McKay/Boyd

Canadian Lass,

According to rootsireland, the 1819 marriage was in Finvoy Church of Ireland. That’s an Anglican church. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, after which she’d attend her husbands. In this case the marriage record says Sarah came from Rasharkin parish. That’s the next  parish south from Finvoy. A sketch map here shows the old parish boundaries:

https://www.ancestryireland.com/civil-parish-maps-for-ulster/civil-parishes-of-county-antrim/

So she had probably moved from Rasharkin to Finvoy. Her birth in 1799 is long before the start of statutory birth registration in Ireland (1864) and so you would normally rely on church records for a baptism then. However unfortunately Rasharkin Church of Ireland’s early records were all lost in the 1922 fire in Dublin. If by any chance she was born in Finvoy, then their records only start in 1812 so again you won’t find any trace of her (or Hugh if he was also from there and of that denomination). In case Hugh was Presbyterian (as is quite possible. It’s the most common denomination in that part of Ireland, reflecting the fact that the majority of the population there are of Scottish origins) none of the Presbyterian churches in the Finvoy area has any records for that era either. Dunloy’s start in 1841 and  Finvoy in 1843.

There probably aren’t any other records of the couple in the Finvoy area, so the prospects of tracing their families and where they lived don’t seem high. Both names are very common in the area, and that won’t help either. (About 1200 MacKay/Mackay in Co Antrim in the 1901 census and 2499 people named Boyd).

You mention the family may have been in Scotland from 1819 to about 1821. That wouldn’t be surprising as many people went there from Ulster for work. I don’t see any baptisms in the Scottish records, so assume they didn’t have any children there.  I can’t think of any other Scottish records that exist around 1820 that might show them. There was a census in 1821 but in Scotland it was only numerical. Individual names weren’t recorded.  There generally weren’t passenger lists from Scotland to Canada in 1821 so they probably won’t appear in any shipping records either.

There is still a Church of Ireland in Finvoy though I am not sure whether it’s the same building that was there in 1819. Rasharkin and Finvoy parishes were amalgamated some years ago but the churches all still function:

https://connor.anglican.org/parishes/ballymoney-finvoy-and-rasharkin/

Thank you for reply. I will have to keep digging but now have a bit more information. I do know once in Canada their religion remained Anglican.