Dinsmore/Gorman/Haggerty (sp)/Martin

Christine,

John Gorman’s marriage to Mary Drain is on the irishgenealogy site. It records John living in Glenbuck where he was a farmer. He married 15.4.1873.  (Mary was a servant from Dunloy. Her father was Hugh Drain a farmer). John’s age looks to have been 26 or 28 (hard to be sure). Mary was 20.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1873/11269/8132716.pdf

Rose Gorman’s marriage was on 6.2.1870 at Dunloy RC church, when her address was also Glenbuck.  She was 21 then. So there’s evidence to link the Gorman family to Glenbuck between 1870 and 1873. I had a look at the Valuation Revision records which show most households in Glenbuck at that time. However there’s no sign of any Gorman property. So whilst Rose & John may have been living there in the 1870s, there’s no evidence they were born there or lived there before 1870. They may have been living on someone’s farm. (I note a lot of Drains in the townland for example).

I had a search for Alexander Gorman deaths 1864 – 1901. There were only a handful in Ireland and none in the Ballymoney area suggesting that if that's where he had been living, he had died pre 1864 (which is when death registration started) making it difficult to trace him. There were 2 in Monaghan and one in Cavan who were of an age to be the right man. Could Rose & John have originated in those counties? I checked the tithe applotment records for the 1820s and 1830s but did not find any Alexander Gorman farming in any of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland at that time.

Dunloy RC parish records start in 1848 which should include Rose if she was born there. However I cannot find a trace of her birth.  John’s age is a bit more debatable. He might have been born before 1848. But there is not trace of him after 1848.  Possibly the family come from another parish whose records do not exist any more.

I searched for siblings marriages (to Rose & John) but did not find any. Part of the 1851 census for the parish of Rasharkin has survived (That’s the civil parish that Dunloy is in). I searched it for Gorman families but did not find any. It’s not a common surname in that part of Antrim at all.

I had a look at Rev Park’s census of Ballymoney in 1817. There was just 1 Heggarty family there then. They lived in Seacon and consisted of William, Jean and their children Jean, Alexander, Robert, Margaret and Libby Eliza. The 1803 agricultural census covers a wider area and there were Hegarty families in Ballynafeigh, Ballycormick, Ballymoney Town, Leitrim & Stranocum.