Hello, thank you for that. It's really good of you to go to all that trouble.
It's taken me a long time, but I'm really lucky to find out whereabouts he came from in Ireland and to have his parents names too.
I was wondering why he left Ireland, obviously I'll never know for certain, I think it was too early for the Potato famine. However, I noticed on Wikipedia it said:
"On 12 July 1830, Orange Institution parades led to confrontations between Orangemen and Ribbonmen in Maghera and Castledawson. Several Catholic homes were then burnt by Protestants following these clashes"
I wonder whether a lot of catholic families left because of this? He may have left before this but it's something to think about.
Again, many thanks for your post