Looking for Rooneys

Neil:

The 1859 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Co. Tyrone lists a John Rooney in Millix townland in Errigal Keerogue civil parish which is the civil parish for Ballygawley town. Not sure if this is your John Rooney. There are also four Irvins listed in this parish. You may also want to look at the Church records available through the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. They have Church of Ireland and Presbyterian records for Ballygawley.

Roger McDonnell

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/tyrone/errigalkeerogue.htm

http://www.proni.gov.uk/guide_to_church_records.pdf

Hello Roger,

Thanks for your reply.  Yes, we think that is probably our John Rooney as there aren't many of them around that area.  What we didn't know was that Ballygawley is in the civil parish of Errigal Keeeogue.  This is very helpful.  The Irwins of Cavey  are the family that Mary belonged to - James - (Red ) being her Father.

As far as I can see the church records do not seem to be available online, so may have to wait until we can make a trip to  Ireland and Belfast.

 It is also interesting to note that the land rented by John Rooney was owned by Sir William Verner.  Eliza Johnston (nee Rooney) used the name Verner as a middle name of one of her sons! We had no idea where the name came from until now - so this could be another pointer to this John being the right one.  There are also Sloanes in the area -  John's son,  William's NZ death certificate states mother - Sloan.

Thank you for your help.

Regards  Neil