William McCammon

Hi Shirley:

I know Elwyn has spent a lot of time working on your messages. Just so you know whether you post on a local parish like Kilmegan or Ireland XO in general, all messages end up on the main message board. Hopefully, Elwyn will be along to respond to your latest message. 

Roger McDonnell

Carnacavill is in the parish of Maghera. Moneylane is in the parish of Kilmegan. I looked in Griffiths Valuation for 1863 and there’s no listing for a McCammon household there. However in Moneylane there’s a James Mahaffy listed who was farming plot 8, which was an 18 acre farm. That farm today is on the Hollybush Rd, just west of Dundrum.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

You can look to see when that property later changed hands using the revaluation records:

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm

There’s a John & Samuel Mahaffy farming in Moneylane in 1829. See:

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/down/tithe-applotment-books/kilmegan-parish.php#.Vs1WuVJ2ug0

There’s no McCammon listed in Carnacavill or indeed anywhere in that parish so possibly his ancestors weren’t farmers, or at least not in that parish.

Assuming Margaret was born in the Moneylane area, you would need to search the relevant church records to find her birth/baptism. If she was Church of Ireland, they start in 1823, if Presbyterian (Castlewellan) then not until 1845. The records are not on-line as far as I am aware but there is a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast.

If William was born in Maghera then the bad news is that the Church of Ireland records prior to 1881 were destroyed in the 1922 fire. I am not sure what the nearest Presbyterian church would be to Carnacavill. Some research might be needed to find it.

Shirley,

Griffiths Primary Valuation took about 18 years to compile. The clerks started in the south of the country around 1848 and worked gradually north. So places like Cork were done in the late 1840s but Co Down and other nearby counties were done in the early 1860s. You can see when each townland was valued by going to Griffiths and clicking on “Griffiths Places”. Then type in the townland. Click on “occupants” which brings up a list of all the occupants of that townland. Now click on “details”. In the case of Moneylane, that shows it was published in 1863. So the data was gathered in 1863 (or the previous 6 months).

After the initial Primary Valuation, the clerks re-visited each townland and updated the information. They did that about every 2 years and recorded changes of landlord, changes of occupant, changes of use, demolition, extensions etc. They recorded these changes in books, and used a different coloured pencil for each year, noting the year in the remarks column. Some of the dates are out by a year or two (eg if someone died they occasionally appear for a year or two after their death). So the dates are not 100% accurate. Each book lasted about 10 years and was then replaced by a new one. These revaluation records run from the Primary Valuation through to 1929.  So most townlands have 5 or 6 books. Those for Northern Ireland are on-line:

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm

The revaluation records for the Republic of Ireland are not on-line. They are held by the Valuation Office in Dublin. However there are plans to put them on-line in the not too distant future.