention to marry was to be given in church on three consecutive Sundays (but written records of these are relatively rare). Couples were ‘allowed proclamation’ that having satisfied the minister’s criteria, he allowed the banns to be read out and posted up. Sufficient time was, therefore, allowed for the preparation and proclamation of marriage banns on three successive Sundays prior to the wedding. When anyone applied to have banns published a fee was lodged. Banns were published and read in two parishes, which added to the cost. The importance of proclamation may be seen from the fact that the Presbyterian Synod of Ulster in 1701 unanimously approved that a minister who transgressed the rule of proclamation ‘three several Sabbaths...

Marriage pre-civil registration: some thoughts part one.

MARRIAGES BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF CIVIL REGISTRATION Having transcribed hundreds of marriages from several parish registers in the Roe Valley and the wider north Derry area it seems clear that marriages were not recorded systematically before 1845. The pattern is haphazard and even sporadic in many registers. Those that were recorded were entered at the discretion of the minister and tended to be from the higher social order.  Marriage details are the raw material of genealogical research providing as they do the names of spouses that reveal a wider network and pattern of kinship. Compulsory civil registration of Protestant marriages in Ireland began in 1845 and Catholic marriages in 1864. Thus, in the period before civil registration the primary source for marriage records lie with church registers where they are extant.  Under the Public Records Act 1867, an amendment of 1875 and the Parochial Records Act 1876, Church of Ireland parish registers of marriages prio...

Parish histories in newspapers

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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 da...

Tenison Groves, record agent

PRONI T808 The Groves' Mss PRONI has 27 boxes of material around 20,000 copies of genealogical working papers and abstracts of miscellaneous documents, c.1650-1920, compiled and copied by Tenison Groves, a professional genealogist and antiquarian who worked at the Public Record Office of Ireland in Dublin from around 1900 until after the Four Courts Fire of 1922. The genealogical material has been arranged roughly by surname in small volumes, some of which relate to one name only, some to a group of related families, others to several surnames starting with the same letter. The arrangement of the material is variable, alphabetization has not been adhered to, not all variant spellings have been noted, place names are difficult to trace. The great importance of this archive is that it contains extracts from documents which were destroyed in the Irish Civil War in 1922. It is particularly rich in will abstracts which appear in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland index to p...