Looking for information on Thomas Mitchell

The 1831 census has Thomas Mitchell and family in Cammesh townland (more commonly Camnish). In Griffiths Valuation he's on plot 10 in the same townland, an 18 acre farm. The Valuation Revision records show the occupant changing to George Mitchell, after  Thomas's death. So he probably had a son George. (As you commented, Thomas porbably stayed in the same place all his life. That was normal for farmers. You don't spend 30 years improving a farm only to go and start again somewhere else). George appears to have died by 1886 as the occupant then is "reps of George Mitchell". Then it changes to William McCloskey and to Jane Thompson by 1913. Looking at the 1901 census Jane Thompson seems to be related to the McCloskey family.

The McCloskey family were Catholic so Thomas & Agnes's marriage may have been a mixed marriage. There are options as to where they married but it may well have been the Church of Ireland. The RC church in the early 1800s didn't normally allow mixed marriages. The non RC person had to convert. It doesn't look as though Thomas did convert so I suspect either a Church of Ireland marriage or perhaps Presbyterian (though there were also difficulties with the validity of mixed marriages in that denomination too - till the law was clarified in 1844 - and so many mixed denomination couples married in the Church of Ireland, after which they may well have resumed attending their own churches. The Mitchell family being Presbyterian may have attended Bovevagh Presbyterian church. Its records start in 1818 with a few gaps. There's a copy in PRONI in Belfast. They are not on-line anywhere so far as I am aware. I looked at Mitchell marriages, registered in Londonderry 1845 -1866. There were 45. If you work your way through them, you might find other members of the family getting married. They can be viewed free on the irishgenealogy site.

Hi Elwyn
Thank you so much for your reply. It has been a great help. In the Griffith Thomas rented out part of his lease to George Thompson I presumed this was the husband of one of Thomas daughters. Thomas son also Thomas who moved to Scotland died in 1874 and it states his mother was dead so I have been looking for Agnes death before that. No that I know there was also a son named George I can look up more records.
We had booked to visit Ireland in March next year but not sure that will be happening we can't leave Western Australia at the moment.
Thanks again for the help
Jean Duff

Jean,

Firstly I must apologise as I made a mistake. The Valuation Revision records (on the PRONI website) show the farm going from Thomas Mitchell to George Thompson, not to George Mitchell.  Sent you off on a wild goose chase there. George Thompson died 26.5.1884 at Camnish aged 80. His widow Jane was the informant. Their daughter Mary Ann Thompson married William McCloskey on 8.11.1898. There could well be a connection with Agnes McCluskey who married Thomas Mitchell. Cousins often married each other, especially in farming circles as it helped keep the land in the family.

I looked for an Agnes Mitchell death 1864 - 1874 but did not see one. So possibly she died before death registration started in 1864, in which case there may be no documentary record. She might be on a gravestone of course. What Thomas Mitchell was leasing to George Thompson was a labourer's cottage (without land). Often there was no connection between a farm owner and his labourers but in this case since George inherited the farm, I think it likely that there was a connection. As you say, George could have married one of Thomas's daughters. There was quite an age gap there. According to the 1901 census Jane was 70 (so born c 1830) but George was born c 1804 (though ages on death certificates  are notoriously unreliable. Often just guesses). They probably married in the 1850s. If the farm went to George Thompson that also suggests there was no Mitchell son able or willing to take it on.

Hope you can make your trip next year. Nobody really knows what's going to happen and few people are booking long distance holidays at the moment. Ireland hasn't been hit too badly compared with some countries but there are still cases about and not everything has re-opened. (PRONI, for example, remains closed). And there is 14 days mandatory quarantine for folk arriving from outside the British Isles, so that makes tourism pretty pointless at the moment.

Hi Elwyn

Thanks again for more information I think that George Thompson may have married one of Thomas daughters.  He was also the informant on Thomas death certificate, lived next door to him and leasing land.  My new research project is to find out more about George and try to find out if his wife Jane is indeed related in some way to Thomas

Jean