John McDowell born 5 May 1817 died in Antrim town 29 November 1886

[jnomad]

Greetings, fellow McDowell!

I don't think my John McDowell is either the father or the grandfather of Ellen. I think I know his descendants at least for a couple of generations. My problem is that I don't know his parents, or even where he was born. I have a distant DNA match that suggests Islandmagee: the matching person's tree goes back to David McDowell, labourer of Carnspindle, born 1795. But so far I haven't been able to work out a connection to my John McDowell.

[Kiltaglassan]

As an example - and this may or maybe relevant to this case, I have an Ellen McDowell from Lisnevanagh who married a William Parker from Ballymacvea in 1852 at Connor Presbyterian. 

Here's the link for others-
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1852/09420/5412465.pdf

Ballymuckvea townland
https://www.townlands.ie/antrim/antrim-lower/connor/kells/ballymuckvea/

Lisnevanagh townland
https://www.townlands.ie/antrim/toome-upper/grange-of-shilvodan/shilvodan/lisnevanagh/

[jnomad]

See Reply #7 on the topic William McDowell c. 1826-1887 shoemaker in Belfast. There is a DNA match between great-great-grandchildren of William and John. And a nephew-in-law of John, nephew of his wife Elizabeth McLorinan, wrote that before John became an agent in Antrim for a Belfast sewed muslin concern, he was, like William, a shoemaker.

[jnomad]

A possible clue, though I don't know how to exploit it.

He was buried in the Friends Burial Ground at Moylena, though he wasn't a Quaker (he was a prominent Methodist). The sign over the gate at the burial ground reads: 1701: Moylinny Quaker's Cemetery, Burial Place to the Reford Family. The Reford family had been Quakers, but I'm told that by the late 1700s to early 1800s they were Presbyterian. Why was John McDowell entitled to burial there? A possible answer is that he had a Reford ancestor. Was his mother a Reford?

Unfortunately a McDowell-Reford marriage at a date that might fit John's parents, and a baptism for him, would fall in one of the gaps that PRONI notes in the records of Antrim First Presbyterian (Millrow).

[jnomad]

This John McDowell died at his residence, 45 High Street, Antrim. The Tithe Applotment Book for Antrim parish, dated 1833, has a John McDowell at Main Street (which I think became High Street). Same house? Could a 16-year-old be a householder, liable for tithes? I'm hoping the John McDowell in the Tithe Applotment book is his father.