LAIRD, TODD, MORRISON and McKEANEY families in Kilcoo parish

Susan,

Do you have a copy of that 1871 marriage certificate? If so, what were the couple?s respective townlands when they married? What were their 2 father?s occupations? This information may enable me to locate them in the land records.

You can view the certificates on-line on the GRONI website, using the ?search registrations? option:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk

(You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs ?2 to a view a certificate).

Tradition was to marry in the bride?s church (which should be on the certificate, unless it was a Registry Office marriage). That church may be the place to look for her baptism and that of any siblings. Let me know the details of the church and I?ll tell you what records exist and where they are kept.

I have searched for Sinead McKeaney using the usual on-line public sources and I suspect she may be employed by Price Waterhouse Coopers (as a taxation expert) in London. You might want to contact them.

Nigel appears on a public site that links him to Sinead. It says he lives in Dublin. (Google him). He?s not listed in the current Irish phone book.

Elwyn

Hello Elwyn,
Thanks for your response and kind offer of help! I do not have a copy of the 1871 marriage certificate of John H.  Laird, Sr. and Mary Jane Todd, but I do have 1863 land record information on both their fathers, John Laird and Henry Todd, from Griffith's Valuation. I even found map showing the exact location of their farms.

It is good to know that the marriage certificate would have the name of the church unless is was a Registry Office marriage. That is certainly worth the fee to get the certificate copy, and I will pursue that.

Regarding the McKeaneys: there are two Sinead McKeaneys on Facebook, one of whom is the Price Waterhouse Coopers young woman and I'm 99% certain she is not the one I'm looking for.  The other one lives in Malahide, near Dublin (where Nigel McKeaney lives, per his FB page); her banner photo shows a man who looks very much like Nigel; AND she likes a soccer team from South Africa, where the family used to live. (Nigel's page says he's from South Africa, which is information that my uncle had about their family). My challenge now is to either get Nigel to return my "Friend" request, email him via Facebook and hope he checks his "other" mail folder (which most people don't even realize exists in FB), or find a mailing address for him in Dublin through public records or online phone book and write to him. (I could try to "Friend" Sinead but she is unlikely to accept such a request from an older American woman!)

Elwyn, I will give you my direct email address so that you can email me, thus giving me your email address. I can send you image captures of the land records for John Laird and Henry Todd, and perhaps you'll have additional ideas for me. My email is my first and last name, all run together, lower case. Then, it's AT earthlink.net. (I describe it this way to avoid spammers picking up the address if I just type it out.) I would appreciate you emailing me directly if you are willing.

Many thanks again for your ideas and suggestions.
Susan Rogers

Hi

I'm Nigel Mc Keaney the son of James Mc Keaney and grandson of James Mc Keaney, I was born in 1966 in Belfast and we moved to South Africa in 1967, I returned to Ireland in March 2000 and we live in Malahide, Dublin.

I married Lorraine Reid in 1993 and we have 3 children, Sinead Mc Keaney 19, Kyle Mc Keaney 16, Rhys Mc Keaney 12.

Should you wish to contact me email nigel.mckeaney@gmail.com

Hi

I'm Nigel Mc Keaney the son of James Mc Keaney and grandson of James Mc Keaney, I was born in 1966 in Belfast and we moved to South Africa in 1967, I returned to Ireland in March 2000 and we live in Malahide, Dublin.

I married Lorraine Reid in 1993 and we have 3 children, Sinead Mc Keaney 19, Kyle Mc Keaney 16, Rhys Mc Keaney 12.

Should you wish to contact me email nigel.mckeaney@gmail.com

Hi

I'm Nigel Mc Keaney the son of James Mc Keaney and grandson of James Mc Keaney, I was born in 1966 in Belfast and we moved to South Africa in 1967, I returned to Ireland in March 2000 and we live in Malahide, Dublin.

I married Lorraine Reid in 1993 and we have 3 children, Sinead Mc Keaney 19, Kyle Mc Keaney 16, Rhys Mc Keaney 12.

Should you wish to contact me email nigel.mckeaney@gmail.com

Hello again! I'm seeking the burial place of John LAIRD, the father of John H. Laird, Sr. mentioned in the earlier posts above. His wife was NOT Margaret Hunter as previously theorized above, it was Margaret McPOLAND, who was Roman Catholic, died 1897 and is buried in an RC cemetery in Newcastle. (See attached.) There is no other Laird in that cemetery, corroborating the idea that she, a Catholic, was buried at the RC cemetery and her husband John Laird (probably C of I) was buried elsewhere.

He was substantially older, born about 1787 based on his death registration in Kilkeel (thanks Elwyn!) stating age 90 at death in 1877 (died 20 years earlier than his wife). The Irish Calendar of Wills and Administration say John Laird died in Newcastle. I've found that NIFHS has a book of cemetery transcriptions from Ballaghbeg, which I think is the closest church, so I hope to find his gravestone there. His listing on Griffith's Valuation is in Ballaghbeg. Three of John's siblings were baptized in the Bryansford church, so that's a possibility, too (or is that the same church as "in Ballaghbeg"? ).

Also seeking a marriage record for this John Laird and Margaret McPoland but based on Elwyn's statement that marriages were generally in the bride's church, any record of it (probably 1840 or 1841 based on birthdate of first child) would be held in a Catholic church which I have yet to locate (probably on Dromore or Dromara, and I've posted on that board). The Catholic records I've seen digitized start a few years later, if I remember correctly.

For what it's worth, I have the parents of John Laird 1787-1877 as Samuel Laird and Margaret BARRY. Samuel and Margaret had three children whose births were recorded and are now digitized at FamilySearch.org: Magaret Laird b abt 1794, James Laird b abt 1796, and Barry Laird b about 1801. My theory is that Samuel and Margaret (Barry) Laird were also the parents of (1) Eleanor Laird (found in Kilcoo on Ros Davies website list of Lairds) and (2) my John Laird 1787-1877, and that both of them were born earlier than the other three children, thus before records were kept. John named his eldest son Samuel Barry Laird (abt 1841- 1909), strongly supporting the idea that John's mother was Margaret Barry. I have attached a small screen shot of this from my tree.

Thanks for any thoughts and ideas. (And can you board monitors take down the duplicate and triplicate posts of Nigel McKeaney? No need for multiple identical posts.)

Susan

P.S. Thanks to this website, I'll be meeting Nigel McKeaney this May when we come to Ireland!