Connecting will Ballynure historians

I assume this is your Samuel’s death of phthisis (TB).

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1878/020525/7202704.pdf

The informant was Jane who is presumably Jeanie (the two were interchangeable) and who had an address which I would guess is a corrupted version of Milngavie, just outside Glasgow. Samuel’s townland (address) was Ballybracken, which is in the parish of Ballynure.

The couple look to have married in Scotland, not in Ireland. In 1869 in New or East Kilpatrick GROS ref 500/30.  You should be able to get Samuel’s parents names from that certificate, available on the Scotlandspeople site, plus also whether their parents were alive or dead on that date. (If you provide that information I can search for the parents in Ireland).

Griffiths Valuation for 1861 lists a Samuel Auld on plot 16a in Ballybracken which was a 10 acre farm, plus a James Auld on 16b which was a labourer’s cottage. They were the only Aulds in the townland at the time and are presumably connected to your family. 16a is still in existence today. Once accessed from the modern A8 Larne Rd, access is now up a private lane from the Ballybracken Road. Hard to say whether the original farmhouse is still standing but there is certainly a property there today.

I see this family in the 1901 census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Ballynure/Ballybracken/990851/

John Auld married Matilda Ternaghan in 1877. His father was Samuel:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1877/11133/8076538.pdf

The family is not in Ballybracken in the 1911 census though the Valuation Revision records for the townland show John as tenant right up to 1929. The family had moved to Ballyrickard More in 1911, so presumably John had 2 farms and sublet the original one:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Raloo/Ballyrickard_More/189793/

The Valuation revision records show John on plots 3 & 4 in Ballyrickard  More a total of about 28 acres, so a more substantial farm. The records indicate he leased that in 1910. That property today is probably on the modern Ballyrickard Rd. The on-line Griffiths maps don’t show the plot numbers on that sheet so cannot say precisely where it is/was.

Samuel Auld (senior) was listed as farming in Ballybracken in 1833 & 1834 in the tithe applotment records:

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

Ballymena Weekly Telegraph of 31^st October 1908 reported that there had been an auction for 16 acres of land in Ballybracken. One of the bidders was John Auld but he was outbid by higher bidders. So it looks as though John was seeking to expand his farm but failed on this attempt, but was presumably successful when the Ballyrickard More farm came up.

Sadly, John Auld also had a son Samuel who died young, in 1898, of typhoid:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1898/05843/4655281.pdf

I would guess that your Samuel was the son of Samuel senior, and the brother of John Auld in Ballybracken.

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church. Here’s a marriage for Anne Jane Auld from Ballybracken in 1880, daughter of Samuel. She married in Raloo Presbyterian so that may well be the family church:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1880/11048/8041115.pdf

Raloo Presbyterian has records from 1841/1842. Copy held in PRONI in Belfast.

The surname, the family religious denomination and the geographic location all point to the Aulds having originated in Scotland. They are likely to have settled in Ireland sometime in the 1600s when some 200,000 Scots moved across.

Belfast Newsletter of 8^th Jan 1926 has a funeral notice posted by William & Lizzie Smyth reporting John Auld’s funeral, late of Ballyrickard, from his son-in-law’s residence, Hightown, Whitewell to Ballynure burying ground.