Morrisons of Magherabeg and Dromore, County Down - how do I find out more.

[OzKat]

I have a couple of general questions regarding research in Down which hopefully someone can answer , or at least give me suggestions as to how to approach them.

I would like to discover what my Hugh Morrison ancestor did in his short life. He was a shoemaker. Are there records I can access which give details of commercial activities like this in and around Dromore around 1900 up to 1916? I live in Australia so this makes it a little hard to get direct access.

Also where do I look to find out details of whether he bought or leased his home on Magherabeg Rd, Magherabeg and when this occurred. My grandmother said her father bought the property from his father's estate but I know that two generations earlier it was actually leased by her great grandfather from someone else.

[Ticker]

Hi OzKat

Sorry we haven't been able to help you so far on this one. 

Have you made any progress,  or do you have any further details that could help someone to find what you are looking for?

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes 

Ticker

[Christopher]

There is a very good map of Dromore on this site - Princes Street went towards Belfast and the Banbridge Road went towards Dublin. The second site gives a description of the craft of a shoemaker - although it describes the craft in America there would not be a great difference in the nature of the trade. The third site is that of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. The Museum may be able to send you some more information about the craft of shoemakers in Ireland.

Dromore is a small market town and livestock markets were held on a regular basis.
Many people would come into the town on a market day. It was the one day in the week when they would meet friends from other townlands around Dromore. The men would strike deals regarding the sale of their animals (there would have been much spitting on one's hands and shaking of hands to confirm that the deal was struck).
Once the day's business had been conducted the menfolk would retire to the pub for a few pints and the opportunity to catch up on the local news. Most of the pubs would have been men only in the bar. The women might have joined the landlord's wive in her kitchen for something to eat and a cup of tea.

The market day would have been one of the busier days in the week for your ancestor. Shoes and boots would have been brought in for repair, and ones that had been repaired would be collected. New footwear might be ordered and a few measurements taken so that the customer would get the correct fitting. Your ancestor may well have turned his hand to making a few harnesses or saddles for horses although there were specialist harness makers and saddlers.

I hope this is of some assistance to you. I do not know how to go about finding an answer to the second part of your question but I will give it a bit of thought and will do my best to come up with the answer.

http://www.gcs-internet.com/dromore/ -
http://ww.history.org/almanack/life/trades/tradesho.cfm - Broken link
http://www.uftm.org.uk/ -

[OzKat]

Thanks for your interest. I'll be having a look at these sites asap.

[OzKat]

I have actually looked at the map at http://www.gcs-internet.com/dromore/ before but it is a bit light on for my purposes. I want to see a bit further north up Gallows street as I think it becomes MileBush Road but not having been to Dromore yet in person I am only relying on my grandmother's accounts from before she died to make me think that.

Does anyone perhaps know of any more detailed maps of Dromore and the surrounding townlands that might be online? I have also seen a high level street directory map but it has given me no joy either. 

[Christopher]

This might give a rough idea. I am looking for more detailed online maps

http://www.user.dccnet.com/s.brown/maps/PlaceNamesofNOTE.htm Broken link

[MaryC]

Gallows Street does become Milebush Road. Originally this was the main road from Hillsborough. Later the road entering via Princes' St became the A1. It has been superseded by a dual carriageway by-pass which cuts across Milebush Road. The Milebush Road re-joins the dual carriageway about 2 miles out of Dromore . The Magherabeg Road joins the Milebush Road from the left about 1/4 mile short of this junction.

Much of the land in this area belonged to the Hill family but I'm not sure about Magherabeg. My father once pointed out a boundary marker on a road which joins the Magherabeg Road near what used to be Magherabeg School so I think it may be just outside the Downshire Estate. I have an impression I once saw a map which designated it as 'Church' land ie owned by the Church of Ireland. I'll try to track this down again.

The big estates were bought over by the government at the start of the 20th century and sold to the tenants by Land Purchase Annuities which were effectively very long (66-year) mortgages at fixed interest. Tenants could sell the land and the new owner took over payment of the LPA.  Most of these LPA's came to an end from the 1960's onwards. I'm not sure about Church land but I think there was a similar arrangement linked with dis-establishment. This would explain why your great-grandfather could buy the property from his father's estate but previous generations were tenants.

One online resource I can suggest is the Public Records site  http://www.proni.gov.uk

If you select Ulster Covenant then Search and enter Name, Morrison; Parliamentary Division, Down:West; & District, Dromore you will find there are two for Magherabeg (or Marabeg) Hugh and Margaret . You can display and print off the pages with their signatures. This was in 1912, so it is probably the Hugh Morrison you are looking for.

[OzKat]

Welcome to Rootschat MaryC.

Thanks very much for this. Your account answers the question about how Hugh Morrison got hold of the land.

Yes I had the signatures from the Ulster Covenant a while back - it was really exciting to see their signatures - something almost tangible to show that they existed.

PRONI is a good resource I agree but I find it difficult to get huge value from the Irish resources at such a great distance but one day I will get there.

And yes I had also read that the area around Magherabeg was once church land.

Kath

[MaryC]

I meant to include this site ref too as there is a maps section.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies//
There is a hand-drawn map of the Dromore townlands, which is some indication of how difficult it is to get maps with townlands. There was an attempt to get rid of townlands about 30 years ago but people just refused to go along with it and they are starting to appear again on road signs and on the new Ordnance Survey series maps.