Boundary changes?

My g/grandfather was born in Ballydeslan, as written on the death certificate, Donegal county. I have searched & searched in the Donegal records only to find that a name closest to Ballydeslan was Ballydesland in Co. Down.
I'm wondering if perhaps there were some townland boundary changes over the years or was it just a mistake on the part of whoever wrote the certificate. ?

 

Fern49, could it be Ballyederlan which is in County Donegal? Try looking at http://www.seanruad.com, the Townland Index, and search using 'Bally' or Balli' and the 'At beginning of field' option. Ballyederlan is a townland in Killaghtee parish, which is where I live, so if it turns out to be correct and you need anything local, let me know.

 

Hi Charlie, thanks very much for that, I'll certainly take a look, I certainly haven't had any luck so far.

 

Hello Charlie, I have been researching the name Ballyederlan which is known as Ballyderlan, & I strongly suspect this is where my gg/grandparents lived. I've checked the death certificate of my g/grandfather James Campbell (emigrated to New Zealand ) and I believe what I thought was an s in the spelling (Ballydeslan), is in fact an r, so there is the name Ballyderlan. I'm just hoping against hope that there are still some records to be found for the time period of about 1820 to 1879 .

 

Hi Fern49. I have a copy of a book published a couple of years ago about the families on St John's Point, which is where Ballyederlan is located. It is quite well researched so I'll look at it shortly and see if I can find anything about the Campbells. You may already have done this but if you look at Street View on Google Maps for either Ballyederlan or +54° 36' 4.35", -8° 23' 23.15" you'll see what a glorious spot it is.

 

Hi Fern49
I've had a look at Brid Ward's book and can't see any references to Campbells in Ballyederlan. However, the records are quite sparse. There are no censuses prior to 1901 and the best alternative, Griffiths Valuation was carried out in 1857 for that area. It has no Campbells listed. Do you have an approximate year your g/grandfather was born? I'd be happy to look at the Killaghtee parish records when I'm next in Letterkenny if you have some dates and think it would be helpful.
Charlie

 

Brilliant map. Thanks so much, Alexander. It's quite thrilling to see the outlines of my great-grandfather's house (nowadays owned and cherished by his nephew's descendants)!

 

Hi Charlie, Google street maps are brilliant you get a good idea of the area, many thanks for that. If you are happy to look at the Killaghtee parish records I'd be very grateful, a big thank you.
My g/grandfather James Campbell was born according to his death certificate, in 1849,( the estimated birth year in Immigration passenger lists is 1851. ) James immigrated on the ship "Dorette" with his brother George, estimated birth year 1853. They are listed as farm labourers, and departed 20 January 1874 for Auckland,New Zealand. Their parents were Andrew Campbell & MaryAnn nee Grove.
There are quite a few Campbells in the 1911 census ,Donegal, but not knowing any other family members ,it's not possible for me to get a handle on anyone of them.
I have done a lot of searching for the name Grove thinking that,that might not be as 'common' as Campbell, but that also was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Good luck.

 

Fern
Finally managed to get up to the library in Letterkenny but they don't have parish records for those dates. I'll try ask the local priest if they still have the originals. I will be at a meeting with him at the end of next week. As a thought, would you know the religion? The original Killaghtee church is no longer there but there's a later Catholic church at Bruckless and a Church of Ireland one at Killaghtee - both Killaghtee parish I suspect.
Charlie

 

Charlie. Thanks for your efforts, it is appreciated. James Campbell was Presbyterian.

 

Fern - That makes it slightly more complicated as there's no Presbyterian church nearby. I suspect baptisms, burials, etc might have been carried out by Church of Ireland in Killaghtee but I've dropped a note to the local Methodist minister to see if he knows where the Presbyterian church is. Interestingly there are only two mentions of Campbells in the 1857 Griffiths Valuation for the area but they're both on the next headland to St John's Point, about 4-6 miles from Ballyederlan. There are no Groves listed. Charlie

 

Charlie; That is very good of you. I've been going through the records that I have of James and I've come across a record that says he was born in Belfast. !? others Co.Donegal. On checking the Ireland maps online, it looks as though Belfast is some way from Co.Donegal and appears to be in Co.Antrim or Down.? Is it possible that Belfast was in Co.Donegal at some stage? Things are getting more complicated.!!

 

Fern: I don't believe Belfast was ever in Co Donegal, though they're both in the province of Ulster. However, it's not at all unusual for people to record different birthplaces on different sources - very confusing for us coming after them. I think it would often be because either they'd been born in one place and grown up in another so wouldn't necessarily be aware of their birthplace or when someone else makes the record for them. For example, I'm looking at my wife's grandfather at present and there's someone we think is him in a census, where he was living as an apprentice, but his birthplace is recorded as a townland a mile or so from his own. Everything else fits but not the birthplace. But he wouldn't have filled in the census form so his employer/landlord may just have made a guess. I've other, more definite examples, where the birthplace is recorded differently.
As I said in earlier post, there are no Campbells in the St John's Point area at the time, nor Groves, so maybe Donegal is a red herring after all.

 

Hi Charlie. It may well be that Donegal is a red herring. I did some searches for genealogy records in Belfast and did come across the name of Groves as well as Andrew Campbell. Of course the latter is quite a 'common' name so I'm thinking to look for Groves, not so common, and I might get somewhere, hopefully. Sorry to have put you on a bit of a goose chase, although the name of Ballyederlan has to be a place close to where they lived, one would think.

 

Hi Fern, I'll still try to look at the Ballyederlan parish records when I'm in Dublin in a couple of weeks. I had a message back from the Presbyterian Minister that he has no records for this area for the 1800s. I read on the Presbyterian website that records, if they exist, would be at PRONI. Sometimes records are at both PRONI and Dublin so I'll give it a go. You should be able to access PRONI on the 'net.
Charlie

 

Hi Charlie, I've done a search on the Proni website for names on the Ulster covenant & Freeholders, Andrew Campbell comes up on both, but as I said, it's a fairly common name. Checked the list of Townlands in Belfast looking for a similar name to Ballyederlan, but nothing comes close. My next step is to look up the Presbyterian Church records that are online in the hope that Baptism records for James & George may be available. Also marriage records for Andrew & Mary Ann. Good luck.

 

Fern49
As promised, I asked at Dublin when I was down there in middle of June (have been away since then) and they don't keep Presbyterian records for that period. Sorry.
Charlie

 

Hi Charlie, A big thank you for all your effort, much appreciated.

 

An update; I decided to get the death printout on George in case there was other information that wasn't on James'. I found the writing far more legible and mother's name was Love (Mary Ann) not Grove as I first thought. Quite a turn up, hoping it will bare fruit.