Presbyterians in Ireland don?t use the parish system and so which church you attended was a matter of personal preference and not always the nearest to where you lived. However if Andrew Esler and Jane Eliza McCullough attended Glenwhirry Presbyterian church, then the bad news is that it has no records earlier than 1845. If there were any they have been lost over the years.
There are 11 Esler gravestones in Glenwhirry Presbyterian churchyard. However all date from the 1900s and none helps with your family.
There?s 1 McCullough gravestone:
Erected By Isabella Mc Cullough, Of Cross, In Memory Of Her Beloved Husband George Mc Cullough, Died 8th Nov. 1915, Aged 67 Years. Also Her Daughter Minnie, Who Died At San Francisco, 3rd Feb. 1915
Presbyterians as a rule generally don?t keep burial records, and death registration didn?t start till 1864 so no help there.
Families weren?t always buried in the churchyard of the their local church. I had a look at the gravestones for Broughshane but though there are plenty of Esler gravestones, I don?t see any that seem relevant.
There are no Esler farms in Glenwhirry in Griffiths Valuation (c 1864), so if the family had farmed in that area, they were apparently gone by that date. The next earlier set of records for famers are the tithe applotment records but unfortunately those for Glenwhirry appear to have been lost. So no help there.
You are up against the 1800 barrier which in Ireland can be extremely difficult to break through, as there are simply no useful records to research. Can be very frustrating.
