AHBELL

AHBell,

This is Arthur Mawhinney farming in Ballygowan in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Ballynure/Ballygowan/990863/

The above will is on-line on the PRONI wills site. It mentions his children and their whereabouts, including Robert John & Crawford Mawhinney in New Zealand. It mentions that he’d like a headstone erected in Ballynure burying ground to commemorate his and his wife’s burial plus that of parents William Mawhinney & Ann Semple. (It was and still is quite common for Presbyterian women to be referred to by their maiden names).

William John’s probate:

The Will of William John Mawhinney late of Ballybracken County Antrim Farmer who died 11 September 1889 at same place was proved at Belfast by William Mawhinney of Ballybracken and Hugh M'Crone (Junior) of Lismenary in said County Farmers the Executors.

Again the will itself is on-line on the PRONI wills site.

Griffiths Valuation (1861) shows William Mawhinney’s farm in Ballybracken. It was plot 19a, a 39 acres property, which William farmed in partnership with John Moore.  The Valuation Revision records show that in 1871 John Moore was deleted and replaced by Arthur Mawhinney, jointly with William. The next record book is missing and by 1899, the farm is jointly farmed between William & David Mawhinney. The Ballygowan farm (plots 10 & 11) was in Arthur’s name in Grriffiths but by 1899 it is also in the names of David & William. That farm today is on the Moss Rd, and still appears to be a working farm.

So it appears William John inherited the main family farm from his father, and that Arthur had at some point acquired a separate farm in Ballygowan which shares a common boundary with Ballybracken.  The 2 farms were just a few hundred yards apart.

William John’s farm today is on the modern Ballybracken Rd. Looking at it on Google earth, it appears still to be a working farm.

The tithe applotment records for 1833 and for 1844 list just 1 Mawhinney farm in Ballybracken (held by William) and none in Ballygowan. So Arthur appears to have acquired the Ballygowan farm some time between 1834 and 1861 when Griffiths was compiled.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/antrim/tithe-applotments/ballynure-parish.php

You wonder whether William Mawhinney was born in Scotland or Ireland. I’d say it’s more likely he was born in Ireland. The main influx of Scots was in the 1600s (some 200,000 came then. Most of the population of Ballynure are of Scottish descent) and by the 1700s they were starting to leave again. A fresh arrival in the 1700s would not have been impossible just against the trend.

Your problem in terms of identifying William’s parents is simply the general lack of records. If the family attended Ballynure Presbyterian church, then their records only start in 1819. (Copy in PRONI). None of the Presbyterian churches in that area (there are quite a few) has any records for the 1700s.  That’s quite common to find. Antrim 1^stPresbyterian church has records back to the 1600s but few other churches appear to have bothered, or if they did the records are lost.

You could search the Registry of Deeds (on Familysearch) looking for deeds for the Ballybracken farm. Those records start in 1709. In the 1700s you sometimes get 3 lives leases which often explain the relationships and ages of the lives. A min family tree. Not all leases were recorded in the Registry though.

I searched PRONI’s e-catalogue but did not identify anything that appears to relate to your Mawhinney family.

The lack of an existing family gravestone – as indicated by Arthur’s will- suggests there are no older gravestones for the family. Presbyterians generally didn’t keep burial records so no help there either.

I looked in the British Newspapers site. There are mentions of the family. For example, the Larne Times of 11^thSeptember 1952 reports that Mrs H. Mawhinney of Ballybracken had won a prize for her cakes, as did Mrs U. Mawhinney of same townland. Belfast telegraph of 4^th Sept 1939 reported that D. Mawhinney of Ballybracken won a prize for his fruit and vegetables. Money was also being raised for Ballynure Presbyterian church funds, so that points to it as definitely being the family church. I can also see some marriages etc but nothing earlier than 1900.

A lot of Irish research comes to a standstill around 1800 due to the general lack of records. Your problem is not unique.