McClements, Shank, and Hazlett

There’s a death for a Robert McClements of about the right age in 1885. He was a farmer in Ballykelly. Informant was his son, also named Robert. Wife had pre-deceased him.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1885/06301/4806004.pdf

If it’s the right family, I don’t see a death for Grace so she probably died before 1864 which is when death registration began.

The family had gone from Ballykelly by the 1901 census. Griffiths Valuation (1863) lists Robert on plot 19 in the townland. That was an 11 acre farm.  According to the Valuation Revision Books (on the PRONI website) Robert McClements ceased to be the tenant of the Ballykelly farm in 1887 and was replaced by William Orr.

Robert & Graces births & marriages will be before the start of statutory registration (1845 for marriages and 1864 for births) so you won’t find birth or marriage certificates for them. You might find their baptisms and marriage in church records but they may not be on-line. If they do exist then they would likely be in PRONI in Belfast. (Personal visit required. Parish to search is Seapatrick).

The tithe applotment records for Ballykelly (1828) list a Robert McClements farming there.  Could be Robert who died in 1885 or might be his father. I notice a Shanks family farming not too far away in Ballyvally. Map here:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/genealogy/MAPS/SeapatrickMagherallyTownlands.htm

If the Hazlett & Gray family lived in Co Antrim, I’d put a separate post on that county board. More likely to get a response that way.  These are common names. If there’s anything more you can tell us about them it would help identify the right family.

This is wonderful! Thank you so much for all this information! Do you think that the Seapatrick Parish or PRONI in Belfast would have more information on the Shanks? Where did you find them farming close by? I looked at the map, but that seems to be for the parishes? 

The link on the Ros Davies shows you where each townland is within the whole parish. You can also use the Griffiths Valuation maps to see precisely where the farm was. The McClements family had plot 19 and that is on the modern Blackskull Rd, just to the west of the Rosie’s Bakes factory. Judging by GoogleEarth it still looks to be a farm today. Easy enough to locate.

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

Griffiths lists 3 Shanks properties in Seapatrick in 1863. There was a James in Ballyvally. He had a dilapidated house and garden and would have been a labourer rather than a farmer. John, also in Ballyvally, had a house office and yard in Dromore St, Banbridge and William in Drumnavaddy had a 5 acre farm.

I searched Shanks deaths 1864 – 1901 registered in Banbridge. There are 31. 38 Shanks marriages 1845 – 1901 and 60 Shanks births. You could go through those on the irishgenealogy site.  For earlier events you probably need to search the church records in PRONI. (The records are unlikely to be on-line anywhere so a personal visit is required).

A search of the PRONI wills site for Shanks in Co Down (1858 – 1970) produced  121. Some of the earlier wills are on-line but for the later ones you have to order them up in PRONI (free).

A search of the PRONI e-catalogue for Shanks produced 224 hits. For most of those documents the –catalogue just gives you the reference and a brief description. To see the document itself eg a lease, you need to go to PRONI.

The PRONI name search throws up 3 Shanks in Seapatrick in the 1766 religious census - Hign (which I think is probably Hugh), Widow & Robert.