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Thank you to all for this excellent discourse on the ancient graveyards of Magilligan, which has been a great help to me, far away in the USA.  My Sweeney, McNally, Redgate, and Canning ancestors are buried at St. Aidan's and (probably) the COI graveyard.  I manage a very old cemetery in Pennsylvania, and I hope I might offer some advice based on my own experience.  Your ancestors might well have erected a gravestone which is still there, but "invisible."  

Frequently gravestones become unstable, fall, and are simply left in place by caretakers.  Within a very few years, their weight pushes them down into the soil a few inches and they are quickly covered by a layer of grass sod and become invisible.  Thus, you might look at a spot where your ancestors ought to be and see nothing, when in fact there are gravestones a few inches (usually four to six inches) under the grass.  You can detect them by taking a thin but strong metal skewer (like for shishkabob), probing the soil, to see if you can detect the general outline of such a stone a few inches down.  (Of course, Irish graveyards are full of stones of all types, but the outline of a fallen gravestone is fairly distinctive.)  If you discover a gravestone, you do have to get the permission of the cemetery caretaker to cut the sod and roll it back to uncover it, but it is usually worth the effort, especially if the stone fell face down and the inscription has been protected from the elements for a long time.  No harm is done to the grave site, you can just roll the sod back after.  (Of course, if the stone fell face down, you'll need some help to gently turn it over to read the inscription.  Those things are hundreds and even over a thousand pounds in weight.)

I look forward to following your continuing discussion.

Sincerely, Barbara Miller, Allentown, PA

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Thank you very much, Aghadowey.  How great to have so much expertise at my fingertips.

Barbara

Gortinanima:
You are a real gem to have posted so many excertps of Mr. Moody's diary.  Is there any way for me to obtain a copy of the diary from far away in Pennsylvania, USA?  I am very anxious to learn background about events and living conditions in Magilligan and Dunboe parishes at any point during the 1800s, so I would love to know if Mr. Moody's diary mentions the Great Wind of January 1839, or famine/fever conditions at various times, or the actions of their landlord, Henry Hervey Bruce.  Perhaps his diary is limited to only events important to his immediate family. 

My Magilligan ancestors include Sweeneys, Cannings, Redgates, McAnally/McNallys, who lived at Clooney, Ballymagoland, Drumahorgan, Oughtamore, and Aughill, mostly.  Since Mr. Moody lived at Clooney prior to moving to Coleraine, he might mention events affecting my ancestors, as well.

In particular, my g-g-g-grandfather James McNally of Ballymagoland died on October 20, 1841, at a young age (38).  I'm wondering if a specific disaster/accident occurred on that date (which Mr. Moody might mention).   Supposedly, my g-g-g-g-grandfather Sweeney (name believed to be Patrick Sweeney) died at age 119 at Magilligan.  Perhaps this event might be sufficiently unusual to be mentioned.

I don't want to burden you with many lookups for me.  I appreciate any advice you can give me on how best to review a full copy of the diary.

Thank you so much.

Barbara Miller

To all, thank you for your very prompt and helpful replies.  Gortinanima, as you saw, my William Redgate family is the one in Aughil in the 1831 census.  I have found lots of Redgate data in the Magilligan/Tamlaghtard R.C. registers and in the 1700s Tamlaghtard Church of Ireland records, but somehow I missed the 1800s CofI microfilm when I visited PRONI, and I did not know that Brian Mitchell's Genealogy Center had closed.  The widow of William Redgate, Margaret Rudgate, is in Aughil in Griffiths Valuation.  I did not have the Martha Redgate or William Redgate marriages that you gave me.  Thank you!

Thanks for your wonderful advice, and for creating a new thread for my inquiry.  Being new to Rootschat, I did not know how to do that.

Slan, Barbara Miller