Moses Wiley - Derry area

Paula,

I see several people named Moses Wiley living in and around Derry in the 1800s, so care needs to be taken to identify the right family.  (There are 6 Moses Wiley deaths in Londonderry between 1864 and 1901). In addition to the Moses who married Sarah McCarter, there was another who married Mary Dickens and a third who married Margt Long (possibly the son of the one who married Mary Dickens). The elder was a merchant and property owner, the younger was a carpenter.

The 1847 marriage certificate gives your Moses jr’s townland (address) as Gortin. His occupation and that of his father was farmer, so you would expect them to be in a rural area (rather than in the middle of a city). If the Moses in Griffiths in 1858 in Harvey St, Derry is your family, then I’d say he had given up farming.  But I suspect it’s a different Moses.

Gortin today is on the modern Duncastle Rd a mile or two outside the City of Derry, near New Buildings. It’s still agricultural land. I don’t see the family in the county in either the tithe applotment records or the 1831 census for the county suggesting they lived elsewhere. 

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church which was Fahan Presbyterian so that may be where she was baptised. Unfortunately their baptism records don’t start till 1899. Fahan Presbyterian is near Burnfoot in Co. Donegal. See:

https://www.fahanchurch.org/welcome.htm

The tithe applotment records for Co Donegal list a Moses Wiley farming 13 acres in Carnshinnagh (parish of Fahan Upper) in 1829. I should think that’s probably Moses senior. Modern spelling is Carnashannagh. Carnashannagh is just outside Burnfoot on the R238. There were no Wiley properties listed there by the time of Griffiths in 1858, so it may be the family had given up farming and moved. 

The bride’s townland on the marriage certificate was Ballynahone.  Again that’s near Burnfoot. Up in the hills about 2 miles north of Burnfoot.

Londonderry Sentinel of 11th April 1899 has an advert with various plots of land available for sale (for building) in Londonderry. The advert mentions that Moses Wiley and his tenants have a right of way through one of parcels of land.

Derry Journal of 8th September 1884 reports the birth of a daughter on 6th September to Moses Wiley of  38 Gt James St, Londonderry.

Derry Journal 20th April 1883 reports Moses Wiley summoning James McCann and 3 other small boys for throwing stones and breaking windows in one of his houses. They were fined 10/- each.

Londonderry Standard 14th March 1866 reports the birth of a daughter to Moses Wiley on 2nd March 1866 at William St, Derry.

Moses the property owner seems to have died in 1890:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

I see several people named Moses Wiley living in and around Derry in the 1800s.

spanish dictionary

Moses senior was my 3x great grandfather. 

The Gortin area you mentioned is an area of Drumadooey, Birdstown, County Donegal. 

Moses junior and Margaret were siblings of my 2x great grandfather Andrew who married Sarah Wright.

There were many Wiley families around Drumadooey and the wider Muff/Burt area around that time. All were farmers. Many like your ancestors emigrated to US or Australia. 

To Jules70

Thank you for the information.  Do you know for sure that this information is correct?  Do you have any information on Moses Sr as far as wife's name or parents' names?   I know it is very hard trying to sort the various Wiley/Wyle families in that area.  I would guess many or most are related somehow, it's just figuring out the correct line for each and piecing together that is very difficult! Do you have any documentation that would be helpful to me?  Any information gotten from family?  Have you ever done a DNA test?  I did one through ancestry and am always curious to see if I can find any connections.  If this is correct, we then share Moses Sr as a 3rd great-grandfather!  I want to update/correct my family tree and any information would be wonderful.  I will look at this more and hopefully I will hear back from you with any additional information. 

Paula

Hi Paula - new cousin!

Yes, I can definitely concur with the difficulties in researching Wylie's in that area. Spelling of the surname differs from document to document, each Wylie family seemed to have loads of children and all named them the same few first names - not easy! It helps slightly that I live in the area which gives me a better understanding of the areas they lived, etc. Also a lot of the documentation pre 1922 has the area these Wylies lived in as sometimes coming under Donegal but also Londonderry as this was the administration centre for that part of Donegal - confusing if you aren't from the area! My maternal grandmother was Wylie from the same farm in Birdstown that many of these Wylie's inhabited. Unfortunately she died when I was very young and several years before I took an interest in family history. Her mother Annie Bell lived her final years with my gran in Derry City. Mum was very young but remembers her as a bit intimidating - an old lady dressed in black who rapped her walking stick! 

I've found many interesting stories of various family members using British Newspaper Archive. It does charge a subscription but worth every penny for the stories it sometimes throws up. I usually add clippings to profiles on my Ancestry tree but it's a work in progress.

Also this site http://donegalgenealogy.com/muffproj.htm has some great resources including headstone inscriptions. Plus this lady https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/y/l/Margret-Wylie-Yorkshire/WEBSITE-000… has done some great research on Derryvane Wylies. 

Unfortunately it's going to be very difficult to get back further than Moses snr. The records just aren't there and as there were so many Wylie's in the area any records that have survived won't help differentiate the families. It's unfortunate that women's names weren't put on records much back then so it may be impossible to find who Moses married. Maybe if his grave was found (if he had a headstone, as many didn't) but so far no luck. 

I had no information on my tree as yet of Margaret and Moses jnr. I think I only added them recently so hadn't got round to working on them. I had another look at the marriage records on irishgenealogy.ie of Andrew, Moses and Margaret. Note an Andrew is a witness on both Moses and Margaret's record. All 3 have Moses Wylie farmer listed as father and Andrew and Margaret were both living at Birdstown at time of marriage.This would have been the farm that Andrew passed down to his son William James, my grandmothers father - the same farm she grew up on. An Ephraim also appears as a witness - perhaps another brother?

My Gedmatch number is T839470  My Mum's is T110856 if you want  to check if we match.

Best wishes

Jules

Paula - I've just been checking my ThruLines on Ancestry from Moses Wylie. There's someone 'PR' who is sharing the line. Wouldn't happen to be you would it?

J

Jules

Thanks for all the info and interesting stories!  Yes, I am the PR in your ThruLines on Ancestry!  I have been  updating my Ancestry Family Tree to get Andrew and Margaret added.  It’s funny because I see that besides the connection through Moses Sr, there is a connection through Annie Bell and her Wiley ancestors. I am not 100% sure but I have that if you follow it back to Elizabeth Wiley Bell to her father Richard Wiley and to his father Thomas Wiley you get the connection.  Thomas Wiley I believe was my 4th great-grandfather - father to our Moses Sr and also father to Richard Wiley (so Moses and Richard were brothers).  Again, I think this is correct - the first connection I saw with you in ThruLines was through Richard not Moses. Once I updated my family tree it populated for Moses and Andrew. I’m hoping to connect with you through Ancestry - will send you a message in the next few days. But in the mean time my Gedmatch nbr is HZ4979929. I see you also recently joined the Wiley Facebook page - I am part of that too!

nice to make the connection!

Paula

That's great! I'll go and have another look at thruLines. 

catch you over at Ancestry!

Best wishes

Julie