Kearney family

Griffiths only has details of people with land or property rated at £5 a year or more. It also only has heads of household etc. So it's far from being acomprehensive list of the population. There could easily be Kearney or Larkin families in Magherafelt who do not appear in Griffiths.

Statutory registration of births only started in 1864 so Bridget and any siblings born before that year won't show up in the stat records.

Your best bet is probably to check the local RC parish records, looking for Bridget's birth, and that of any siblings. A copy is held IN PRONI, Belfast. They may not be on-line anywhere though.

Brendan:

There were very few Kearneys in the Magherafelt area in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. I found a record for a John Kearney in both censuses. The ages are consistent with the 1870 birth that you mentioned in your note.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Magherafelt/Church_Street/1533116/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Magherafelt/Church_Street/613787/

I also checked the censuses for Luney and found a Francis Larkin family. He was 70 in 1901 and 86 in 1911. The 1911 age is probably more accurate. Not sure if this is the father of Felix Larkin. Possibly his wife was his second wife since they were married 22 years with no children.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Desertmartin/Luney/1532550/

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai002872261/

Roger McDonnell

Thanks for your help. I knew Griffiths was only heads of households but I did not realize they had to have land or property rated at £5/yr or more.

Thanks, Roger!

I just searched the censuses for Kearneys in Desertmartin and I think, thanks to your help, I may have found them in Luney afterall:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Desertmart…

There's a John and Margaret (same names as Bridget's parents) and a younger John about the same age as Bridget's little brother.

They're in House 17 in 1901, but guess who's living there in 1911? The Francis Larkin you found! Felix Larkin was born around 1836, so this Francis is too young to have been his father, but could be a brother or cousin.

This does sound like my family - the twins, John and James died as infants. Lizzie immigrated to the US when her sister, Mary was married in New York City to Henry Murphy, from Desertmartin.

This does sound like my family - the twins, John and James died as infants. Lizzie immigrated to the US when her sister, Mary was married in New York City to Henry Murphy, from Desertmartin.

Thank you for your message, mhamel. So tragic to hear that about John and James. My research found that Lizzie married James Tunney in 1896. By the 1910 Census, the Tunneys were living with my Curleys (Thomas Curley & Bridget Kearney) in East Harlem. Is this consistent with what you've found? I would love to learn more about Henry and Mary. Please feel free to email me directly if you'd prefer, and I'd be happy to share what I've gathered so far: bchamilton10 [at] yahoo [dot] com.