Whaley family from Tullyhugh/ Tandragee in Armagh County

Debbie,

I note that PRONI has a will for David Whaley of Tullyhugh dated 3.2.1728. Ref LPC/1122.

LPC/1119 is a lease to him dated 10.1.703 for land in Tullyhugh.

LPC/1129 is another lease dated 9.12.1793 to Mgt Whaley.

LPC/1134 is a will for Daniel Whaley 20.3.1812.

You haven’t said what denomination the family were but the earliest records for Ballymore seem to be Church of Ireland which start in 1783 and include some Presbyterian baptism records. Getting back earlier than that may prove harder.

Have you searched the registry of deeds records for Tullyhugh in case there are some 3 lives leases that assist identify other members of the family?

Debbie,

The Registry of Deeds records are on Familysearch and can be searched there (though they often take quite  a while to upload). See:

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/185720?availability=Family%20History%20Library

You can search by surname or by townland. Generally I find searching by townland more effective.

The originals of these records are in the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. PRONI in Belfast has a duplicate set on microfilm which is what I generally use.  You have to search the townland by date. Each index covers a number of years so searchign 100 years takes a wee while.  If you find a deed that interests you (because it names an ancestor) then you have to switch to another set of films to view it.  The numbering system is confusing for beginners. It’s the sort of search that many people pass to professional researchers who are more familiar with that set of records.) Wealthy people recorded their marriage settlements in the Regy of Deeds and many longer leases were recorded there too (in case the originals were lost). They can be useful and are something to recommend to someone who has exhausted other more widely used sources.

Most Irish research comes to a standstill in the 1700s due to lack of records so don't expect easy progress with this.

Debbie,

You would search under Tullyhugh. Though townland names are not in such great use today they do still feature in street names and you will see them on some signage. But in any case you are searching records for the 1700s and 1800s so the townland was predominant then.  A townland is a unit of land. It’s a system unique to Ireland and dates back to at least the Norman times (1066) or earlier.

There were no street names or house numbers in Ireland in the 1700s and 1800s (save in Dublin and one or two other large cities). Your townland was your address. The postman and, anybody else who mattered, knew where in the townland you lived.

A group of townlands is a parish (Ballymore in this case) and a group of parishes makes a barony (Orior Lower in this case). Church records tend to be compiled by parish, but baronies feature in the Registry of Deeds (from about 1835 inwards) as part of their indexing system. As the number of deeds being registered increased, they broke them down by baronies.

For information there is another Tullyhugh in Co. Sligo, so that’s something to bear in mind if searching databases. And just to make it more interesting, some parishes have a townland within them of the same name. So the parish of Ballymore has a townland named Ballymore in it.  You often need the context to ascertain which is meant in any particular case.

Tullyhugh hasn’t been renamed Tandragee. The town of Tandragee (sometimes Tanderagee) has sprung up across 3 townlands: Derryallen, Ballymore and Tullyhugh. Most of the town is in Ballymore with just one end being in Tullyhugh. Most of Tullyhugh remains agricultural land. If looking for it on Google Earth, the Madden Rd runs through it.