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The McCracken link to Magilligan Caldwells is very interesting and I hope it can lead to some clues that help me tie out my Magilligan Caldwell ancestors to them.  I believe that the Nancy Caldwell who married John McCracken is an Aunt of my emigrant Caldwell (William Caldwell - baptized in Magilligan Presby).   But it may not be because we have seen records in Magilligan Presby of a Nancy Caldwell and her neice going to America. 

It would make some sense to me that those graves are very, very old (pre-dating 1700) because I have read references to such an old graveyard.  It will be helpful to approximate the date of them because if they are that old, I would rule it out as a source for missing Caldwell graves knowing that there were lots of Caldwells near there in the 1700s and 1800s.  My theory is that with so many Caldwells in the area during that time period and no found graves, that either Aghadowey is right and they (a) did not have graves; (b) just purchased a stone, no inscription; or (c) they are all in a family plot somewhere.  I am still hopeful that the last theory is the correct one and we just have not found them yet.  But I accept the reality that it could be (b).  Magilliganlass had a very helpful suggestion that I will see if I can use next time I go to St. Aidans and Tamlaghtard.  The grave in St. Aidans that lists my great, great, great, great Grandmother, Margaret Caldwell, is close to the church and on a slope with nothing around it.  It is possible that there are other hidden graves there.  But I think that is not likely because for much of this period St. Aidans was Catholic and we know that our Caldwells were Presby Scots.  I am more curious about using that method at Tamlaghtard, however, because there are large plots in that graveyard where you would expect to find graves but do not find any.  Either they are buried or have been otherwise destroyed.  And that church is a couple of hundred yards from the biggest recorded Caldwell farm in the 1800s.  We have viewed the record book at Tamlaghtard and have 3 Caldwells listed at this time - which is a little odd because it was CoI.  But it pre-dates Magilligan Presby Church and so it looks to us like they would have had to pick between Dunboe, Ballykelly, or find some family connection to the CoI which gave them the moral justification to attend Tamlaghtard.  Maybe not likely, but a possibility nonetheless.

Ah, that is so sad.  Thanks for looking.  The importance of these graveyards is just, very sadly, missed by some people. 

That was our initial thought - that the Caldwells in Magilligan were poor and hence the possibility of finding headstones would be even more remote.  But looking at the various maps we have from PRONI, we have fairly decent sized farms being attributed to Caldwells for much of this period.  Wouldn't it be somewhat unlikely that larger farm owners to both have the resources and the desire to have a grave with a headstone?   I can also see maybe one or two Caldwells not spending the money on a headstone, for some reason or another, but with so many in the area, it is more difficult to imagine that many larger farmers would pass on graves.  The Caldwell who emigrated had a large farm in Wisconsin and purchased his family and himself a fine headstone in the latter part of the 1800s.  It would be odd for him to be the only one in the family who placed meaning on a headstone with an inscription.

Thanks Kingskerswell.  I have been multiple times to all 3 of those over the past 4 years.  But your effort is very generous and appreciated.  I am not sure how we will be able to make inquiries about the graveyard stmccmilligan mentions or follow up on the graves that are mentioned as being unearthed out near the point.  If they are pre-1700s, then undoubtedly erosion will render them unreadable.  But as I mentioned, with so many of our Caldwells there in the 1700s and early 1800s, I am clinging to a hope that somewhere in the area there will be a number of Caldwell graves (doesn't make as much sense to me that generations of Caldwells farmed in the Tircrevan/Lower Ballyleighery area but chose to be buried in a Presby Church somewhere beyond Ballykelly or Dunboe). 

The living Brewster relative thinks that the Caldwell farm was very small per his recollection but we have found in the records that much of the current Br farm is on land that for most of the 1800s was recorded as being worked by Alexander/John Caldwell.  Since Alexander Caldwell's mother was a Brewster/Browster, and because Alexander did not have any male heirs, we speculate that at some point in the 1800s he worked out a deal with the Brewster relatives for the land.  None of that is really important for our work, however, because what we really want to do is find some way to tie the Caldwells I listed together.