Ancestors of Robert E Gibboney

Drumnakilly is in the civil parish of Termonmaguirk. The tithe applotment records for that parish in 1825 list John & William Gibney both with farms in Drumnakillagh (Drumnakilly). Presumably they are related to your family who left in 1815.

https://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/tyrone/tithe-applotment-books/parish-of-termonmaguirk.php

1901 census for Drumankilly has just one Gibney with a small farm:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tyrone/Drumnakilly/Dru…

Note that she was Church of Ireland (COI) which fits with your understanding of your family’s denomination.

There are 4 churches in Termonmaguirk COI but unfortunately none has any records for the period you need (2 lost their early records in the 1922 fire in Dublin), so tracing baptisms for your family may not be possible.

Here are 2 events which seem likely to relate to your family:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1895/05915/4679271.pdf

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1895/10544/5840694.pdf

Above marriage suggests the Gibney family used Sixmilecross COI. It has records from 1836 onwards. Too late for your immediate family but might be helpful if tracing later generations who remained in Ireland. Copy of those records are held in PRONI in Belfast.

Administration (with the Will) of the personal estate of John Gibney late of Drumnakilly County Tyrone Farmer who died 1 November 1895 granted at Londonderry to Esther Gibney of Drumnakilly Spinster the Residuary Legatee

Above will is on-line on the PRONI wills site. Basically he left his estate to his sister Esther.

Esther in 1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Drumnakilly/Drumnakilly/844779/

Esther’s death in 1912:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1912/05351/4490888.pdf

Alexandra Menagh is shown as tenant in Drumnakilly after Esther’s death, in the PRONI Valuation Revision records. (6 and a half acres).

Brian,

You have told us that your family came from Drumnakilly. It’s not a big place. 1352 acres. In the 1901 census there were 57 homes there and a total population of 274 people. Just 1 Gibney household. Therefore almost certain to be related to your family, I think.

Do not get hung up on the precise spelling of the family name. In Ireland in the 1800s no-one bothered about spelling. Many folk were barely literate but even when they were more skilled, exact spelling was not something that bothered them at all. It changed all the time, often at the whim of the person recording the information. Gibney and Gibboney etc are all the same name.

Here are 2 examples of spelling varying within the same family in the same Irish census:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Sharvogues/Drumsough/920148/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1851/Antrim/Upper_Glenarm/Carncastle/Four_Score_Acre/5/

In 1899, the Rev Smith reviewed the early records of Antrim 1^st Presbyterian church (covering the years 1674 to c 1736). He noted: “Even the same word is not always spelled alike by the same hand. Indeed spelling with most of the recording officials (and they must have been fairly numerous) was a matter of the most sublime indifference. The name William, for instance, is spelled 3 different ways in as many lines; while Donegore, a neighbouring parish, is spelled 10 different ways; but these extend over a good number of years. Many families names are spelled phonetically, while others are given in the most round-about fashion.”

The idea of a specific “correct” spelling is very much a 20th century concept. In the 1800s and earlier, no-one bothered. So expect the spelling Gibboney to vary in Irish records That’s the norm here. (Spelling still varies here even today).

Here’s a link to the PRONI website. Follow the links for wills.

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/campaigns/public-record-office-northern-ireland-proni

The Valuation Revision records (on the same PRONI website) list John Gibney (shown as Gibbons) on plot 40 in Drumnakilly (6.5 acres). You can view that on the maps attached to Griffiths Valuation. It’s just a couple of hundred yards from Drumnakilly Church of Ireland. (It has a graveyard so there might be family graves there). Postcode is BT79 0JY.

The farm is on the modern Cairn Rd. I have looked at a satellite image and there are a couple of cars parked there so it looks as though there is still a house on the site. I don’t know the precise address today. (Not sure how you would find that out other than to go there). It looks to me as though the last two Gibneys living in Drumnakilly were a brother and sister who were both unmarried. After the death of the last one in 1912 the farm was taken over by the Managh/Menagh family, who lived close by presumably because the Gibneys had no close relations left in Ireland. (And/or perhaps the Menaghs were related to the Gibney by some earlier marriage).

https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=name…