Need help with Thomas HENRY, Ballymoney

[babywombat]

Re the school record

My notes are 7 years old now and what made perfect sense at the time is a bit sketchy now, but here's what I think I found:

There was a Thomas Henry who enrolled at the Ballymoney Model School on 2nd Dec 1885 aged 7.  He is listed as an orphan.

There was also a Thomas Henry entering the infant school on 19th Sep 1881 aged 4.  He apparently resided at Townhead St and his parent (presumably his mother) was a servant

Thanks so much for all your help on this guys!

Laura

[babywombat]

Sorry aghadowey - to answer your question, my mum has asked all her remaining relatives but will try again when she visits Canada later in the year as that's where they all are.  I haven't thought of asking anyone related to the wives, but not really sure where i'd start - I've got that many names and relations in my head now!

Laura

[babywombat]

By the way, he was quite high up in the Orange Lodge - i don't know whether they have records available?

[aghadowey]

Re the school record
My notes are 7 years old now and what made perfect sense at the time is a bit sketchy now, but here's what I think I found:
There was a Thomas Henry who enrolled at the Ballymoney Model School on 2nd Dec 1885 aged 7.  He is listed as an orphan.
There was also a Thomas Henry entering the infant school on 19th Sep 1881 aged 4.  He apparently resided at Townhead St and his parent (presumably his mother) was a servant
Thanks so much for all your help on this guys!
Laura

If Thomas was illegitimate then it's possible then the servant listed in the school record was another relative such as a grandparent. This might fit with being listed as an orphan in 1885.
Since everything seems to point to Townhead Street I went through the Valuation Revision Books for that period but couldn't see any name that fit. Townhead Street had lots of small houses in poor condition from what I read elsewhere but there is a pork curer/butcher there at some point-
Northern Constitution (Coleraine), 7 Nov.1896: ARREST OF TWO PRISONERS. ... daring burglary was committed on the premisses of Messrs. Stevenson & Co., pork curers and provision merchants, Townhead Street, Ballymoney. About nine o’clock it was discovered that a till in the shop where meat is sold by retail and which is managed...
There were, of course, other such businesses in Ballymoney and any one of them might have employed Thomas when he left school.

I'm still checking various resources both online and offline but wondering if the Leslies might have been connected to Thomas as well as to wife Matilda Clyde?
A Robert Leslie was witness to marriage (1898) of Thomas & Matilda, eldest son named Robert Leslie Henry (1899) & Robert Leslie didn't marry Matilda's sister Ellen Coates Clyde until 1905. Also, Robert Leslie's mother called Susan and the first Henry daughter (1911) was named Susan Ann Mulligan McFarlane Henry.

Robert Leslie m.(1905) Ellen Foster Clyde www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Seacon/Ballinamore_Town/942457 and https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1905/10169/5699841.pdf

Will actually be in Ballymoney (locally known as Cow Town) tomorrow morning for an appointment 

[babywombat]

You raise some interesting points aghadowey.  I'm very grateful to you for your efforts thus far, you're starting to tell me things I didn't know myself!  I'd noticed the Robert Leslie connection on the marriage certificate and the first son, but not to the Clydes.

[babywombat]

It's been a long time since I posted to this thread.  I've got a lead from the family which says Thomas's father lived in a farm and Thomas's mother lived in a farm opposite.  I now know that the father we're talking about is Thomas Lyle Henry who lived at Maddydoo Lower in 1901. 

I've checked the census in 1901 and the only person who remotely fits the bill is an Eliza Tweed.  However, she's 56 to Thomas Lyle's 42 and it seems unlikely that he'd be having an illegitimate child at age 19 with a woman 14 years his senior.  Added to this, Thomas Henry's school admission in 1887 lists him as an orphan.  Interestingly, there is a Boyd family also in the townland.  The name Boyd appears as the middle name in Thomas Henry's son so I wonder if she's part of this family.

Does anyone know if there is any way to check who was living in a particular place in the 1880s? 

Laura

[babywombat]

Correction - the Boyd name is a child on Thomas's wife's side, it's not Thomas's son as I thought.

Laura

[aghadowey]

A census only records who was in a particular household on that one night.

You can search the Valuation Revision Books on PRONI's site (free)- from printed version of Griffith's (mid 1800s) to circa 1930 but only head of household listed-
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/search-archives-online/valuation-revision-books