Family of Arthur McCann (12 May 1789 - 28 May 1854) of Tullygowan, Ahoghill.

Hi Jeanette

I will ask our Ahoghill volunteer to take a look at this for you

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

Statutory registration of births and deaths in Ireland didn’t start till 1864. Marriages were recorded from 1845 except for RC marriages which started in 1864. Prior to that you are dependent on church records, but to do that you need to know the person’s denomination and ideally which church they attended. You haven’t said what denomination the family was. Do you know? (They look to have been of a Protestant denomination but which?)

I don’t know where the information on your family comes from. Unlikely to be church records as no church in that area has records back to the 1700s, save for the Moravians whose records start in 1749. Could the family have been Moravian? The Church of Ireland in Ahoghill has records from 1811, and that’s the earliest of the mainstream denominations. Only the Church of Ireland and the Moravians keep burial records. Presbyterians and RC don’t. So again the dates of death pre 1864 may be problematic unless they came from gravestones. (Judging by the marriage for Mary Ann in 1856, I think the family may have been Church of Ireland).

I see a McCann farm in Tullygowan listed in Griffiths Valuation for 1862.  The tenant was William McCann. There were only 11 farms there so I’d guess this was your family. It was plot 11, a 51 acre farm. (Making it pretty big for the time. The family would have been quite well off). Today it’s off the modern Ballykennedy Rd. The revaluation records show it changing hands in 1872 when David Clarke took over as tenant. Your Ancestry information gives 2 alternative dates of death for William McCann – 1863 or 1870. The Griffiths information suggests William was still alive around 1872. Griffiths clerks were not always 100% accurate and their dates can be out by a year or two but I’d say the 1863 date is unlikely to be correct).

In the 1820s, the farm was probably rented from Lord O’Neill at Shane’s Castle, Antrim. Tenant records exist for 1829 & 1831 in PRONI, the public record office in Belfast (in paper format, not on-line). T1024/1 for 1829 and T1024/2 for 1831. They list tenants names and often give details of their leases which can tell you how long they lived there.

I had a look for gravestones for the family on the on-line site for the Ahoghill area but don’t see any. So possibly they were buried elsewhere eg in Randalstown. (The McCann name is quite common in that area). You would need to get someone to go round the graveyards there to check, as I don’t think any have been put on-line.

http://thebraid.com/genealogy.aspx

I looked at the 1766 census of Ahoghill but did not see any McCanns listed.

http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ShowFreePage.php?id=328

I had a look at PRONI’s e-catalogue to see if there was any mention of your family in their records eg leases and old wills, but I don’t see any relevant entries, save for the Shane’s Castle estate records I have mentioned.

I looked at the statutory death records (1864 onwards) and can see deaths for Sarah McCann on 23.4.1868, Arthur 19.8.1872. In the marriage records, Mary Ann’s marriage to Henry Haseley was registered on 28.3.1856. John McCann’s to Sarah Spence on 19.3.1853. Thomas McCann’s to Eliza Weir on 8.1.1853. All registered in Ballymena.

You can view the original certificates for these, on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.

Some of the information on the links you have given doesn’t appear to be quite correct. For example, Mary Ann Has(e) ley is shown as dying in “Dublin, Antrim” in 1864. There’s no such place as Dublin, Antrim. Dublin is in Co Dublin not Co. Antrim but in any event I can find no record of the death anywhere in Ireland.  Nor did I find a death for John McCann in Ballymena on 5.1.1870, nor for William McCann on 4.7.1870, again reportedly in Ballymena.

Thanks Clair Doyle.

Dear Elwyn,

Many thanks for your swift response. Much appreciated.

Religion.  According to a family story written in Australia, one of Arthur's sons Thomas McCann "was Church of England [Ireland?] but became interested in the Moravian doctrine (a religious Protestant sect that originated in Moravia Germany) His wife and her people accepted this form of worship". Thomas Mccann and Eliza Weir however, were still married in the (2nd ?) Ahoghill Presbyterian church on 8th Jan 1853 before emigrating to Australia later that year. Once in Australia they attended the Methodist church. So definitely Protestant but obviously flexible.

