Caldwells from Magilligan

[E Caldwell]

My father, Uncle and I recently visited Magilligan and Derry from the States.  Since we had only relatively recently traced our Caldwell emigrant great grandfather 3x (William Caldwell 1823-1891) to his hometown in Tamlaght/Tamlaghtard.  We walked what we think was the farm they rented.  We are working diligently to plug in many missing holes and would appreciate any help.  One thing I particularly found disouraging was the number of Caldwells in Derry & nearby Antrim.  Clearly, we have our work cut of for us.

William Caldwell b. 1823, emigrated 1843.
Brothers Daniel (family legend has him dying young), Alexander (thought to be the one who inherited the land) and a sister.
Dad of William Caldwell is John Caldwell (no birthdate but we guess somewhere around 1790s. 
We have a record of John Caldwell helping to found the Magilligan Presbyterian Church in 1813 and two Caldwell spinsters are buried there (we think they are Alexander Caldwell's daughers). 
Oddly, however, Alexander, John nor Daniel Caldwell were buried there. 
A straight shot from the Caldwell farm along the old road is a Church of Ireland parish - Tamlaughtard.  This Church is only several hundred yards from the farm and is much older so if these Caldwells stayed on the same land, or near there, this seems like a logical church for them.  In fact, we found Luke and Robert Caldwell on the Vestry there in the 1700s. 
Challenge is to try to tie John to any of them.  We were not succesful in locating the burial place for John Caldwell, Alexander Caldwell, Daniel Caldwell or their sister. 

If anyone can provide any help or suggestions, I would be very grateful.  Having visited this beautiful place for the first time and tracing it back through my blood line has increased my desire to tie out as much of my Irish roots as I can. 

[aghadowey]

Welcome to Rootschat and glad you enjoyed your visit to County Derry.

We have a record of John Caldwell helping to found the Magilligan Presbyterian Church in 1813 and two Caldwell spinsters are buried there (we think they are Alexander Caldwell's daughers). 
Oddly, however, Alexander, John nor Daniel Caldwell were buried there. 
A straight shot from the Caldwell farm along the old road is a Church of Ireland parish - Tamlaughtard.  This Church is only several hundred yards from the farm and is much older so if these Caldwells stayed on the same land, or near there, this seems like a logical church for them.  In fact, we found Luke and Robert Caldwell on the Vestry there in the 1700s. 
Challenge is to try to tie John to any of them.  We were not succesful in locating the burial place for John Caldwell, Alexander Caldwell, Daniel Caldwell or their sister. 

There may be many of your relatives, including John, Alexander & Daniel, buried in Magilligan Presbyterian churchyard but perhaps no headsgtones or no surviving headstones. Or equally they could be buired at Church of Ireland burying ground with no headstones. They might or might not be reorded in the burial register (but Presbyterian Churches did not, and most still do not, keep burial registers).
If you Caldwells were always Presbyterian they would not have attended the Church of Ireland but could certainly be buried there. Years ago Presbyterians had to pay tithes to the Established Church (C. of I.) and were therefore entitled to be buried there.

Have you checked the 1831 census for the area to see which Caldwells were there? Although 1901 is the 1st complete census for all Ireland small fragments of earlier records did survive and for Co. Derry there is 1831. The census was more a religious census in that it only lists, under townland, head of household, number of males and females, and religion.

Have you checked the church records?
There is a Session Book for Magilligan Presbyterian Church (1814-45, 1851-1920), baptisms (1851-1920), lists of communicants (with session minutes & deaths 1890s), congregational census (1850). Also a congregaional census 1855.
Magilligan Church of Ireland- marriages 1820-26,1832-34; burials 1824-29, 183-34, 1837, 1844-1962. Vestry book 1820-43, 1844-1870, 1855-1897. Baptisms 1844-1961. Session book 1813-1857 contains baptisms 1814-54, 1857; marriages 1814-45, 1846-1923; members lists 1814/15, 1836; committee minutes 1823-28, etc.

[aghadowey]

Did you check Tamlaght Old Burying Ground for Caldwell headstones? A very old burying ground with all religions but many of the old stones could be difficult or impossible to read.

[E Caldwell]

Aghadowey, thanks so much for responding.  I have followed you on this thread and was hoping you  would.  Most of those avenues we have followed.  Is the Tamlaght Old Burying Ground either the St. Aidan's or Tamlatard Parish Church of Ireland cemetery or something else that we missed? 

[aghadowey]

Is the Tamlaght Old Burying Ground either the St. Aidan's or Tamlatard Parish Church of Ireland cemetery or something else that we missed? 

There are 4 cemeteries in the area: 1) Church of Ireland; 2) Magilligan Presbyterian; 3)St. Aidan's (Roman Catholic) & 4) Tamlaghtard old Burying-ground that I mentioned- all religions would have been buried here. Not sure what condition the stones are in or even how many survive there.

Have been going through some old gravestone inscriptions for Co.Derry and found in St. Aidan's: 'Here lies the body of Mary Browster who departed this life November 12 1792 aged 31 years. Also the body of her husband Daniel Browster of Ballyleighry who departed this life July 5 1838 aged 76 years. Also his daughter Margaret CALDWELL who died August 1858 aged 71 years. Also of Jane, wife of Alexander CALDWELL of Ballyleighry, who died 17 October 1858 aged 40 years.' (Not sure if this is copied correctly but it might be of interest)

[E Caldwell]

That looks like a burial ground that we somehow missed.  I was at that grave in St. Aiden's not even a week ago.  Thanks for that find, however.  The Browsters were the farm just up the hill from the Caldwell farm we found and walked.  The woman married there is my great grandmother 4x.  Her husband was John, the oldest Caldwell we can trace concretely and who we are eagerly trying to tie to a church or something to tie him to the host of Caldwells we have uncovered in the neighborhood in the 1700s. 

It was very interesting to us that our family wouldn't go to the Tamlatard Church of Ireland because there is an old road leading from the farm directly to the church.  We found 3 Caldwells in the vestry notes there but have not as of yet been able to link them up our family line with anything concrete - Robert, Luke & William - though we have little doubt that they are in our line of Caldwells.   We are connected to the Caldwell who was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church down the hill in Magilligan in 1813 (that was the husband of Margaret Caldwell who you found in St. Aidens) but haven't tied our Caldwells to any other church.  The Magilligan Presby Church paster who we spoke with thought that our family probably trekked to the Presbyterian Church over the hill in Dunaboe but that 5 miles seems like a long trek to make.

Maybe one of the keys is to find out if the old burial ground contains any additional relevant informaiton.  Any recommendation on how we would go about that - for example, would there be any records contained of those graves (assuming that the old ones are now illegible)?

Thanks so much again. 

[aghadowey]

If your Caldwells were Presbyterian they would not have attended a Church of Ireland church no matter how close it was the their farm. What townland did they actually live in? I have a few townland maps which I could check and might be able to suggest other possible Presbyterian churches within range. The problem is not just going to be finding a church but seeing if it's records still exist for the period you want to search.

[E Caldwell]

We are really intrigued by the possibility here that there may be another Magilligan burial ground that we missed.  Do you know where the Tamlaghtard 'old burial ground' that you mention is located? 

[kintree]

All the information you need is freely available on the web.

The History from Headstones website tells us that the old graveyard is at map ref C678313.

You can find this on multimap:
www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?lat=55.1246&lon=-6.935&scale=25000&icon=x

Adrian