Keys

The Duneane RC marriage records only start in 1835 so I suspect that Joseph & Mary’s marriage was a little before that. Consequently there won’t be a record of it today.

Death registration in Ireland didn’t start till 1864 and RC churches generally don’t keep burial records, so if Mary died in Ireland before that, there may be no documentary record of it.  In the 1800s there were 2 RC chapels in the parish, one at Cargin and the other at Moneyglass.  There is also Cranfield graveyard on the shores of Lough Neagh which some families in the area use. The gravestone inscriptions from these 3 graveyards are on-line on the Ulster Historical Foundation website. (Pay to view).  No Keys in any of them but 3 McAuley in Cranfield.  The majority of the population then couldn’t afford a gravestone and would be buried in an unmarked grave.

I can see the baptism of James Keys in Duneane on 6.12.1836 to above parents. Sponsors were John Mather & Rose Keys. I also see the baptism of an Elizabeth on 15.5.1842 to James & Rose Keys.  So Joseph Keys and James Keys may be related. (Brothers perhaps).  Can’t see the baptisms for Mary, William & Elizabeth.

Griffiths Valuation for 1862 lists a Frances McAuley farming in Carlane, Duneane. No Keys listed.

Keys is not a particularly common name in Co Antrim. I looked in the 1901 census. There were only 56. None in the Duneane area and quite a few that are listed were born outside Co. Antrim.

I looked in the local phone book (postcode BT41). There is 1 Keys in the general area but she is ex-directory.  (She looks to be on the electoral register though, but that’s pay to view). There are 21 McAuleys. 597 McAuley (and variant spellings) in the 1901 census for Co. Antrim. 2 households around Duneane. Here’s the Carlane family for example:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cargin/Carlane/919305/

Another in Derryhollagh:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Cranfield/Derryhollagh/919473/

http://www.ukphonebook.com

You say you would like more history of the area. Probably the best description of it would be the Ordnance Survey memoirs of the parish. They were written in 1830, and contain 26 pages of information about the parish. You need “Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland” Volume 19 (south-west Antrim). That was published in 1993 by the Ulster Historical Foundation. There are copies in PRONI, Ballymena Library (local studies section) and the UHF might still have copies for sale. The chapter on Duneane is 32 pages and contains a wide variety of information about local history, occupations lists of locals who migrated in the mid 1830s. Many went to Glasgow. It was a common destination. There’s a bit about United Irishmen activity in the area in 1798. And of course, Roddy McCorley (or more correctly Roger McCorley), the subject of a famous song by the Dubliners and others, was hanged at Toomebridge in February 1800. Extract from Belfast Newsletter 7th March 1800:

“Upon Friday last a most awful procession took here, namely the escorting of Roger McCorley, who was lately convicted at a court martial, to the place of execution, Toome-bridge, the unfortunate man having been bred in that neighbourhood. As a warning to others it is proper to observe that the whole course of his life was devoted to disorderly proceedings of every kind; for many years past scarcely a Quarter Session occurred, but that the name Roger McCorley appeared in a variety of criminal cases! His body was given up to dissection, and afterwards buried under the gallows.

Hi Elwyn

I cant thank you enough for your help, I had seen the baptism for Elizabeth Keys to James and Rose but never dawned on me there may be a connection. 

The baptism I had found on Findmypast recently was a huge breakthrough because half of my maternal grandmothers side are from Ireland and it has been a long and slow process finding out where they came from, having started my research back in 1998, as all the census's tell me is that they were born in Ireland, I still have the Mitchell line to trace in Ireland but it is looking like they all came from Northern Ireland My Douglas/Black line were from townships in Limavady,  and my recent find Antrim.

I now have James's baptism, Many thanks 

William on the 9th April 1842 in  Glenarm Antrim so I have now found his but noting so far for Mary or Eliza (Elizabeth)  as yet, 

How soon in Ireland after birth would the baptism take place?

I know in some area's in Scotland it was normal to have a baby baptised the same day because of the high infant mortality rate.

I myself was born and brought up in Glasgow, and now Live in Argyll and hope that one day to be able to visit where all of my Irish lines came from, and knowing a bit more about their lives works etc 

Thank You So Much 

Sybil 

Sybil,

You ask how soon after the birth would the baptism take place. It varies from denomination to denomination. With many Protestant denominations it’s typically 3 months or so, though you sometimes see batches of children aged say 5, 6, 7 & 8 all in the same family, being baptised at once. A job lot. However with RC baptisms, the norm was to baptise within a few days. (The belief at the time was that if the child died before being baptised it would be left in spiritual limbo. So there was an urgency to the business that didn’t apply to other denominations).

Thanks again Elwyn,

That has been the case in many parts of Scotland wehre they were baptised very soon after birth

Your help has been invaluble and greatly appreciated 

Sybil