Visiting Cushendall in mid-October to research McAuley and Black from Kilmore

As far as official records for Layd are concerned, most are either held on-line or in PRONI in Belfast. There aren’t any common records kept only in the Cushendall area.  Ballymena library local studies section does have a wide range of general reading about life in the 1800s and earlier. Good for obtaining background information on life as a farmer or labourer etc in the Glens and elsewhere. Read the Ordnance Survey memoirs for Layd parish (copies in PRONI and Ballymena library) for a very detailed description of life there in the mid 1830s. Usually names a lot of families as well.

Have a look in the graveyards in case you get something from gravestones. In general, the RC church didn’t keep burial records, and only wealthier families could afford gravestones. Farmers might often have a gravestone, a labourer would probably not. So some of your family may be buried in unmarked graves. (The family would have known where their plots were but once they died or moved away, that information was obviously lost).

Looking at Griffiths Valuation for 1861, I can see that there were 2 McAuley farms in Kilmore (Patrick & James) plus 3 farm workers houses (John, Eneas & another John). In the 1901 census there were 5 McAuley households there (1 farmer, 1 grocer, and 3 labourers). So lots of McAuley families in the area. Farmers tended to stay put, but labourers often moved around to follow the available work. So if your family were labourers then they may not always have lived in Kilmore.

Try and have a detailed tree for your family to show to people with known years of birth, marriage, death, occupations etc. (I tried to get to the bottom of that in your earlier messages but you didn’t give me enough specific information to determine which family is which, though I can see at least 2 childrens births in Kilmore to the parents you named).

I can see that there is a McAuley household in the Kilmore area in the current phone book. Postcode BT44 0QX. Easy enough to find. (It’s not our policy to give out living peoples details directly on this website). The main roads through Kilmore today are Kilmore Rd, Glenariffe Rd & Glasmullen Rd. I would knock on a few doors there and ask around for information. Be aware that unless they happen to be interested in genealogy – and many are not – most families here can only go back about 3 or 4 generations ie to about 1900, before they get a bit hazy.  And since most families kept repeating the same Christian names, where  there are many families in the area, it’s very easy to get them mixed up.

If checking the 1911 census for Kilmore, be aware that some households completed it in Irish and so you need to do a little work to identify all of the McAuleys.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Red_Bay/Kilmore/

Hi, hope your well? 
Just saw your post about the Mcauley family. I'm trying to find my granny's family who were mcauleys. My grans sister told me that she ad the family were from cushendall! 
I did find out a good bit, if it's any help there's a site called a BillionGraves & findagrave. Their free and some have pictures. My grans family ended up in Larne virtually all their lives and buried at te huge cemetery on a hill overlooking the ocean and town of Larne. 
I hope it's some help. 
I'm from Portsmouth but regard myself Irish ☘️ 

Take care