Farmers Watson & Whiteside Derry 1850

[rosgr]

I am searching William John Watson (labourer b 1833 Cavan to William Watson (farmer) & Sarah?)

William John Watson married Eliza Jane Whiteside (servant) 10 Dec 1855 at Lissan Church Moneymore and the info I have comes from the marriage record.

Eliza Jane Whiteside was born 1834 Coltrim Derry to John Whiteside, also a farmer.

William John & Eliza Jane migrated to Australia immediately after their marriage and beyond their marriage record I am stuck.  Any suggestions?

[Elwyn Soutter]

Griffiths Valuation for Cavan in 1856 only has 1 William Watson listed. He had a couple of acres of land in Lisball, parish of Bailieborough. If you get no other leads, you might consider searching those parish records (assuming you know the family denomination).

There was a Wm Watson whose death was registered in Bailieborough in 1873 (est year of birth 1803). Vol 7, page 335.

[rosgr]

Thanks Elwyn, I don't think he's mine. 
But I have just found on a Griffiths Valuation list for Arboe, Derry, a Sarah Watson of Moneyhaw listed 1858-59.  This seems better as her son lived at Moneyhaw when he got married in 1855.  Sarah was his mother's name and she died en route to Australia as a widow in 1868.  From the Griffith's list, I would say her husband William died between 1855 (when his son was married and migrated to Aust) and 1858-59 when she is listed at Moneyhaw but not her husband.

So now to find a William Watson who died at Moneyhaw between 1855 and 1858!  And a William Watson who married Sarah between about 1820 - 1830.

They were Protestant.  The son got married Church of Ireland (Lissan Moneymore).

 I have had good success with English/Scot records but having a lot of trouble making my way with the Irish ones.

[aghadowey]

I would say her husband William died between 1855 (when his son was married and migrated to Aust) and 1858-59 when she is listed at Moneyhaw but not her husband.
Are you sure William was still alive in 1855? (father being dead often not indicated on marriage certificates)

[Elwyn Soutter]

Statutory recording of births & deaths only started in 1864 so you won’t find a death certificate for Wm Watson 1855 – 1858. Only the Church of Ireland routinely kept burial records, so if he was of that faith and the records have survived you might find his burial.

Likewise with the marriage 1820 – 1830, statutory recording of Protestant and nonconformist marriages only started in April 1845, so again you would be looking for Church records. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church (and thereafter she’d attend her husband’s) and so it might not necessarily be the parish church where he lived.

Few of these records are on-line but copies of many of the surviving church records are held in PRONI, Belfast. This is what they hold for Arboe Church of Ireland:

C.I. Arboe (Armagh diocese) Baptisms, 1775-1813 and 1824-71; marriages, 1773- 1812 and 1824-45; burials, 1776-1813, 1827-1900 and 1905-06; vestry minutes, 1773-1833; list of the poor, 1789 and 1794; census, 1775; confirmation lists, 1775, 1828, 1833, 1837, 1840, 1843, 1870 and 1873; indexes to baptisms, 1775-1871, and marriages, 1773-1845.

[rosgr]

I have been using Google maps to look at possibilities, not knowing Ireland at all.  It seems to me that 'Moneyhaw' and 'Coltrim' are both roads in the townland of Moneymore, and that Church of Ireland Parishes of Lissan and Desertlyn would all be in the same small area.  Am I correct in this?

What I have is William John Watson born abt 1833 (he was 22 in 1855 when he married in Lissan Church Moneymore and migrated to Australia), being a labourer from Moneyhaw.   His parents were William (farmer) & Sarah Watson (and there is a Sarah Watson on Griffith's 1858-59 at Moneyhaw so assuming William snr was dead by then.  Sarah herself died en route to Australia in 1868 and was born about 1792 - not much detail on her Aust death record)

I have found one marriage for a William Watson and Sarah Betty Aiken 17/1/1837 at Desertlyn, although this would be well after young William's birth assumed to be 1833.  Right name possibilities, right area (I think) just a bit late!

On the other side, William John Watson's wife, Elizabeth Jane Whiteside, was born about 1833 to John and Eliza Whiteside, and was living in Coltrim (Road?)  in 1855, which I assume is just down the road from Moneyhaw (Road?).

Eliza Whiteside also migrated to Australia in 1857, very soon after young William & Elizabeth, so my guess is that her husband John died pre 1857.  There are no details at all on her shipping record apart from her name, and the fact that I know she is buried in Aust close to her daughter and son-in-law.

Again I found a church burial record for a John Whiteside at Lisbunney, Cumber Upper on 8/10/1867, but think I should dismiss it because that would be 10 years after his wife came to Australia, and I think Cumber Upper is not close to Moneymore?

[aghadowey]

Moneyhaw and Coltrim are adjoining townlands. It was only about 40ish years ago that we got road names in the countryside and the road names and townlands often but don't always occur in the same place.

Moneyhaw (meaning 'shrubbery of the ford or kiln') is partly in Lissan Parish (c246 acres) and partly in Ardboe Parish (c285 acres). It is east of Coltrim.
Coltrim (meaning 'hazel ridge') also in Lissan Parish is c460 acres.

[Elwyn Soutter]

To make it a little confusing there are two townlands named Moneyhaw, and they are immediately beside each other (which I have never seen before). The more northerly of the two is in Lissan parish, and the other is in Arboe.

Coltrim is in Lissan parish. The main Cookstown road goes through the middle of it, just outside Moneymore. Coltrim Rd & Coltrim lane are also in it.

The modern Moneyhaw Rd, just south of Moneymore town, goes through the middle of both Moneyhaw townlands. You can look at on-line maps of the townlands (which show their boundaries and the location of many of the farms) using Griffiths Valuation or Ordnance Survey. There is a facility for overlaying a modern map onto the contemporaneous 1850s/1860s map on Griffiths by using the slider bar in the top right hand corner of the map screen.

Cumber Upper is some way north of Lissan and Arboe. There are about 4 other parishes in between.

A townland is the smallest administrative area of land in Ireland. They can vary in size from 1 acre up to 5000 acres, though most are between 50 and 500 acres. Originating in the older Gaelic dispensation, townlands were used as the basis of leases in the estate system, and subsequently to assess valuations and tithes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

[aghadowey]

To make it a little confusing there are two townlands named Moneyhaw, and they are immediately beside each other (which I have never seen before). The more northerly of the two is in Lissan parish, and the other is in Arboe.

According to Notes on the Place Names of The Parishes and Townlands of the County of Londonderry by Alfred Moore Munn (1925) Moneyhaw is one townland which is partly in Lissan and partly in Ardboe.