McIlroy/Rea/McLernon of Toome Area

Hi! My wife Maureen Brett and I visited Toomebridge, Cargin and Ballymena and actually sat down with Elwyn at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Moneyglass to review some baptismal records. I am currently writing a book for the family of our discoveries. It seems that Mary McIlroy had a strong connection to Felix and Sarah Rea McLernon (McLarnon) of Millquarter, whose three children emigrated to Philadelphia, PA and two were baptismal sponsors for three of her children. I would like to know more about this couple. Their children were Eliizabeth (married Robert Carleton and lived in Ballyscullion around 1900), Isabella (who married a Listowel Kerryman in Phila.), Mary and Sarah who also emigrated to Phila. and married, Alice Jane, Felix (who married Bridget Johnston) and Margaret Ann who married Francis McCartney, a Belfast man.  One of the baptismal sponsors of the McLernons was a Paul McLernon, a name found in the family buried at Cargin graveyard. My hypothesis is that the families were cousins, but I'd like to know the connection. As for the Rea family I suspect they may have originally been from Killead parish, Antrim, and the father was Daniel. I conjecture that he was married at least twice, and his second wife was Barbara. The question is, Were they Roman Catholic? Were some Roman Catholic? In 1851, a niece was living with them. Could she have been the adult baptism that we discovered in Moneyglass? I am trying to get details through GRONI but sometimes its like getting into Fort Knox (or in Irish terms- the Bank of Ireland).  Thank you. Bob Brett