Elizabeth Crawford's maiden name? Ballymena .Confused - Help please

[lmgnz]

Hi Cell

I know we share some relatives but cannot remember if Purdy is one of them. One of my Gawn family "cousins" Sheila Holland (died 2007) married David Stanley Purdy who died 21 Mar 2012. Is this the same Purdy family as yours?

Cheers

Linda

[Cell]

Hi Linda,
I don't have a known David Stanley Purdy in my tree.
My Purdy line produced mostly females who lost the name on marriage.

My grandmother (who was a purdy)and my g aunts only had one brother who went on to have children ( their other brother Thomas had no children, he and his wife couldn't have any)

My grandmother's older brother who went on to have children is John purdy b 1900 in Loughconnelley (died 1962 in Broughshane)
He had quite a few children.I haven't got a David amongst them (but I don't know all of the names .I won't name the ones I do have just in case some of them are alive)

My grandmother's and John's father (also a John, born 1853 died 1920 was the only boy, he had one sister)
His father was a Thomas Purdy born 1793, died 1869. I don't have any known siblings for Thomas .His father was a William (no known abt birth year, and no known siblings)
I am stumped on the shared relatives (?)
Kind regards:)

[lmgnz]

Hi Cell,

Sorry I have not got back to you earlier but thank you for your reply. I could not find if I had sent you any previous messages so maybe it is just that I have been interested by many of your posts.

David Stanley Purdy's wife Sheila was the granddaughter of my gt grandmother's brother James Henry Gawn. Which made Sheila a 2nd cousin once removed. We had a letter from her when her mother Mae Holland (Mary Gawn) died. My father had been in contact with Mae Holland in the 1980s.

I only know the names of their children but not of any of David Stanley's family. I have his 2012 funeral notice: Funeral Service in Five Mile Hill Gospel Hall, Mount Norris, tomorrow (Friday) at 11.00 a.m. Interment afterwards in Clandeboye Cemetery, Bangor, arriving 2.45 p.m.

Cheers

Linda

[ColleenMc]

Hello,
I came across your message a few days ago. I was with my mother and my aunt.  We are Crawfords from the Moat Road Ballymena. Johnny was my grandfather's uncle. My grandfather's father was George Crawford. Johnny's wife was Lizzie Devlin and Wilnor was adopted. Wiknor died in the 2nd World War and his name is read out every year at the remembrance service in 1st Ballymena Presbyterian Church (we are still members of that church) . My grandpaernts had a photo of Wilnor in his uniform but sadly those photos were all lost in a house fire about 10 years ago. The Crawfords were all tradesmen men ( the best ....so they say!) and built the Braidwater Mill chimney which is one of the 7 towers of Ballymena.
My aunt is really good at remembrting family stories and history....so I'm going to get her to write down all she knows because when she dies all that info will go with her!
I hope this helps in some way.

Regards
Colleen   

[Cell]

Hello,
I came across your message a few days ago. I was with my mother and my aunt.  We are Crawfords from the Moat Road Ballymena. Johnny was my grandfather's uncle. My grandfather's father was George Crawford. Johnny's wife was Lizzie Devlin and Wilnor was adopted. Wiknor died in the 2nd World War and his name is read out every year at the remembrance service in 1st Ballymena Presbyterian Church (we are still members of that church) . My grandparents had a photo of Wilnor in his uniform but sadly those photos were all lost in a house fire about 10 years ago. The Crawfords were all tradesmen men ( the best ....so they say!) and built the Braidwater Mill chimney which is one of the 7 towers of Ballymena.
My aunt is really good at remembrting family stories and history....so I'm going to get her to write down all she knows because when she dies all that info will go with her!
I hope this helps in some way.

Regards
Colleen   

Hi Colleen
Thank you so much for the above reply 

 
I still don't understand it at all ( how my great uncle Thomas Purdy ,my grandmothers ' brother was his uncle

My uncle Tommy ( great to me, - what is the connection ?
Who is Wilnor's birth mother?
How is Tommy his uncle?
What is the connection between the families for Tommy Purdy to call him his nephew?
You said Johnny was your grandfather's uncle..John Who?
So many questions  , I hope I haven't bombarded you with too many!
Kind Regards

[ColleenMc]

Hi
I'm not sure about the Purdy connection but I will ask my aunt and let you know if she can give you any info to help you move forward with that.
John Crawford AKA Johnny... married Elizabeth Devlin...she was known as Lizzie and for some reason they adopted Wilnor Crawford. Who his birth mother was and what his birth name was I don't know ...yet!
Try contacting the church, First Ballymena Presbyterian Church. It is the oldest church in Ballymena and is celebrating it's 350 year anniversary. They have old records and may be of some help. I have a copy of the grave papers of our family grave which is in the Old Church Yard Ballymena and I will have a look at it and see if there are Purdy's on it.
Could I please ask you if you contacted JoanP by private message to contact her again and ask her to contact me. My aunt said she remembered her family and they emigrated to Canada or America when she was at primary school. It would be good to contact her about her family.
Thank you.

Colleen

[Cell]

Hi
I'm not sure about the Purdy connection but I will ask my aunt and let you know if she can give you any info to help you move forward with that.
John Crawford AKA Johnny... married Elizabeth Devlin...she was known as Lizzie and for some reason they adopted Wilnor Crawford. Who his birth mother was and what his birth name was I don't know ...yet!
Try contacting the church, First Ballymena Presbyterian Church. It is the oldest church in Ballymena and is celebrating it's 350 year anniversary. They have old records and may be of some help. I have a copy of the grave papers of our family grave which is in the Old Church Yard Ballymena and I will have a look at it and see if there are Purdy's on it.
Could I please ask you if you contacted JoanP by private message to contact her again and ask her to contact me. My aunt said she remembered her family and they emigrated to Canada or America when she was at primary school. It would be good to contact her about her family.
Thank you.

Colleen

Hi Colleen
Thank's for the reply  and so sorry for not responding earlier ( I've only just logged in and read your reply.. l1ong summer holidays here in Aus ).

Regarding JoanP,  I have had no contact what so ever, she just made that one public message above and disappeared, which is such a pity as it is a such a mystery why my g uncle Thomas Purdy is calling Wilnor his nephew.
Kind regards
Ps I'll send you more details in a private message regarding my family in a private message ,  it's pretty late here at the moment and run  off my feet at the moment so I won't do it tonight, ( unless you want a garbled message )

[ColleenMc]

Hello again,
No worries...just reply when you get a bit of time to yourself.
Do check out the church records...
www.firstballymena.org
Click on church records and it will then ask you to send your request by email.
All church records have been update recently and a team of people look after them and someone will reply to you.
In the meantime I'll do my best to find out any info I can for you.
My aunt and I are going to do a family tree too so we will be looking at these records too.As a child I remember hearing stories of Wilnor and "The Crawfords." Aparantely they were all great tradesmen and as i told you earlier they were involved in the building of the Braidwater Mill chimney and my aunt said the Town Hall too.
I have just had a quick look at our family grave papers and i can see Isabella and Hugh O'Neill have been buried in that grave. ..they were the witnesses at John and Lizzy Crawford's wedding. Must try to find out where John n Lizzie are buried. But Wilnor was definately a member of that church when they still read out his name each year in Remembrance Sunday.
Anyway I'm just back home from a lovely but tiring  weekend in London so my concentration not great. Will be in touch. 

Colleen

[scotmum]

Info to further checking, albeit you may already have same:

The Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945 has Wilnor's birthplace recorded as Fermanagh.

(per transcript on FindMyPast)