Mackey/Harbison of Terrydoo, Limavady

[aghadowey]

One way to check for a previous marriage is the registration index- registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845. There are no marriages listed for a Stewart Harbi(n)son before the 1876 one so if there was an earlier one it's likely before 1845.

The marriage certificate for Stewart (see reply #5 for details from registration index needed to order the certificate) will give marital status (single/bachelor, widower or, less likely, divorced) which will answer the question as to whether or not there was a previous wife.

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
   Cannot find an earlier wife but a Nancy Harbison died in Limavady Jan - Mar 1889, aged about 35. Can be found in the Registrar's Vol 1 Page 528.

Regards

[terrydoo73]

Thank you for your replies.  Stewart was born in 1830 so his marriage would probably have been in the 1850's I assume.  Is there any way of checking Catholic registered marriages?

Also could you tell me if it is possible to find information in Coleraine Library for family history?  I have heard of relatives who have gone to the Library searching for details and come away successful???

[aghadowey]

Civil registration of Catholic marriages began in 1864 and will be included in the civil registration index- no sign of any there.

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
   Coleraine library have microfilm records of most churches in the north of Co. Londonderry. I have always found the staff very helpful. However many of these records are very difficult to read.

Regards

[aghadowey]

I have Coleraine Library's list of church microfilms- if you let me know which church(es) are you interested in I will check the dates included on the film(s).

[terrydoo73]

OK so I am going on another trace here for the James Herbison mentioned in this thread who died 11 July 1889 and whose will mentions his children Thomas, Martha, Mary, Nancy, Jane, James, Matthew, Eliza and Catherine.  We know from 1901 census he was married to Martha and his son Thomas married Rachel and they had children Thomas, Mary, James, Matthew and then William in 1911 has been born.  We want to connect our James to Stewart as we believe they may have been brothers.  Can we find James and Martha's marriage certificate?  This will help us to find out their respective father's and obviously if I had Stewart's marriage certificate it would also show his father.

Would I be able to see the marriage certificates in Coleraine Library for both these men?  We reckon Stewart was born in 1830 and James was 1822 so it is possible they were brothers and there were other siblings.  What we cannot understand is that James owned 2 farms and Stewart was only a labourer and both lived in the same vicinity - Drumrammer so we assume that James and Stewarts father owned the land which he bequeathed to James being the eldest son.  This is all assumption on our part!

[aghadowey]

Would I be able to see the marriage certificates in Coleraine Library for both these men? 
If the marriage took place in a church and those church records for that period are on microfilm in the library then you will be able to view the record and take notes of the details (but not photocopy the register due to an agreement with the churches at the time of copying).

The civil registration index is online (www.familysearch.org) but you need to search for bride and groom separately which is more difficult/time consuming without bride's surname. Civil registration of non-Catholic marriages started in 1845 (Catholic marriages from 1864) so if the marriage took place before those dates it will not be in the index and you'd have to search for church records.

[terrydoo73]

Have looked up the web site you mentioned and it does name Stewart Harbison as having a marriage in 1876 but no details of his bride?