Margaret Kidney 1821

Kidney is not a common surname in Co Tyrone. In the 1901 there was just one person of that name. She lived in Aughnacloy with some relatives, and had married a Kidney who had pre-deceased her. Her maiden name was evidently Abraham. She was Methodist, and born c 1816, somewhere in Tyrone. I list it in case you find a connection to your family:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tyrone/Aughancloy_Urban_Aughancloy_Town_in_17_files/Moore_Street/1724266/

If you search this site you’ll find a few Kidneys in Tyrone (plus a few people who died of kidney diseases!). http://cotyroneireland.com/index_main.html

You say that the family were Methodists. Methodism took a lot longer to become established in Ireland as a separate denomination than in England. In Ireland there was considerable resistance to separating from the Church of Ireland. It was 1815 before Methodists agreed to conduct their own baptisms. However because of continuing loyalty and other factors, many continued to use the Church of Ireland for sacraments for many years after this date and it was 1871 before all Methodists routinely performed their own baptisms.

For marriages, the earliest ceremonies conducted by a Methodist Minister in Ireland that I am aware of, date from 1835 (Belfast Donegall Square, the first Methodist church in Ireland). However in the mid 1800s there were only a few Methodist Ministers in Ireland (Methodism relied heavily on lay preachers). So the shortage of Ministers contributed to the continuing practice of marrying in the Church of Ireland. In addition, in the early years, many Methodist Meeting Houses were not licensed for marriages so that too contributed to couples marrying in the Church of Ireland.

So to summarise, you are unlikely to find many Methodist baptisms before 1830. Few marriages before the 1840s and only a handful for many years after that. If there are no Methodist records in the location you are interested in, I would search the Church of Ireland instead, as that’s the most likely place to find the relevant event.

Not many Methodist Meeting Houses have graveyards and so they may be buried in public or Church of Ireland graveyards (which are open to all denominations).

You have mentioned that the Rev John Kidney was said to be born in Strabane. Strabane is in 3 different parishes: Camus, Leckpatrick & Urney.  Camus has Church of Ireland records that start in 1803. There’s a Methodists meeting house with baptisms from 1822 and marriages from 1865. Leckpatrick has no Church of Ireland records prior to 1877. Their earlier records were destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin. There doesn’t appear to be a Methodist church in the parish.  Urney has a Church of Ireland church in Castlederg which has records from 1807. There’s another in Urney with records from 1813 and there’s a Methodist church in Castlederg with baptisms from 1822 and marriages from 1864. So for the 2 Methodists churches, for marriages prior to 1864, I’d be looking in the Church of Ireland records.

I don’t think the Methodist records are on-line anywhere. Less sure about the Church of Ireland. It might be worth checking rootsireland to see if they have them. However there are copies of all the above surviving records in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. You need to go in person to view them, so if you can’t do that you might need to hire a researcher.

Elwyn,  Thank you for your time and expertise!  You have given me a few ideas about where to look. 

I appreciate this so much! 

Georgia