Visiting Belfast and PRONI June 23-28

Suebain,

I live near Connor. I am free 26 - 28th June. There is a button on the website which enables you to request a meet and greet. It would be helpful if you could use that to record your request. You can contact me off-line on ahoghill@irelandxo.com

The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian. Like many religious denominations it has had various schisms, which have led to the existence of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Free Presbyterian and various other secession churches. As you say, all were Presbyterian. That, a Scottish surname, and the general location ie Co. Antrim (which was heavily settled by Scots in the 1600s) all indicate Scots roots for your family.

Connor Presbyterian church was founded around 1670 but record keeping wasn’t very important in the early years and their baptism records don’t start till 1819. Marriages don’t start till 1845. (Presbyterians in Ireland generally don’t bother with burial records). Nearby there’s another Presbyterian church in Kells. It opened in 1873, due to population increases, so probably isn’t relevant to your family.

There’s a couple of graveyards in Kells but the oldest is the Church of Ireland and that’s where most Presbyterians would have been buried in the 1600s to early 1800s.

Connor new cemetery just has one gravestone inscription from 1903:

Erected by William Bayne, Whaupstown, in memory of his beloved mother Eliza Bayne, died 31st January 1903, aged 75 years. Also his sister Jane Bayne died 9th April 1909 His father George Bayne, his brothers James and John, his four sisters Annie, Agnes, Mary and Lizzie, are interred in the old graveyard. Also his wife Elizabeth Bayne, died 22nd July 1932. Also William Bayne, died 17th March 1943.

A whaup is a curlew (a moorland bird). It’s a Scottish word which again confirms the general family background.

That family in the 1901 census:

https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Connor/Whapstown/916450/