Interested in BRANDON, SPROUL(E) and McVEITY/McVETY/MAVETY families of Drumkeeran

To find any record of the families you probably need to search church records.  You haven’t said what denomination they were. Possibly Church of Ireland I suspect. Drumkeeran Church of Ireland's records start in 1802. I don’t think they are on-line anywhere but there’s a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. Personal visit required to view them. 

There’s some Brandons and Sprouls listed in the tithe applotment records for Drumkeeran in 1832. The tithes were a tax on land so these were farmers. Labourers (ie the majority of the population) wouldn’t normally have enough land to tax and so weren’t included. But if your ancestors were farmers in Ireland then these may be relations of the folk who left in 1828, and their townlands (addresses) are listed which may assist locate where they lived.

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/fermanagh/tithe-applotment-books/paris…

Thanks for the response, Elwyn. They were Church of Ireland -- but a researcher hired some years ago found us only one baptism, 1826 in the Drumkeeran Parish church record

Baptisms in 1826:. Thomas son of Robt & Mary McVeity was Born of Aughalan [townland] and Christened Feby 26th by me, John [R Whitby?]

Had given her a list of names and approx dates of birth and marriage but she couldn't find any others, despite the fact that James Brandon's tombstone here says "Native of Drumkeeran / Co. Fermanagh/". She suggested they may have lived in an adjoining parish instead and said not all records have survived.

And thanks for the clarification, that being in the Tithe Applotment records means that the farmer had at least some means. I've always figured that these people must have paid their own way to Canada -- no immigration plans at that time -- so they had at least modest financial resources. 

Nancy Cutway

Nancy,

It sounds to me as though you have probably exhausted all the likely sources where your ancestors might have been listed. 

At least you have a townland for 1 of your families. Aughalan is more commonly spelled Aghalaan. It’s a small townland (116 acres) near the point where the Procklis Rd joins the Pettigo Rd, about a mile east of Pettigo. 4 houses there in 1901, total population 25. It’s all agricultural land, even today:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Clonelly/Aghalaan/

The tithes list Mathew Brandon in Clonaweel and a Mr Sproul in Aghahannagh. Both those townlands adjoin Aghalaan. In other words those Brandons and Sprouls both lived within a few hundred yards of your McVeity family. However they had left or died out by the time of Griffiths Valuation of the area in 1862. None in the 1901 census either.