1841 census James son of a family in Grey Abbey but that seems too far away from Killinchy. Griffiths lists Samuel, renting land -but no house - and Robert Watson house only, Lord Dufferin.
Found another pair who married twice -could it be because the Presbyterian churches had split at the time?
So grateful for your tips. Maria
Churches splitting shouldn’t lead to a marriage being recorded in two church registers. It should only appear in the church where the ceremony took place. In the Church of Scotland (a Presbyterian church), prior to statutory marriage registration, what you do find is that where a couple came from different parishes, the banns were read in both parishes and it’s the reading of the banns that got recorded in the parish register rather than the marriage itself. That system made it look as though the couple had married twice. However the Presbyterian church in Ireland didn’t normally use banns, so that’s unlikely to be the explanation here I think.
Remember that only a few fragments of the 1841 census survive, mostly as a result of extracts taken for pension applications. So chances are that the Greyabbey person is another family.
Where someone is in Griffiths with land only, they were either lodging with someone else (and so not listed in their own right) or they lived in a different townland, usually nearby. House only, in a rural area usually indicates the person was an agricultural labourer.
Robert Watson remains listed in Raffrey in the Valuation Revision records until 1883 when the house is noted as vacant.
