Joseph Moore

Muffin,

I am not researching the family but can tell you that Agohill, Co Antrim is likely to be Ahoghill, a small village near Ballymena. Woodburn is not the name of the church where they married (that was Portglenone 1^st Presbyterian), it’s where John was living. There is a Woodburn Presbyterian church (outside Carrickfergus) but it’s not where they married.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1877/11132/8075976.pdf

Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church. She lived in Garvaghy which is the townland which includes the village of Portglenone.  Griffiths Valuation of 1862 lists Samuel Cox living on plot 86e which was a labourer/weaver’s cottage. He is shown as tenant in the Valuation Revision records until 1879 after which it was vacant. Don’t know for certain where he went after that.

This might be his death:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

And this might be his marriage:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_re…

Portglenone 1^st Presbyterian has baptism records from 1826 onwards but with a gap 1847-1851. If Mary was born locally after 1852 then you may find her baptism in those records. There’s a copy in PRONI in Belfast. Free to view but they are not on-line.

I looked for marriages for any siblings Mary may have had but did not see any. There were a couple of other Cox families in the area, also attending 1^st Portglenone but the fathers were a farmer, a carpenter and a retired soldier. No Cox gravestones known in the area according to the Braid website. 1^st Portglenone doesn’t have a graveyard so the Coxes likely used either 2^nd Portglenone or the local Church of Ireland graveyards. Just 1 Cox household in Portglenone by the 1901 census.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Portglanone/Gar…

Joseph Moore is going to be a lot harder to research as it is such a common name. I assume that Woodburn must be the location outside Carrickfergus because I can’t find anywhere else in the general area of that name. Woodburn outside Carrickfergus is about 25 miles from where Mary lived. Griffiths does have at least 2 David Moores living in that general area (townlands of Middle Division & North East Division).

https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

There are several trees on Ancestry that list Joseph & Mary. At least one records him as being born in Randalstown, Co Antrim. That’s about 10 miles south of both Portglenone and Ahoghill. You might want to ask the tree owners for the source of that information. His birth in 1852 is before the start of birth registration in Ireland (1864) so like Mary you will need to rely on church records if they still exist.  You’ll need to know his denomination.  The relevant records, if they exist, should be in PRONI.  The Church of Ireland (Drummaul parish) has baptism records from 1823. The Old Presbyterian Congregation has records from 1853, Randalstown 1^st has no baptism records and Randalstown 2^nd Presbyterian has baptisms from 1850.

A problem that you face, apart from the names being so common, is that David & Joseph were both labourers. They tended to move about a lot, to follow the available work. They can be very difficult to trace.