Thomas & Sarah Swan were Assisted Immigrants to Australia in 1839. The Swan family history in Australia is well-documented but there are no records in Ireland beyond an entry in the Baptism Register of the Connor Presbyterian church for their first son, John, who was born in 1838. Their address is given as "Castlegore, Kells, Ballymena, Co Antrim" on theimmigration documentation. Does anyone know any more about this family?
Castlegore is a townland of 1245 acres near Kells. You can see roughly where it is using the Griffiths maps. Griffiths Valuation for 1862 lists a John Swan farming there on plot 28, an 11 acre farm. He seems likely to be related to your family. He was the only Swan listed out of about 80 properties.
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch
The farm today is probably off either the Craigstown Road or the Whappstown Rd. The on-line Griffiths map for that townland doesn’t show the individual properties but there is a copy in PRONI and also in Ballymena library local studies section which does. So you can locate the farm today if you wish. The Valuation Revision records show the farm remained in John Swan’s name till around 1886 when the farmhouse fell vacant though the land itself was then farmed by someone else. By 1896, the farmhouse was described as in “ruins” and not worth taxing. So today the farmhouse will be gone but you can still locate the land and where the farmhouse stood.
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/services/searching-valuation-revision-books
There’s a death registered in Antrim town for a John Swan who died 7th October 1885, aged 70. That might be the JS from Castlegore. You can view the original certificate on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:
You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.
There were no Swan farms in Castlegore in the tithe applotment records for 1835, so either the family moved in after that, or they were living there but hadn’t acquired any land at that point. There were 3 Swan farms in the parish in 1835. They might be related to them. (Though you would probably need DNA to find out). See:
http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/antrim/tithe-applotments/connor-parish.php#.WGeJqxR2ug0
There’s several Swan(n) graves in Connor new cemetery. It opened around the 1890s. Prior to that most Presbyterians in that area would have been buried in Kells Church of Ireland graveyard (which is open to all denominations).
http://thebraid.com/genealogy.aspx
Connor Presbyterian church has baptisms from 1819 onwards but no marriages before 1845, so you probably won’t get any further back on the family through those church records.
Thank you, Elwyn, for your most helpful reply. I have looked at the websites you listed & have applied for a copy of the death certificate of the John Swan, who seems likely to be the one farming at Castlegore in 1862, so it will be interesting to see whether that sheds any new light.
The information on the death certificate of Thomas Swan, who died in New South Wales in 1877, doesn't help much either. The informant was one of his sons, who would only have known what his parents had told him about their life pre-emigration.
Sounds as though you have gone for the expensive option of ordering the death certificate by post. The cheaper option (which I recommended) is just to view it on-line. That way you get the information immediately, and for a fifth of the price.
Sarah Swan was Sarah McNish although this has several names changes on various certificates and documents in Australia. McNeach, MacNish, Manish. Her father was John McNish who was a weaver. The writing on her immigration certificate is hard to decipher. She was born around 1809 in Antrim.