HEANEY / HEENEY

I searched the Rev Parks census of the parish of Ballymoney for 1817 but there were no Heaney households listed. Crawfords lists of householders in Ballymoney town c 1812 doesn’t have any either. The 1803 agricultural census has a William Heney in Ballyhemlin, parish of Billy. That’s the nearest I can find.

Ballymoney RC church has no records earlier than 1853 so unfortunately it won’t be possible to glean anything from that source. If the family originated in Ballyhemlin then that’s in the RC parish of Ballintoy. Their records don’t start before 1858, so no help there.

My 2nd great aunt, Ellen McLeese (variant spellings), married John Heaney in 1845. I assume that they might have been married at First Ballymoney Presbyterian Church. For John I have an approximate birth date of 1803. He died in Lowell, MA in 1883. Ellen was from Drumahiskey, Ballymoney, Antrim, Ireland. I assume there must have been Heaney's in that area. I have tentative information that John's parents were John and Ellen, both born around 1780. 

Non RC marriages were recorded in the stat records from 1st April 1845 onwards. I have searched them for the Heaney – McLeese marriage but don’t see it. Therefore if Presbyterian, it must either have been in the period Jan – Mar 1845 or it was in an RC church. Ballymoney 1st Presbyterian records for the years 1817 -1845 and beyond, do exist. There’s a copy in PRONI in Belfast. A personal visit is required to view them. The RC records for that parish don’t cover 1845.

John Heaney married Ellen Mcleese (McAleese) 3 Jan 1845 Ballymoney, Antrim Ireland.  This family migrated to the US around 1870.  They settled in the Lowell Massachusetts area.  To the best of my knowledge the family was Protestants.

I see 2 McAleese farms in Drumahiskey in Griffiths Valuation for 1861. Neal McAleese had plot 3, and 11 acre farm and Neal junior (probably his son) had plot 14, a 14 acre farm. Plot 3 today is on the Drumahiskey Rd, and plot 14 on the Bann Rd.

1 McAleese household there in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Enagh/Drumahiskey/942689/

1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Enagh/Drumahiskey/126198/

Probate abstract from the PRONI wills site:

McAleese Robert of Drumahiskey county Antrim farmer died 29 January 1926 Probate Belfast 8 November to reverend John Ramsey reformed presbyterian clergyman. Effects £78.

Can’t see any on-line records relating to John Heaney or Ellen.

Hello, my gg grandfather, John Heaney, born around 1809, immigrated to New York, USA and settled in Auburn, NY.  He had at least one brother, Hugh Heaney (and possibly another brother by the name of Thomas) who arrived USA around the same time or slightly earlier.  My newspaper obituary for John who died on 4 August 1880 in Auburn, NY stated he was from Leitrim County.  However, it appears that his brother was listed as being from Antrim, Ireland and I found an Ordinance Survey  of Migrant Workers (attached, last name on list), that I believe is the brother, Hugh Heaney, which states he is from Parish Drummaul, Townland Leitrim.  Nothing is certain so at this point I'm still searching to find answers regarding from where in Ireland John and his brother Hugh came from.  There is a death certificate for Hugh's son, John, which indicates that his father was from Antrim County.  Any help will be greatly appreciated!  Cheers!  Kathleen  

The most obvious observation here is that it’s possible that the Leitrim townland in Co. Antrim has been confused with the County of Leitrim. The two are 100 miles apart and it would be surprising for two brothers to be born so far apart. Most Irish people stayed in the same broad area all their lives. Obviously a few moved if their profession demanded that eg a policemen or such but most didn’t. You would expect them to both come from more or less the same place.

Leitrim is a common townland name in Ireland. There are 40 including 2 in Co. Antrim. One in Drummaul parish and the other in Ballymoney.

Leitrim in Drummaul is on the modern Staffordstown Rd, not far from Creggan Primary school. A mile or two from Randalstown. It’s 165 acres in size and in the 1901 census there were 12 homes there and a population of 55. No Heaneys.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Randalstown/Lei…

I checked Griffiths Valuation (1862) and the tithe applotment records for 1833 but there were no Heaneys listed there then either.

Drummaul RC’s parish records only start in 1825 so if that’s where the brothers were baptised in the early 1800s there are no records to search.

I have a copy of “Sweet Drummaul” by Patrick O’Kane which is a history of the Roman Catholic parish. It mentions a Hugh Heaney as living in Magheralane in 1848, in a list of all the parishioners. That appears to be the only Heaney family in the parish at the time, though obviously there might have been others earlier who had left.  (People were pouring out of Ireland all through the 1800s). Magheralane is a couple of miles from Leitrim. Sweet Drummaul also contains the emigrants list which you have provided, and which was in turn taken from the Ordnance Survey memoirs of the parish. It lists Catholics who left the parish between 1835 & 1837.  Hugh Heaney of Leitrim was 26 so that  fits with him being born around 1810 or thereabouts. He is noted as having gone to Glasgow.  That was very common. Huge numbers of Irish folk went to Scotland from Ulster then as there were much better work opportunities in Scotland. Many then left Scotland after a few years, having raised the fare to emigrate, and went to to other countries. It’s called stepped migration.

It looks to me as though the Leitrim Heaneys were labourers who had a small cottage (rather than a farm) and had all left that townland by 1862 if not a lot earlier.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).