McCafferty: my G/G grandfather Deis McCafferty married Ann Kelly in R.C. church in Ballymoney Co., Antrim in 1839.

I had a look for James McCafferty’s baptism in Ballymoney in 1841. It turns out that though the parish baptism records apparently start in 1815, there are none on the national library site before 1853. Rootsireland (subscription) site apparently has the pre 1853 records. You might want to look for his baptism there. The parish has no marriage records before 1853, so assuming that’s where they married in 1839, there’s no record to find.

If the couple had a child in 1855 in Scotland, it would be well worth viewing the birth certificate on the Scotlandspeople site. In that year only birth certificates recorded where and when the parents were born and how many other children they had, alive and dead. That information was mostly dropped after 1855 as being too time consuming to gather.

There was a census of the civil parish of Ballymoney conducted by the Rev Park in 1817. You can find it on Bill McAfee’s site:

http://billmacafee.com

I don’t see either the McCafferty or Kelly family in it. The RC parish of Ballymoney is much bigger than the civil parish so that suggests the families came from an outlying area, rather than in the core civil part.

Bill McAfees site also has the 1803 agricultural census. No McCafferty or Kelly households in Ballymoney but 2 James and 3 Patricks in the general area.

Death registration started in Ireland in 1864. I searched for McCafferty deaths 1864 – 1901 in the Ballymoney registration area. There were just two – Elizabeth in 1875 aged 72 and Francis in 1870 aged 67. Neither is on-line free. You can view the original certificates on-line 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.

Given that there’s no sign of James or Jean McCafferty the assumption must be that either they had died before 1864 or left the Ballymoney area. No sign of Patrick or Margaret Kelly so they same inference can be drawn about them.

Elwyn    Thank you very much for your excellent advice. Denis and Ann,s fourth living child in 1855; William ,was born in 1855. From William,s birth certificate ; I was able to ascertain their full details ,: including when and where they had been married. Their son James; my G/ grandfather: was born in Bridgeton in Glasgow in 1841..I was able to find his baptism details from Saint Andrew,s RC  Cathedral, Clyde Street in Glasgow.  I have been able to see the Church records at the main RC church in Ballymoney town, Our Lady & Saint Patrick. I was unsuccessful in this attempt. I have been involved in trying to find out where my family originated from; in Ireland. I have paid a genealogist firm in Dublin to investigate for me; to no avail.  Your advice is the most positive of all the advice I have ever  received: over many years. Once again I thank you for your help, time &  effort.         John McCafferty.

Glad to have been of some help. Denis & Ann were evidently both born before 1810. There are no baptism records for Ballymoney RC parish for that period, so you are unlikely to get very far with tracing their origins. An RC marriage for 1839 doesn’t normally contain much information all you usually get are the couples names, the date and their 2 witnesses. So beyond confirming the date and location you are usually none the wiser.

Irish research often comes to a standstill around 1800 due to the lack of any earlier records.

Thank,s again, Elwyn. Is there any suitable genealogist in Northern Ireland , that you would recommend?.

Researchers in the Belfast area: http://sgni.net

Thank,s Elwyn; for these recommendations.

I don't know if there is any true connection but here is my McCafferty linformation

Patrick McCafferty

& Bridget McConlogue

|               Henry McCafferty

|                 Born. abt 1842, Ireland

|                 Died. 25 Jul 1912, Avoca, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

|               & Bridget Kearney

|                 Born. abt 1840, Ireland

|                 Died. 28 Jul 1912, Avoca, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

|               |               James McCafferty

|               |                 Born. Nov 1865, Ireland

|               |                 Died. 4 Jul 1944, New York, New York, USA