Robert Wilson and Nancy Lamont

Griffiths Valuation for 1861 lists an Agnes Lamont in Bravallen townland. She had a farm, outbuildings and 13 acres (plot 13 on Griffiths). That farm today is a mile or so south of the outskirts of Ballymoney. It?s up a lane that runs north east from the Bravallen Rd. Easy enough to locate should you wish to do so.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

The names Agnes and Nancy are interchangeable in Ireland (and Scotland) and so I would guess that was your Nancy?s mother. That the famr was in her name by 1861 would suggest she was a widow. The revaluation records show that the farm changed from Agnes Lamont to Annie Lamont in 1863/64 and then to Thomas Stott in 1866. So it appears the family had left by then. (That the farm passed to Annie Lamont rather than to a man usually suggests there was no son or son-in-law available to run the farm and could account for Annie giving it up in 1866).

There are no Lamonts in Bravallen in the 1901 or 1911 censuses. Having said that it appears that some Lamont family may have remained in the general area because there is this death on the PRONI wills website:

Full Abstract :

Lamont Robert of Bravallen Ballymoney county Antrim labourer died 22 July 1927 Administration (limited) Belfast 9 February to Agnes Lamont spinster. Effects ?55 13s.

Robert Lamont was a labourer (not a farmer) and he died intestate. The probate file should be held in PRONI (again not on-line) and may contain some details of next of kin etc.

http://applications.proni.gov.uk/DCAL_PRONI_WillsCalendar/willsSearchRe…

The Wilson property is not listed in Griffiths but that was not uncommon for weavers cottages which were often of too low a value to be listed. (Properties valued at less than ?5 a year were often excluded).

Tradition was to marry in the bride?s church so Ballymoney 1^st is where I would look for Nancy?s baptism and that of any siblings. (Copies of the records are held in PRONI, Belfast but are not on-line). It could also be the same church that the Wilson family attended, but not necessarily as there are several Presbyterian churches in Ballymoney and the surrounding area.

My great great grandparents were James McLaughlin and Lydia Lamont from Ballymoney, Garyduff, Antrim.  They immigrated to the USA (arrived in Philadelphia port)  in the 8150s and moved to New Jersey with their children.  Curiously in your post, you mention that Nancy Lamont's father  was a man surnamed Gamble.  In one of the census records, it shows a man from Ireland named Robert Gamble living with James and Lydia, but no one still living in our family knew who this is.  I have not been successful in locating a birth record for Lydia Lamont or who her parents were.  I only know from my great grandmother that Lydia too came from Country Antrim like her husband, James McLaughlin. 

In your post you also mention that your family went to Australia.  Oddly, the one brother of my James McLaughlin, Benjamin, also migrated to Australia and stayed there.  He married a woman surnamed Hemphill.  

Could it be possible that there is a Lydia in the next generation of your Lamont family?

McLaughlan family in Garryduff in 1851:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1851/Antrim/Kilconway/Ballymoney/Garryduff/11/

No Lamont households there in the census.