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Hi,

It looks as though John cannot be a nephew of John, son of Gawin.  Even the profile does not really fit - from memory John had trained as an architect and James as a doctor (at Glasgow University), the family had not only brains to burn but a fair bit of spare cash floating around.  Through the Orr Pedigree their family is fairly well documented.

Gawin's genealogy contains 11 Orrs by the name Thomas. Some will be too early to be a potential father of John of Ballymacarrett and none of the likely candidates have children listed. 

Gawin died in 1830 marriages and children after this date are rarely included  so one of the Thomases might yet be the man you are looking for.

Do you have an indication of the name of the denomination on the marriage record or a name of the clergyman? 

The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Congregation in Mountpottinger did not have a minister until 1874 with the building completed in 1875.  Its origin was in a Sunday School c. 1862 and had functioned as a congregation for several years before being set up formally.  I am not sure whether marriages took place within that congregation before the first minister was appointed in 1874.

If the marriage took place in a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church (also known as Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Congregational Church, or perhaps Remonstrant Presbyterian) this would point to John being from the same family as Gawin Orr.   
Many moved from north Down to work in Belfast and the Mountpottinger congregation had many families from the Moneyrea (Moneyreagh) area.

If the denomination is Non-Subscribing you might try Moneyreagh Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church - there is a chance that John is in the baptismal record or his parents were married there after the start of registration of marriages.

If not then it is more difficult as there are so many Presbyterian churches around!

Incidentally if you run a search for Ballymacarrett you will see it is on the south bank of the Lagan, I think Mountpottinger is adjacent.

Hoping this is of some help

SG


 

Hi,

Do you have the name of John Orr's father from the marriage certificate in 1872?

Gawin (b.1756) had three sons, John (of Castlereagh), James (of Ballylesson) and Gawin Jnr. (of Granshaw).

You probably know that Gawin died in 1830.  His Genealogy (sometimes called the Orr Pedigree and published by Ray Jones in 1877 as Ulster Pedigrees) is in the Linehall Library Belfast.  It remained in the hands of the family until the mid 20th century but only some lines were continued by the next generations.

There were many Orrs in the Ards area and many were connected with Moneyrea (Moneyreagh), Montpottinger and Dunmurry - all Non-Subscribing Presbyterian churches.

Reid is also a name connected with the denomination.

The family graves are mostly in Moneyrea although the Ballylesson family had burying ground in Dunmurry.

Earlier generations were buried in Comber C of I.

I hope this is helpful