William T. McBurnie

I don’t see a McBurnie=Smythe marriage in Ireland 1875-1900. Did they marry somewhere else?

William McBurnie/McBurney and Margaret Smythe are both very common names in Ireland. You would need to try and get their parents names from a marriage or death certificate to be sure of identifying the correct families.

Plenty of William McBurneys in Co. Down on this site:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/genealogy/SURNAMES/Mc/McB.htm

A birth around 1857 is before the start of statutory birth registration in Ireland (1864) and so to find William’s you would need to rely on church records. To do that you need to know his precise denomination, parents names and ideally have some idea of where in Co. Down he came from. The records may not be on-line, in which case you would probably nee dot get someone to search the baptism records in PRONI in Belfast.

Elwyn:

I may have found William (John?) McBurnie's (supposedly born in County Down) father's name: Alexander., although family lore says that it was: Thomas. Alexander's name comes from William's marriage record for his marriage to Margaret Jane Smith  on 7/22/1877 at Wavertree Holy Trinity Church of England. His father' occupation was listed as: "weaver". His mother's name is not included. One of the witnessess was a Thomas McBurnie and the other was Annie Morris.

Alexander or Thomas was supposedly from Scotland (family lore::beer seller vs. weaver in the marriage certificate). In County Down the McBurnie family supposedly lived in Castlevennon in Garvaghy Parish near Banbridge.

William was found in the 1881 England Census living in West Derby on the eastern outskirts of Liverpool. It appears that an older brother, John, was living with William's family. William's oldest son was named Thomas. The next son was named Alexander. His wife's father's name was: Thomas. So, it looks like the McBurnie family used the alternate naming pattern in Ireland.

I hope that this information assists finding where the McBurnie's actually lived in County Down. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

Don

Elwyn:

As a follow-up to my message above, I provide the following additional information.

William BcBurnie's marriage in England was at an Anglican Church. However, the McBurnie's were Methodists, at least in New York, but I understand before then also.

I found the death of an Alexander McBurney in 1874, aged 74 in Balloolymore. There was an inquest into his death so you might get more from the newspapers. (PRONI might still have the inquest papers too. Worth searching).

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1874/020646/7244453.pdf

Balloolymore and Castlevennon share a common boundary so it’s very close to where your family information suggests was the family’s origins. That Alexander was a weaver and his wife was still alive then.

Griffiths Valuation  for Castlevennon lists an Abel McBirney on plot 25b which was a house & small garden (typical for a weaver). His name is deleted in 1874. The name Abel is very rare. Suspect that’s a transcription error for Alex. (I can't find a death for an Abel).

I looked for Alexander’s widow’s death up to 1895 but without success. No McBirney/McBurney households in either townland in the 1901 census. Ros Davies site mentions Alexander was buried in Garvaghy Presbyterian graveyard, and that he was the father of Mrs Mary Cowan so that’s rather helpful:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/genealogy/SURNAMES/Mc/McB.htm

Also on the same page is Susanna McBurney who married John Porter on 10th April 1862. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church which was Garvaghy Presbyterian. Her address was Castlevennan. So you need to look at Garvaghy Presbyterian records in PRONI. Their baptisms start in 1809 but they have no marriages pre 1845.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1862/09623/5490030.pdf

Mary McBurney married Samuel Porter in 1862, again at Garvaghy Presbyterian:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1869/11417/8193506.pdf

I note what you say about the Liverpool wedding being Church of England. However tradition being to marry in the bride’s church all that tells you is that she was probably C of E. Husband could be anything, though as I think we have established he was probably Presbyterian (at birth anyway). Presbyterian fits with Scottish ancestry. Presbyterianism was established in Scotland in the 1500s and brought to Ireland by Scots settlers in the 1600s. Something like 200,000 Scots moved to Ireland then, mostly the counties of Ulster. Co. Down was so heavily populated they became the most common denomination. I think they possibly still are today.

Hopefully the above information will help.