Hi Aghadowey,
Wow. You have just added to and taken my tree back so much further! Unbelievable! Why didn’t I find this website earlier?? You have been so amazingly helpful… I can’t wait to start working on these new names and information!
I always thought my Lawrence family was from Coleraine, but it looks as though I should be looking for Ballylaggan instead! Ignorantly, I believed these places were basically one in the same, as by Canadian distance standards, Coleraine and Ballylagan are fairly close. So just to be clear, Ballylagan is a small area that lies to the east of Curragh Road to the west bank of the Lower River Bann, and west of the city Ballymoney? I just want to make sure I’m looking at the right place on a map. The townlands.ie site is very helpful, thanks for that link. Do you know of any way to tell which properties the Lawrence families may have occupied in that area?
Do you think that the graveyard at the Ballylagan Reformed Presbyterian Church is likely where most of them would have been buried, even though there may be a lack of headstones present today? I wonder if transcription/burial records are out there somewhere...
In regard to Susanna Lawrence (Gray)’s death date of 20 Oct 1927, do you know where I could find a source reference/death record for this?
In regard to James Gray Lawrence and Elizabeth Allen’s children, I was surprised to learn of two children I never knew existed, so I did a little more homework. I knew of David (b. 1908) and Esther (b. 1911) both born in Ireland and they also had two more children later born in Canada – Susanna Mae (b. 1922) and William James Allen (b. 1924). William or “Al” as we called him, was my grandfather. All of these children are gone now, all buried in Canada. With such a big gap between Esther’s 1911 birth and Susanna Mae’s in 1922, I would not be shocked if there were other children. However, Canadian Passenger Records lists James Gray Lawrence, with wife Elizabeth, son David and daughter Essie arriving in Canada on 28 May 1913. The family is also found in Canadian Census records in 1916.
So in regard to William (b. 1917) and Samuel James (b. 1918), I notice on William and Samuel James’ death records, the informant is listed as “Esther Lawrence, mother” – do you think that this could be the wife of one of James’ brothers rather than Elizabeth/Lizzie Lawrence? I was thinking maybe the wife of David Lawrence (b. 1893), Esther Crawford?
Anyways, sorry for all that blabber, I’m just really excited with all of this information. Thanks again for your help!
Holly
