Author Topic: Kings in Bessbrook  (Read 5962 times)

Offline Jardiner

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Kings in Bessbrook
« on: Wednesday 23 November 11 15:24 GMT (UK) »
On 30/01/ 1886 my Great Grandfather Michael Alfred King (age 28) married Margaret Edgar (age 23) in the presbyterian church in Bessbrook (in the parish of Killeavy,Co Armagh).

On the marriage certificate he is down as a Mechanical Engineer and she is a winder. ( so it seems likely she worked in the local mill).
His father was a cabinet maker and both came from Whitehaven,Cumberland.
Her father was a labourer and the birthplace of both is unknown.
The witnesses to the marriage were  James and Minnie Edgar.
In 1871 census he is a lodger with a family friend. (father died in 1865) and until the marriage in 1886 there are no records of him.

What was going on in the Bessbrook / Armagh area that would have attracted a man over from an area where work / training for a engineer would have be plentyful?
What was the sort of catchment area for a local church?( if I remember from my days you had to be resident within the local area for a least 3 months and attend church regularily)

Any thoughts?

jardiner

Offline aghadowey

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 27 November 11 18:49 GMT (UK) »
On 30/01/ 1886 my Great Grandfather Michael Alfred King (age 28) married Margaret Edgar (age 23) in the presbyterian church in Bessbrook (in the parish of Killeavy,Co Armagh).
...
What was the sort of catchment area for a local church?( if I remember from my days you had to be resident within the local area for a least 3 months and attend church regularily)
Not sure what you mean here. Marriages usually take place in the bride's church- perhaps Margaret was Presbyterian and this was her church. In the Presbyterian Church it is generally up to the minister who gets married in his own church. Whilst the churches are grouped into Presbyteries there is no restriction on which church a member can/cannot attend. There were many splits in the church and that's one of the reasons why Presbyterian families didn't always attend the church nearest to them.
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Offline Elwyn Soutter

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 27 November 11 19:09 GMT (UK) »
You wonder what took a mechanical engineer to Armagh. At a guess he was asked to do some repair work in the mill where Margaret Edgar worked, and that’s how they met. The were many mills in that area. Perhaps his employers had commercial links with some linen mills in Ireland, or had a contract to do specialist engineering work in them?
Elwyn

Offline Jardiner

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #3 on: Monday 28 November 11 11:39 GMT (UK) »
Thanks folks for the postings.
regarding aghadowey's posting - this is were the myster sets in. I knew about a marriage tradionally taking place in that of the bride and for that reason I would have expected her family home to be near here and yet no Hamilton Edgar (her father) appears in the area, yet one crops up in Co Down (Dromore). So taking on board what you're saying, it is possible she could have been in lodgings in Bessbrook and the marriage took place in that church as she was a presbyterian in Dromore.

So if I'm to assume her family home is Dromore then this goes back to the first question in original posting only now for her. Why was she a winder in the mill in Bessbrook when there were many mills around the area of Dromore including,Banbridge and Lisburn?

jardiner


Offline aghadowey

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #4 on: Monday 28 November 11 12:12 GMT (UK) »
Civil records show quite a few Hamilton Edgars in Ulster so you'd need to be careful and not start following the wrong one. It's possible her father died before her marriage (this is not always indicated on the certificate).

Marriage certificates list the residence of the bride (and groom) at the time of the marriage- which may or may not be the place they were born or where their familiy lived. It's possibile that Margaret Edgar was just staying in Bessbrook at the time thus it was listed as her residence. Sometimes a newspaper announcement will list other details (along the lines of Margaret, 3rd daughter of Hamilton Edgar, Bessbrook' for example) but many people did not submit such announcements to their local newspaper.
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Offline Jardiner

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 02 October 12 17:50 BST (UK) »
Having been away from family research for some time now I'm now back and trying to pick-up where I left off, so forgive me if i end up repeating past questions / facts.

Having visited PRONI recently I discovered a record of those people employed at Bessbrook Mills pre and post 1886. ( the date of marriage between Michael Alfred and Margaret Edgar). She appears in the records but not him so I now think he was either an outside contractor working there at the time or he was involved with something else. The Newry to Bessbrook tramway now enters the picture. It was designed and constructed by an electrical company from the North of England so maybe he was with them??
Do any records exist about the actual day to day construction of the tramway?
Another thing which has come to light since my last post. They were married in January 1886 in Bessbrook and yet in Novemeber 1886 they have registered the birth / death of a son in Newcastle -upon -Tyne. ( cannot find any family connections in this area at all but there is a large engineering firm ) and there is more - on the marriage cert his occupation is engineer and this appears in different forms in later documents but on the afore mentioned birth cert he is down as a labourer!!!

Any input would be helpful.

Jardiner.

Offline jhosein

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 22 November 14 10:38 GMT (UK) »
Oh my goodness I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see your post. My GGGrandmother was Minnie Edgar from Bessbrook Ireland and her dad was Hamilton Edgar.  On Minnie's marriage registration she was listed as a Yarn Winder (which took place in Dundee, Scotland) her dad Hamlton Edgar was listed as a Flax Scutcher and her mom who was deceased, was listed as Ann Jane Edgar m.s. Geddes. In the family bible it says on the marriage page that Minnie was from Bessbrook Ireland. My mom remembers that her mom( Minnie's daughter) saying they were related to some King's but we weren't sure how. Any information you have would be fantastic. Please respond anytime to jhosein@shaw.ca

Offline jhosein

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #7 on: Saturday 22 November 14 10:48 GMT (UK) »
Do you have any idea who James was? A brother perhaps? Minnie would have been 14 years old as on her marriage registry she is listed to be 22 and that was in 1894.  i eagerly await any news. Was Margaret's mother listed?
thanks. Janette


Offline steveedgar

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Re: Kings in Bessbrook
« Reply #8 on: Saturday 13 December 14 15:12 GMT (UK) »
Hi. Im Steve Edgar and I have extensive records of the Edgars in Bessbrook, Camlough and Newry. Please email me at steven-edgar AT sky,com (replace AT with @, it stops spammers)
I was in contact with 2 descendants of Edgars in Bessbrook up and till they died a couple of years ago.