Help with Diamonds in County Derry

I looked at the Scottish records for John Diamond & Catherine’s children born in Carluke. I see Bridget in 1853, John in 1854, another Bridget in 1856 (16th April), James in 1857 and another John in 1859.  So it looks as though the first Bridget and John both died and the names were re-used. That was very common. I don’t see Jane’s birth at all. Have you found it? I ask because if it was in 1855 you might be lucky. In the year 1855 only, Scottish birth records noted where the parents were born plus their dates of birth. 

Diamond and Scullion are both very common surnames around Bellaghy and the parish of Ballyscullion. Indeed there are hundreds of them there, making your search that bit harder.

There are a number of RC parishes in that area. Ballyscullion’s records start in 1844; Maghera 1841; Magherafelt 1834 & Ardtrea 1832. So none of the likely parishes has any records for the years you need (ie 1830 and earlier). That will make tracing them very difficult.

Where and when did John Diamond senior and his wife Sarah died? Have you found death certificates for them?

Mike,

Dagan is pretty well unknown in Ireland. I’d say it was Deegan, which is fairly common in some parts of the country but not in Co Derry.  The name is mostly associated with the Irish Midlands. You can see where it was prevalent in the mid 1850s using this link:

https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=deegan

Variations in spelling are very common especially when someone moved to a new country or district. Most were barely literate and spelling was often down to the whim of the person recording the information. You will have noticed it with Dimond/Diamond too. (Looking at the 1901 Irish census there were 167 Dimond and 809 Diamond. So you found both even in Ireland).

I agree with you that, overseas, folk often married people from the same area in Ireland.  People wrote home, whether from Scotland or the US, to describe the conditions and this led to others migrating and so groups of people from the same area clustered together. Hundreds of thousands of Irish people went to Scotland to work in the 1800s. (You may have noticed that from the Scottish censuses. Half the people on that 1841 census page were born in Ireland). But in this particular case, I doubt the Dagon/Deegan family were from Co Derry. So my opinion is that John Diamond/Dimond met Catherine in Scotland. Perhaps they both attended the same church? 

So John Diamond senior and his wife Sarah disappear after the 1841 census, is that what you have concluded? If they died in Scotland before 1855 there’s probably no record. Death registration only started on 1.1.1855. Prior to that, some RC churches kept burial records but not many. It’s very patchy and I don’t see a record for either of them.

In the 1841 census (only) people's ages for 15 and over were rounded down to the nearest 5 years. So though John is shown as 40, he could have been 40 – 44, and likewise Sarah 45 – 49. Patrick & John aged 15 could be 15 to 19.  I read daughter Bridget’s age as 4 in the 1841 census, not 11.  If so, that tells you that the family had arrived in Scotland within the previous 4 years.

The apparent number of John Diamonds in the whole of Co Derry in the 1831 census is 37, plus 14 John Dimond. So a total 51. However if you look carefully you’ll find most entries are duplicated. So there’s actually only half that number. But that said I see no reliable way of determining which might be your John. You could try and analyse the families of about the right size (which I calculate to be 3 males and 1 female in 1831) but you have no way of knowing whether your fmaily might have had parents living with them or children who later died etc. So it’s a bit of a guess.

I see that John senior was a labourer in Scotland. So he was likely the same in Ireland. They tended to move about a bit in Ireland to follow the available work, and can be notoriously difficult to trace.  I think you are in the right area looking around Ballyscullion but narrowing it beyond that, in the absence of baptism records is going to be challenging. If you agree that Bridget was 4 in 1841 ie born c 1836/7, then Magherafelt and Ardtrea do have baptism records for those years. You could search them.  But Ballyscullion & Maghera don’t. RC records are on-line on the nli site:  

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx