Appreciate help with Samuel Laird

[Granma Anne]

Samuel Laird is my Mom's maternal Grandfather. known facts in reverse are: he died and is buried in Belfast. He died at the Lisburn Road Hospital on 20 Sep 1938, age 74  and was buried in the City Cemetery on 22 Sep 1938, Sec K1 No. 50. In the plot with him is his wife Mary Anne Travers who died at age 36, Aug 1904. Other known family members also share this plot. Samuel was married to Mary Anne on the 20 Feb 1887 in Motherwell, Scotland- I have a copy of the marriage record and his parents were David Laird and Rebecca Verner McGill. Samuel has been found in the 1881 & 1891 census in Scotland and the census indicate he was born in Ireland..

David Laird and Rebecca Verner McGill were married 20 Sep 1863 in Kilcronaghan Parish, Londonderry, thus the conclusion of the facts indicate that Samuel was born about 1864. The problem is, we have been searching for a long period of time to determine where he was born. Some family members seem to recall he was born in Magherafelt, others Draperstown, most all agree he was born in County Londonderry.

From other family records I know that David Larid's parents were Samuel Laird and Matilda Campbell and Rebecca Verner McGill's parents were William Verner and Elizabeth or Betsy Verner.

I would appreciate any help in locating Samuel's place of birth or other records for this family.

[Christopher]

Hello Granma Anne,

What denomination were the Campbell, Laird, McGill, Travers and Verner families? Were they members of the Catholic faith, the Established Church (Anglicans or Church of Ireland) or possibly Presbyterians?

You'll have to rely on Church records as civil registration in Ireland was not introduced until 1864. Non Catholic marriages were registered from 1845 onwards. When registration for BDMS started in 1864 some people didn't bother with the registration for a few years after that date. Keep your fingers crossed that church records still exist. 
 
The website of the Parish of Kilcronaghan & Ballynascreen Diocese Of Derry shows the churches in the Parish ... http://hometown.aol.co.uk/dvdmorrow/index.html

Christopher

[Granma Anne]

My, time moves as slowly as the dead, doesn't it. this post was over 18 months ago and here is an offer of an answer and I am so neglectful that I forgot all about it.

To answer you, Christopher, the family were from the established church. In this case the records were in a COI church, if I recall.

Someone on another list kindly found the parish entry for Samuel's birth in 1863. Killynumber, Kilcronaghan Parish. Of course that led to further entries and his parents were apparently from Murmeal and Killynumber, respectively. There are some records that go back to about 1802 in Tullylrowan and Matilda Campbell was possibly from Bellygaly, b. abt 1825.

Rebecca Verner Magill/McGill's parents were listed incorrectly by my original informant.  Her father was William Magill from Newton Limvady and he married Betsy Verner. It is my understanding through other distant family connections that the Verner name is still alive in the family line.

Another quirk- maybe not so quirky in that day and age, is the fact that it appears that Rebecca's sister married her husband's brother. Through that marriage a Stewart gets added to the mix by a descendant.

So, as you can see, with one wee crack in the wall I found another abundance of relatives and slid back about sixty years thanks to the kindness of someone else, for which I am eternally grateful.

Thank you for taking the time Christopher to bring this post to the fore again. Who knows maybe someone out there will find another tidbit for me, or even better, will not give up hope!