John Gray born in Maghera Co., Derry about 1826

There is a civil parish (an administrative district) in Derry called Maghera, and you can find more info about it at this link:

https://www.townlands.ie/londonderry/maghera/

Adjoining it to the southeast is the civil parish of Magherafelt, , and you can find more info about it at this link:

https://www.townlands.ie/londonderry/magherafelt/

The Grey/Gray surname in Ulster is usually of English origin.   I did a quick check of the Family Search database, and there appear to have been quite a few John Gray's born in Derry in the 1820's, including at least one born in Magherafelt (who had a wife there, however).

There were a fair number of religious intermarriages back then, so if your family are (or were) Catholic, note that those civil parishes (or at least large parts of them) are within the Catholic parish of Magherafelt, the parish records for which can be found online here:

https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0230

Those records only go back to 1834, however, so you wouldn't find John there, but you might find younger siblings of his, and might be able to deduce who his parents were, at least if there were not many Catholic Gray families in the parish.

The tithe applotment records for 1828 lists 5 Gray farms in the parish of Maghera. 2 in Ballynacross (James & John), and 3 in Ballymacilcurr (Robert, Samuel & John).

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/maghera-parish.php

I searched the 1831 census for the parish of Maghera. 

James Grey in Ballynacross:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollin/Maghera/Ballynacross/31/

John Grey in Ballynacross:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollin/Maghera/Ballynacross/32/

George Gray in Ballynacross:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollin/Maghera/Ballynacross/37/

George seems likely to have been a labourer then as he isn’t in the tithes and therefore didn’t have land at that time.

Here’s another John Gray. He had 1 + 2 in his household, plus some servants. He was an Esq indicating he was probably of independent means. He was Presbyterian.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollin/Maghera/Ballynacross/35/

These 4 houses were all close to each other suggesting they may be related.

James had 2 + 4 in his household so that could include children. The others don’t appear to have had any spare males.

I also noted this Samuel Gray in Ballymacilcurr. That’s a townland a mile or so outside Maghera:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollen/Maghera/Ballymacleewe/10/

This Samuel had a household comprising 3 males and 2 females and they were also all Presbyterian (so probably descended from Scots settlers in the 1600s).

Griffiths Valuation for 1859 lists Samuel Gray in the townland on plot 12 in the townland. He had a one third share of plot 12 a 17 acre farm. Today it’s still agricultural land but the farm house is gone. It’s down a lane off the Ballymacilcurr Rd, though you would need to cross a couple of fields now to get to where the farm was located.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

The Valuation revision records show Samuel deleted in 1863 suggesting either he had died or moved away. 

Griffiths Valuation for Ballynacross lists several Gray properties. I also see some marriages for children from Ballynacross in the statutory records. None for the Ballymacilcurr family.

If you can locate John Gray’s death certificate in Australia and get his parents names from that, it may help decide which of these may be his family. (The 1850 Scottish marriage is before the start of statutory registration in Scotland and probably doesn’t have parents’ names).

There will be no record of when John went to Scotland. That was (and still is) just a short domestic journey and no passenger records were ever kept of those journeys. He probably went when he was 16 – 18, so in the 1840s.

John & Ann looks to be listed in Falkirk in the 1851 census GROS ref 479/22/23 (aged 25 & 20 respectively).

If the family were Presbyterian as seems likely to me then the bad news is that none of the 3 Presbyterian churches in the area has any baptism records for the period you need.  Maghera Presbyterian has the oldest records and they only start in 1843. (The previous Minister the Rev Kennedy was noted for not keeping any records during his 40 year tenure, though in part this may have been because the church had been burned in the 1798 uprising and it was 30 years before it was rebuilt.).

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church./ This marriage for a Ballinacross Gray was in Curren Presbyterian church, suggesting it was her family’s church:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1849/09373/5394983.pdf

They have no baptism records before 1900 and no marriages before 1845.

Thank you so much to both of you. This gives me something to work on. Since the last message I have found the death certificate of John Gray (see attached). I am confused because on his daughter's birth record it was noted John was born at Maghera Co. Derry. On his death certificate it says he was born at Ballymeney ( think this is what it reads. You may be able to help me here), Ireland. Are these places the same or different regions? Coming from Australia I am not familar with the various regions of Ireland.

His parents were stated father unknown but mother Jean Montgomery. 

Thank you once again for all your help.

There  are several possibilities for that "Ballymeney".  The town of Ballymena, which is in County Antrim, is maybe 10-12 miles due east of Maghera.  That is a heavily Presbyterian town.  There is also the town of Ballymoney, located in Antrim, which is about twice as far away from Maghera to the northeast.   Again, there were many Presbyterians there.

In Derry itself, there is a townland called Ballymenagh located to the north of Maghera, in Aghadowne civil parish, but it's about as far away as Ballymoney is (so, maybe 20 miles).  It's fairly close to Ballymoney (4-6 miles).  Here's a link to info about that townland:

https://www.townlands.ie/londonderry/coleraine/aghadowey/ballymenagh/

I'd give you links to the online Catholic parish records for those places, but from what Elwyn found it appears that the family were Presbyterians.

Sometimes the informant providing info for a record may not have known the correct info, so the placename may have simply been wrong on one of those records.  Hard to say which, though.  There appear to have been Gray's all over Derry, so perhaps John really was from further north originally.

Thank you so much for your help. Very much appreciated. It seems we may not be able to go much further until something else comes to light on perhaps another certificate. At least it looks like we know roughly the area John Gray came from. Here in Australia anything up to 20 miles (30 kilometres) can be very close even back in the 1800s but I guess in Ireland it could be a reasonable distance. 

Once again thank you.

Actually,. when my grandmother was a teenager in Mayo in the early 1900's, the young people used to travel 10-15 miles to go to dances in the nearest "big" city, and there were marriages in the family where people married spouses from several parishes away.

Not sure whether this might interest you, but there was an American military base in the Maghera/Magherafelt area during World War II, and BBC Northern Ireland did an interesting, muli-part tv drama about the interaction of the locals with the Americans, and of local Protestants and Catholics with one another.  It's called "My Mother and Other Stories".  It played on what we call public television here in the US, and last I saw it was available on Amazon Prime (if you get that in Oz).  It was filmed in Northern Ireland and there were several well-known Irish and American actors in it, like Kieran Hinds, Owen McDonnell (he's well known in Ireland), and Ryan McPartland..

That film sounds great. Would be interested to see it. My daughter has several pay TV channels. Next time I am there I will see if she can find it for me.