My grandfather was Joseph Donaldson from Ballywalter. He immigrated to the USA in early 1900's. His parents were John and Mary (McVey) Donaldson from Springvale, Ballywalter. It is my understanding that John was a manager at a gas plant. They had 8 or 9 other children. One was John J who was a gamekeeper, James, Samuel (immigtrated in early 1900's also), William( went to Dublin, married and had 2 children then 4 grandsons. I have found the grandsons in Dublin and correspond with Robert.) John and Mary also had Mary, Margaret, Elizabeth and Janey, perhaps one other child. The information I have located includes John and Mary's marriage at the Ballywalter 2nd Presbyterian church in 1864. I have found records of their children's births and the obituaries for John, Mary and Margaret. I think they had a family burial plot in Ballyhalbert. Also, that Janey died at a young age. I was in Ballywalter and visited the Ballyhalbert cemetary on the coast road and only found a grave for Elizabeth Donaldson.
Additionally, I visited with a geneaolgy group in Bangor and found some Mcvey information. Mary's father was James Mcvey, her mother Mary Anne Adams Edmund(s). Again they were married in Ballywalter Prebyterian Church. I have a list of their children's birth or baptism records.
I'm looking for any additional information, family etc. I think John Donaldson was an active member of the Orange Lodge and in general the Donaldson family had a "comfortable" life style. The pictures of their home support that thought.
Looking forward to learning more.
Karen Donaldson Curry
kcurry
Sunday 2nd Feb 2020, 05:29PMMessage Board Replies
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Karen,
This looks to be your family in the 1901 census, which indicates they had 6 children still living at home, including Joseph, and that John Donaldson senior was a Gas Manager.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Down/Ballywalter/Springvale/1256443/
Gas Manager meant that he supervised a local factory where “town” gas was manufactured from coke. There isn’t any town gas in Ireland any longer. Where people use gas today, it is either piped into their home from the North Sea, via a pipeline from Scotland or, in rural areas, they use propane cylinders. There is however one surviving local gas plant which is now an industrial museum. It’s in Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim (near the Castle). If you are interested in seeing the sort of gasworks that John managed, you might want to visit it:
http://flamegasworks.co.uk/concrete/
Manager of a gas plant would have provided a reasonable income and as you say, he was probably fairly comfortably off. To undertake that job effectively, he presumably had acquired both engineering and management skills.
Looking at the 1901 census in more detail, if you click on the house & outbuilding pages section, you will see that John’s house was rented, it had a roof made of tile, iron or slate, 4 rooms and there were 2 windows at the front. It’s overall grading was a 2nd class home, as were nearly all the other properties on that page.
By 1911, the family were still at the same address but there were only 3 children at home. The census also tells you the couple had been married 43 years, had 10 children of whom 9 were still alive. Joseph had left home.
Children:
Mary 15.1.1869
James 19.5.1873
John 2.1.1875
William 5.12.1877
Margaret 17.7.1879
Eliza 5.3.1881
Samuel 21.7.1883
Joseph 5.7.1886
Jane 7.6.1888
The missing child was possibly a stillbirth that wouldn’t have been registered.
I searched the PRONI wills site for probate files for the family who remained in Northern Ireland but did not find any.
I searched an on-line newspaper site for mentions of John senior. I did not find any.
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Monday 3rd Feb 2020, 11:37AM