Dinsmore/Densmore Martin Laverty

Hi Christine,

The death record is on nidirect (screenshots not allowed)

D/1895/29/1005/6/191HughDinsmore

6th December 1895  87
Male Ballymoney(pre-1973 Q4)

District is Ballymoney

I had a look for Ballymoney graveyards & found this site Ballymoney Graveyards and North Antrim Research

Dorothy Arthur's North Antrim research and family history books which lists the names of those buried in Ballymoney Old Church graveyard, Kilraughts Old Church graveyard & Derrykeighan & all three have Dinsmore. No first name are given however.

Elwyn (another volunteer on this site) should be able to assist you further.

Col

P S here's another version from www.rootsireland.ie/ but no mention of graveyard!

Name:HughDinsmoreDate of Death:08-Dec-1895
Age:
Parish / District:DUNLOY AND CLOUGHMILLSAddress:BallinaloobCounty:Co. AntrimStatus:
Denomination:Roman CatholicOccupation:
Sex:Male

Notes:

REV E QUINN £1 13 0.

Christine,

The place where William John died will be the Route Hospital. (The Route is the name of the area around Ballymoney up to the Giants Causeway).

Hugh Dinsmore’s date of death was 6th Dec 1895. There’s a record of a gravestone for a Hugh who was buried in 1895 in Dunloy parish on the Ulster Historical Foundation website (pay to view). That should tell you which graveyard he is in, and the inscription. https://www.ancestryireland.com

Family farm in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Killagan/Ballynaloob/944404/

Looking at Matilda Dinsmore’s death certificate in 1912, I see she was a servant.  So she probably wasn’t very well off financially. Unless someone else in the family stepped in and paid for a gravestone, chances are she was buried in an unmarked grave (as were a large percentage of the population).

Farmers were generally better off than the average member of the population, so they often do have gravestones but for labourers and servants they generally don’t.  Irish death certificates don’t contain burial details. There’s no requirement to record where a person is buried in Ireland so you are often dependent on funeral notices in newspapers, mass cards (if you can find them) and local family knowledge. Given that most churches in Ireland didn’t keep burial records in those days, it can be tricky locating graves, especially if there’s no gravestone.

Good luck anyway.

Thank you, Col and Elwyn.

This information is quite helpful. I am confused, however. Is the family farm listed in the 1901 census with Hannah Jane as the head? Hugh's will states that he left the farm to William John and small sums of money to his daughters. In the 1911 census, William John is living with his sister Margaret. He is listed as an agricultural labourer. Should I assume that he "lost" the farm? I know that Hugh was a tenant farmer. So perhaps William John could not keep his lease? Was it common for unmarried siblings to live together and another unmarried sibling to live separately? Seems odd that Matilda wouldn't also be living with Margaret and William John. The mystery continues....

I will go to the pay wall of the Ulster Historical Foundation.

Again, many thanks.

All best,

Christine
 

Christine,

The Valuation revision records show the property in Ballynaloob (plot 35a, a 69 acre farm) changing from Hugh to “reps of Hugh” in 1897 and then to “William John” in 1900. However, in practice on census night April 1901, the only person living there, and head of household, was Hannah Jane, farmer. It isn’t clear where William John was at that time. Possibly not in Ireland since I can’t locate him anywhere in that census. (Scotland or England would be the next places to look).

https://apps.proni.gov.uk/Val12B/ImageResult.aspx

William John’s name remains as occupant of the Ballynaloob farm up to 1929 when that series of records finishes. So it looks as though he inherited it, but possibly just didn’t farm it, at least not all the time.

In 1901, Margaret was living alone in Ballylig (the townland borders Ballynaloob and the 2 properties were only a few hundred yards apart) where she evidently ran a shop:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Killagan/Ballylig/944534/

In 1911, William John is now living in Ballylig with Margaret. (He may well have been running the farm, but for whatever reason he lived with his Margaret in Ballylig. Company and to be looked after I suppose).

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Killagan/Ballylig/128287/

The census doesn’t show anyone names Dinsmore living on the Ballynaloob property in 1911. I can’t find Hannah Jane in 1911. Was she dead, or outside Ireland?

Matilda’s occupation of servant, suggest she was working away, which is presumably why she wasn’t at home. (Her address at the time of her death was Unshinagh townland, though she isn’t there in the 1911 census.).

Margaret had a shop in Ballylig which I think is why she didn’t live on the family farm.

So in 1901 Hannah Jane has the farm, and Margaret has the shop. William John wasn’t around, at least on census night.  By 1911, Hannah Jane has disappeared and William John is living with his remaining sister in Ballylig. 

Two questions before I head to Ballymoney. 

1) Can you tell me where Margaret's shop in Ballylig was? I'd love to go to the spot, even if a shop is no longer there.

2) Can you tell from the attached death certificate of Jane (nee Laverty) Dinsmore, where she and Joseph Dinsmore lived on Main Street in Ballymoney? (I was told that Joseph Dinsmore is listed at 35 Main Street on the "Griffith Valuation revisions 1865-1875," but I have no documentation).

Thank you. You have been so helpful.

Best regards,

Christine

Christine,

I had a look for Margaret’s shop in the Valuation Revision records but did not find it listed. The 1901 census tells me that it had 1 room and 1 window, and that the roof material was either slate, iron or tiles. The landlord was Thomas Heaney. (The Heaney family owned a fair bit of land in Ballylig).  Sadly I can’t tell you exactly where it was. I’d be very surprised if it was still there today. Ballylig is between the Frosses Rd and Cloughmills Reformed Presbyterian church. So the shop may have been on the Culcrum Rd, Ballylig Rd or the Frosses Rd itself. The Frosses Rd was the main road between Ballymena and Ballymoney. The original road is now by-passed by a new road that opened earlier this year.  The old Frosses Rd is famous for the leaning Scots pines, planted by Sir Charles Lanyon when he built the road. So if you drive along the Frosses Rd, then turn off it onto Ballylig Rd and then right at the end of it along Culcrum Rd, you will surely have passed close to the shop wherever it was.

Regarding the death certificate, no I can’t tell you where the property was. I don’t think house numbers had been introduced in Ballymoney in the mid 1800s, and so the street name alone was enough to get a letter delivered. (The plot numbers in Griffiths bear no relation to any house numbers a property may have today. They were just for the clerks own records).

What I suggest you do is call at Ballymoney museum and check with the staff there. They may have old maps of the town and may know where that property was. The death certificate states she was a grocer’s wife, so presumably the property was a grocers shop. So you are looking for Dinsmore’s grocers shop.  If Kate Connolly is about the museum, she may know. She is a local genealogist and has great knowledge of the town.