Walls family from County Wicklow

I’ve been looking into your Walls/McCluskie query, and unfortunately not having much success at the moment. I will continue the search.. In the meantime my initial research, followed by a few items to follow up and a question below...

The town of Bray is located in North County Wicklow on the coast of the Irish Sea, with some outskirts of the town in adjacent County Dublin, this part usually called ‘Little Bray’. The surname Walls usually appears here as Wall and there are a number of variants of McCluskie - e.g. McCluskey, McClusky, McCloskie etc. Although not common I have come across the surname Wall in research along the east coast counties, but I have not seen McCloskie very often, especially in east Leinster … the surname sound more Scottish in origin to me, and the distribution at the time on the primary valuation (mid 1800s) seems to back this up - as it shows the largest numbers of properties listed with this surname in Ulster counties - Derry/Londonderry, Donegal, Tyrone, Antrim, Monaghan etc.. I would suspect that there might be a Prebyterian connection somewhere in this line.

There is quite good availability of Catholic and Church of Ireland records for Bray and North County Wicklow generally, but it should be noted that there are some Catholic Parishes that dont have records for the early 1800s, and some of the historic Church of Ireland records were lost in the civil war. There are other denominations to consider, e.g. Presbyterian, Methodist etc, which can be problematic to search as not many of these records are currently available online.

I located a number of Wall baptisms in the early 1800s, but none in County Wicklow where the parents were Patrick and Bridget. Extending the search to the records available on RootsIreland(*) shows a number of results with these parent first names, but no sign of any Thomas. Looking through these I see that most are Catholic, no sign of any where the mother’s maiden surname is McCloskie or similar (Protestant baptisms dont usually include mother maiden surname which can make searches difficult..)

There’s a much smaller number of of McCloskie baptisms showing up in County Wicklow records - just four in all that I see in the available records - 3 of these were Church of Ireland, and none are in the Bray area.

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A quick question on the details you have -  did the information regarding the names of the parents to Thomas Walls come from a death cert in Scotland ?
If so it might be worth looking into the informant - there’s a better chance of the detail provided for the registration of death would be more accurate if the informant was a family member, but there’s always a possibility at a stressful time details can be mixed up.

It’s worth double checking the various census returns that Thomnas was alive for, 1851/61/71, to confirm what details he gives for his place of birth. Often people just entered Ireland, but if by any chance he ever gave a more detailed location like a county, or if you are really lucky the name of a town, village or parish, this would really help narrow down the focus of your search. It’s also worth checking for possible relatives, siblings, cousins etc from Ireland staying a the Walls household - maybe one of these might provide a clue.

The other source can might provide some clues is the marriage of Thomas and Margaret - what denomination Church did this take place in ?
If there are witnesses recorded these might be related to the bride or groom, and can be worth following up.

You may want to the details of Thomas to our XO Chronicles site - someone else may research a connection to your Walls/McCloskie family -  Ireland XO Ancestor Database.

(*) RootsIreland covers many, but not all, areas of Ireland,coverage varies i.e Catholic record for most counties, Church of Ireland records for some counties, a smaller number of Presbyeterian and Methodist records etc..

First of all, many thanks for taking the trouble to give such a detailed reply. I had some problems logging in to IrelandXO but I think they have now been resolved.

Here is the information I have regarding Thomas Walls. On the 1851 and 1861 Scotland Census documents, his place of birth is only given as Ireland. I was told years ago (before becoming interested in genealogy) that my great-grandfather (his son James, born in West Kilbride, Ayrshire)'s family came from Bray or around there. 

On the 1851 Scotland Census, Thomas Walls is already married (to Margaret McCourt, born in West Kilbride, Ayrshire) and they have two young children. They are living at the same address in West Kilbride as another family from Ireland (Patrick Fox, his wife Elizabeth and their two children, Margaret, aged two, and James, aged 4months). His occupation is given as farm labourer.

On the 1861 Scotland Census, they have a new address in West Kilbride, several more children and are no longer with the Fox family. His occupation in 1861 is given as labourer.

I couldn't find Thomas at all on the 1871 Scotland Census, but his wife was still living in West Kilbride with two of her children. Thomas and Margaret were married on 16th January, 1849 in Dalry, Ayrshire.

His death certificate is where I found his parents' names (see below). The death on 24th January, 1876, was registered by his wife, who must have been illiterate, as she made her mark (X) on the certificate.

My great-grandfather James was considered to be something of a stalwart of the Catholic Church in West Kilbride and I assume that his father Thomas was also Catholic.

I will have a go at entering all this info into the Ancestor Database once my login problem has been resolved.
Once again, many thanks to all for the time you have spent helping me with my research.

Best regards,

Maggie Jacobs