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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Antrim => Topic started by: jnomad on Friday 27 August 21 19:01 BST (UK)
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Jane McDowell, widow of a farmer, died aged 61 at Main Street Antrim on January 26 1871. Does anyone have any ideas about the identity of her husband?
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Do you know her maiden name.? The death record which I presume you have unfortunately doesn't give any family names
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Belfast News Letter, 27 January 1871
M'DOWELL— January 26, at Antrim, Mrs. Jane M'Dowell, formerly of Ballyurey, County Down. The funeral will leave Antrim on to-morrow (Saturday) morning, at half-past nine o'clock, reaching Movilla, Newtownards, about two p.m. Friends will please accept this intimation.
Notices in a couple of other papers.
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Movilla Graveyard inscription:
Erected by James McDowell of Ballyurey in memory of his wife Alice McDowell alias PATTERSON who departed this life 8th April 1821 aged 68 years Also the above mentioned James McDowell who departed this life the 11th December 1835 aged 76 years, Also his grandson John McDowell who died 1st February 1850 aged 20 years Also his son James McDowell who departed this life the 11th June 1860 aged 55 years Also his wife Jane McDowell who departed this life the 26th January 1871 aged 61 years.
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Well done again, gaffy!
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Thanks, it helped to know the graveyard.
From Ros Davies' website, Ballyurey is an 'alternate spelling for Ballewry townland':
https://www.rosdavies.com/PLACENAMES/BallyNW.htm#ballyu
Ballyewry townland in Greyabbey civil parish:
https://www.townlands.ie/down/ards-lower/grey-abbey/mountstewart/ballyewry/
Townland of the place of the yew (trees):
http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=11950
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Thanks to all! Especially gaffy for the inscription. Still don't have Jane's maiden name, sandiep. But that's a lot of McDowells that I hope are kin of mine.
So far the hope that they are kin depends on my theory that what was called Main Street in Antrim became High Street some time between 1870 and 1877 (I hope after Jane died in 1871). In the Belfast and Ulster Province Directory for 1870 there are no traders etc. on High Street, and many on Main Street. In the 1877 Directory there are many on High Street, none on Main Street, and many of the names that were on Main Street are now on High Street. They can't all have moved. The clincher is Mrs McNally, Massereene Arms Hotel, Main Street in 1970 and High Street in 1877; surely the hotel didn't move, it was just that its address changed.
So my hope about Jane is that she died at what was later called 45 High Street, residence of (I hope) her brother-in-law John McDowell, sewed muslin agent, who died there in 1886. So James Junior is John's brother, and James Senior is his father.
Too far-fetched?
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Comparison of the Valuation Revision Books covering Antrim Town for 1864-66 and 1867-1881 should provide greater insight into the evolution of the street naming. I had a quick glance at the latter book and one can see how what was originally written as Main Street on several pages has been crossed out and replaced with Market Square for some folk and replaced with High Street for other folk. Renumbering is evident as well. I noticed a Jane McDowell listed under High Street (Main Street as was), her name was crossed out and replaced by an Alice McDowell, there may be other McDowells listed, as said, I really only had a quick glance.
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/searching-valuation-revision-books
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... I noticed a Jane McDowell listed under High Street (Main Street as was), her name was crossed out and replaced by an Alice McDowell ...
BTW, regarding the Jane McDowell shown in the Valuation Revision book (mentioned above) as living in High Street, I had a look for possible candidates for the Alice McDowell shown as replacing her at her address. As much as McDowell is a very common surname, those with Alice as a forename are way thinner on the ground, for example, there are only 14 so named in each of the 1901 and 1911 Ireland censuses. Anyhow, a possibility might be the following spinster, a retired stationer, who died in 1920 at a reported age of 88:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1921/05107/4403692.pdf
Although she died at Whitechurch, Ballywalter, her entry in the Will Calendars index shows her living at Antrim: Probate of the Will of Alice McDowell formerly of Inglerea, Antrim, Co. Antrim, but late of Rockmore, Ballywalter, Co. Down, Spinster, who died 18 December 1920 granted at Belfast 21 February 1921 to Hugh Warnock, Rockmore, Ballywalter, Farmer and Samuel Rea, Antrim, Timber Merchant. Effects: £929 1s 4d. Her death notice in the Belfast Newsletter of 21 December 1920 says a similar thing : McDowell - December 18, 1920, at Rockmore, Ballywalter, Alice McDowell (late of Inglerea, Antrim). Funeral to-day (Tuesday), by motor, to New Cemetery, Antrim, arriving 12 o'clock.
I reckon this might be her in 1901 and 1911 Ireland censuses, a cousin Elizabeth Maxwell is in the house and the birthplaces for she and her cousin are given as Co. Down:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Antrim_Urban/Fountain_Street/915567/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Antrim_Rural/Town_Parks__part_of__Rural/106580/
Various Belfast / Ulster Street Directories in the 1870s-90s list what looks like her under Antrim Town, the later entries also show her as a newsagent: McDowell, Miss, stationer, High Street
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Thanks again, gaffy.
In my initial excitement I didn't think about the dates on the inscription. John McDowell of 45 High Street Antrim was born on 5 May 1817, surely far too late to have been a child of Alice McDowell alias Patterson, who must have been born about 1753. So the idea that John was Jane's brother-in-law doesn't fly. If James McDowell and his descendants are related to John it isn't by such a direct connection.
And how was Alice related to Jane, whose house she moved into? A daughter? Alice born c. 1838, Jane born c. 1810.
I was puzzled by Inglerea. It seems to have been the name of a house that Samuel Rea built for himself on Station Road. In 1910 Miss M'Dowell was living at Inglerea, Station Road (Belfast and Ulster Towns Directory 1910); it may be where she and her cousin were living in the 1911 census, in a house owned by Sam Rea. Was he a relative?
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Maybe a co-incidence, but I'll mention the following anyway, in the off chance it's relevant. It's an 1860 marriage in Comber of a Maria McDowell, her father given as John McDowell, a sewed muslin agent, one of the witnesses was an Alice McDowell:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1860/09596/5479867.pdf
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I think the match in name and profession is a coincidence. In the 1865 Belfast and Ulster directory, there are John McDowell, sewed muslin agent, Main Street Antrim, and John McDowell, sewing agent (near enough?), Mill Street Comber. I suppose it could be one person with two offices, but how likely is that? The John McDowell in Antrim had a daughter Mary, who died, a spinster, on 16 January 1932 aged 80; would he have also had a daughter Maria?
John McDowell of Antrim stops figuring as sewed muslin agent after the 1870 directory. He is still so described at the marriage of his son Henry McLorinan McDowell in Belfast in 1871. But at the marriage of his son Thomas Parker McDowell in Castlederg in 1872 he is described as a commission agent, and at the marriage of his son John McDowell junior in Antrim in 1885, he is just agent. Later, on the death certificates for his wife and himself, he is a rate collector and a tax collector.
The witness Alice could be the person who was later a stationer in Antrim. So perhaps the Comber family is connected with the Ballyurey family, assuming that Alice is related to Jane, maybe her daughter. But I still don't think we know a connection with the Antrim family. I used to think I could connect Jane with the Antrim family on the basis that she went to Antrim to die, but her connection with Sam Rea, whatever it was, may be enough to account for that.