Seeking Info on my McLaverty Ancestors

You won’t find the family on any passenger lists. Antrim to Scotland was (and still is) a short domestic journey taking a few hours. No records exist for that sort of travel. Just for intercontinental travel.

The 1858 marriage is on the NLI site. James McLaverty was living in Gortagharn at the time of his marriage and Mary Conway in Maghereagh. Anne Conway is listed in Maghereagh on plot 23c which was a labourers cottage. That’s the only Conway property in the townland and might be a  relation of Mary’s. Usually when a woman is listed she’s a widow, so could be Mary’s mother or an aunt.

Isabella, born 1865, has a birth certificate. (They started in 1864). So from that we can see that she was born in Clonboy (that's now Church Rd, Randalstown); her father was William, a labourer and her mother Susan Macann.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_returns/births_1865/03576/2317687.pdf

I looked for McLaverty in Clonboy in Griffiths Valuation (1862) and in the subsequent revaluation records up to 1866 but none were listed. That could be because they were not there very long, or because they were lodging with someone or because their property was of too poor a value to be listed. As a labourer, William was likely to move around a bit, following the work.

In 1848 the parish priest had a collection to pay for repairs to the church. A list of those who contributed appears in “Sweet Drummaul” a history of the parish by Patrick Kane. There was a Bernard McLaverty in Creggan, and Alexander and Nancy (separate households) who were in 1 of 4 townalnds. It isn’t clear which. Of course there may have been other McLaverty households in the parish who weren’t wealthy enough to contribute.

The tithe applotment records list those with farms. Labourers aren’t listed. In 1834 there was an Alexander McLafferty (an alternative spelling of McLaverty) farming in Ballylurgan and Michael McLafferty in Maghereagh. See:

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/antrim/tithe-applotments/drummaul-parish.php#.WEFJmhR2ug0

They’ll have been renting from the O’Neills at Shane’s Castle. Their tenant books are held in PRONI. Records for 1829 are in T1024/1 and for 1831 in T 1024/2. You might get a little more information about them from that source, eg how long they had had a lease and sometimes members of their family if it was a 3 lives lease. However labourers, as some of your family seem to have been, would be renting from a farmer, rather than from the O’Neill’s. They would have been on short term leases – typically a year or “at will” ie no notice required, so as to be free to move where the work was. No records exist of their tenancies in 1834.

Hi Elwyn

Firstly, many thanks for the time you took to reply to my request.

I have been busy reading the reply but also trying to navigate through the Irish records. I am not too familar with the Irish records but I will be spending more time this winter looking for my ancestors in Ireland. I find the Irish records a minefield to say the least. I think it is because I have done so many records in Scotland for my family history and their records are a lot easier to access.  I need to learn how to look up the Irish records properly and then I will be able to concentrate on my research in Ireland hopefully. This is my mothers side of the tree and what an adventure it has been so far...bring it on

Thank you once again for your time much appreciated.

Regards

Meg