KarinF,
I think one of the 2 deaths you have is wrong. I suspect you may also have the wrong Donaldson property in Golan in Griffiths. There were several James Donaldsons in that area. Need to ensure we have the right one. I have assumed that the information that James Donaldson married Harriet McKean is correct, and therefore researched around her.
The only James Donaldson death in the Clogher area in 1897 is this one who died 1st April 1897 aged 72 in Mullans. He was a farmer. He was still married so that doesn’t tie in with his wife having died in 1881. (I think he married a Jane Macoy).
Here’s that James death certificate:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1897/05863/4661849.pdf
Here’s Harriet’s death in 1881 in Aughnacloy. Her husband was a whitesmith, not a farmer.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1881/06448/4853093.pdf
Here’s Harriett’s husband’s death in 1888 aged 78 in Aughnacloy:
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1888/06175/4765132.pdf
Note that the informant was daughter Margaret Girvin, so you know they had at least 1 daughter. Here’s Margaret’s marriage to John Girvan in 1879 in Aughnacloy chapel. Note that the marriage was a Catholic ceremony. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church, so was she RC at that time? All the other Girvan households in Tyrone were RC, in the 1901 census, so my guess is he was RC too and that she switched to RC when she married John but switched back to Church of Ireland after his death. Not uncommon.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1879/11058/8045688.pdf
Here’s widowed Margaret in the 1901 census with 3 children. By then she was Church of Ireland.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tyrone/Aughancloy_Urban_Aughancloy_Town_in_17_files/Carnteel_Lane/1724131/
Margaret in 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Aughnacloy_Urban/Sydney_Street/854241/
Son John worked as a railway engine cleaner. Given the location in Aughnacloy, he’s likely to have worked for the Clogher Valley Railway, a quaint narrow gauge railway that ran up and down the Clogher Valley till the 1940s. There are various books on it, I believe. And I think one or two leftover bits may be in the railway section of the transport museum in Belfast (at Cultra).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogher_Valley_Railway
https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/IRISH-RAILWAYS/CLOGHER-VALLEY-RAILWAY/i-q7nH4Gz/
James & Harriet’s daughter Susan Donaldson married William Foster 1877 in Carnteel Church of Ireland.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1877/11136/8077796.pdf
Note: In Ireland C of E is usually called the Church of Ireland. The full title is something like “The United Church of Ireland & England.” Mostly you just see it referred to as Church of Ireland.
James Donaldson who died in 1888, lived in Moore St, Aughnacloy. He appeared in the Valuation revision records (on the PRONI website) as having plot 140. (Copy attached) That was a house, outbuildings, forge and small garden. James’s name was deleted after his death. Plot 140 was the Griffiths clerks own numbering system, and does not relate to any house number today. Until the 1950s, rural houses in Ireland generally didn’t have numbers at all. (And in some places that’s still true today). Your townland or, in a small town like Aughnacloy, street name was sufficient to identify you and get a letter delivered.
Moore St, Aughnacloy still exists (it’s essentially the main street) but identifying the precise property today may be a bit challenging.