I have been trying to follow various McCann and Weir families from the Ahoghill/Gracehill area to find linkages. Many of the same names get repeated through the generations which make it a bit confusing to sort out one  Arthur, John, William, Thomas McCann etc or Eliza or Mary Anne from another.

Jeanette

Another snippet from family stories told by John McCann (1857-1951) son of Thomas McCann (1827-1885).  "His people were interested in linen weaving but little is known of this. The old fashioned two-story blue brick home in Ballymena is still occupied and has had several owners. It stands by the roadside and has been used as a shop and a residence".  Not sure to which member/s of the McCann family the Ballymena house belonged. Various family members are supposed to have moved off the Tullygowan farm into 'town'. Others emigrated.

Church of Ireland is the same as the Church of England. (Episcopalian). The dominant denomination in the Ahoghill area is actually Presbyterian, with 3 Presbyterian churches in Ahoghill to 1 Church of Ireland. The area was heavily settled by Scots (who are mostly Presbyterian) settlers in the 1600s, leading to the area being about 80% Scots. A lot were soldiers who were part of the Scottish army sent to help suppress the 1641 rebellion. After peace was agreed, many of the soldiers decided to stay in Ireland and a lot settled around Ahoghill.

I think the Moravian records must be the answer to where much of your information comes from. There’s only the 1 Moravian church in the area (in Gracehill) and their records do go back to about 1750. There’s a copy of them in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. You would need to go in person, or pay a researcher to go, to go through them. Here’s what PRONI holds for Gracehill Moravian church, under references MIC1F/3 & CR9:

“Diaries which record baptisms, marriages and deaths and the movement of members, 1750-1899; baptisms, 1749-1986; marriages, 1758-1862; burials, 1766-1987; Elders’ Conference minutes, 1755-1892; Congregational Committee minutes, 1788-1927; Congregational Council minutes, 1790-95 and 1833-93; Lot Conference minutes, 1755-91; register of members, with an index, 1755-91; register of pupils and teachers at Gracehill Academy, 1805-83; reviews of the years’ activities, including details of births, marriages and deaths, 1863-91 etc.; printed history, 1984”.

Regarding linen connections, the whole area around Ahoghill and Ballymena was heavily involved in linen making. It was the major industry after farming. (Irish linen mostly comes from the counties of Ulster and was a big source of income in the 1800s. Some is still made today).

Originally weavers in Ireland wove cotton (from raw cotton imported from the USA). The supply stopped during the American War of Independence and so an alternative product had to be found. They switched to linen which comes from the flax plant, which will grow in Ireland when cotton won’t. So farmers in places like Ahoghill grew flax and this was then processed into linen. Originally on hand loom weaving machines in labourers homes (providing top up income for them) but later in mechanized factories, powered by water wheels. So Ahoghill and nearby Ballymena had big linen factories, many of which were in business from the mid 1700s till the 1950s. The big factories gradually put the home weavers out of business as they were much more cost effective, but some hand loom weaving continued up until at least the early 1900s.

So, being farmers, your McCann family probably grew flax and then either sold it to the mills or got their farm labourers to process it (enabling them to pay their rent in labour rather than cash, which suited most labourers. Life at that time was largely a barter economy, and so this was a common arrangement. Having said that, the linen industry was cash based. Processed linen was sold for cash, and that extra income tended to ensure a slightly higher standard of living for people in Ulster than in other parts of Ireland at the time).

I do have an article on the linen industry in Ahoghill, taken from the Irish textile Journal of 15th September 1888, if you are interested in the subject in more detail. I have attached a photo of some weavers and children in Ahoghill around the 1870s or 1880s, taken from the journal. They are standing outside a typical 2 storey blue stone house.

Hi Elwyn,

Many thanks for all the background information plus the scanned photo of the house and linen weavers in Ballymena.  Yes please send me the information about the linen industry around Ahoghill. Some of the McCann's married into the Weir family of Straid Mill.

Thanks again

Jeanette 

Jeanette,

E-mail me on Ahoghill@irelandxo.com and I'll send you the relevant information.

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