McCleery family history, Letterkenny/Raphoe area

Greeting from New Zealand. I am a longtime genealogist who is now starting to explore my Irish McCleery ancestors. My great grandfather was Alexander McCleery, who was born in the mid-1850s in the Letterkenny/Raphoe area and emigrated to New Zealand as a young man. He lived to be 97, spending 76 years in his new home country, apart from a few years around 1920 when he returned to Donegal to claim the family farm at Maughrehaan as his inheritance.

I have been given a fascinating account of McCleery family history in both Ireland and New Zealand, written by someone who has initialed each page BGM (presumably B.G. McCleery). The account possibly dates back 50 years. It contains this fascinating morsel: "Uncle Bill also told of being invited to read a 'lesson' at the Raphoe Cathedral one Sunday. The Bible, which was being used in the Cathedral, was presented to the Church many, many years before and was the McCleery Family Bible. ....Uncle Bill told me the family record was kept in the 'fly leaves' of this bible. As far as he could determine it went back for 340 years."

Apparently, a Canon Reede remembered the bible, which was replaced in 1963 and sent to the Church Archives.

Needless to say, I would be very interested to know if this bible is, indeed, held by the Church Archives, and whether it could be accessed. I would firstly have to establish that the bible is held there, and then see if I can arrange for someone to view it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I realise many of these institutions do not have the staffing to be able to help with such general inquiries from members of the public.

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