Heresy, Bellaghy or Magilligan?

[Jo McKee]

The record 'Roots Ireland' says that Elizabeth McCurry married James Ritchie in 1851 at Ballyscullion, Bellaghy and that the people resided there. She is the daughter of Alexander McCurry, a Fisherman, who happens to be my 4x Grandfather. Elizabeth is his daughter from a previous marriage, she would have been the half sister of my three times GFather, William McCurry of Myroe. Everything is screaming at me that Elizabeth and James got married at Ballyscullion in Derry, in Magilligan and that there is a transcript error. Does anyone have access to Tamlaght Finlagan records of 1851 to check this out for me? Standing for them is Robert Martin and the families were well intermarried with the Martins of Magilligan. Any help much appreciated.

[aghadowey]

You can view the actual marriage registration yourself rather than viewing an incorrect transcription (Irish marriages DO NOT give religion of bride and groom but Roots Ireland seems to assume they are both of the same denomination as the place of the ceremony which is not always correct). In this case the marriage did take place in Bellaghy-
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/marriage_returns/marriages_1851/09413/5410351.pdf
Also note that the groom's age listed as 24 NOT 21 and that there are no such official thing as 'groom's witness' and 'bride's witness.'
Remember that the residences are that of bride and groom which may not be where their family was living.

[Jo McKee]

I still have lots to learn. It's a case of 'whatever happened to' and strong DNA links to other branches of the family have not appeared in this one. Alexander McCurry married four times, beginning his offspring in the 1790s. No idea of the family names of his previous wives. It will unfold over time. Thank you so much for confirming the location

[Elwyn Soutter]

I see you have an interest in the surname McCurry from Myroe. So there might be a connection with this man, blind Jimmy McCurry from Myroe:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Myroe/Myroe_Level/1523675/

Jimmy McCurry is the man who gave us the tune to Danny Boy. He was playing it in the street in Limavady in 1851 when a local lady - Jane Ross - heard it, asked him to play it again and then noted it down. Originally known as the Limavady Air it’s now the Londonderry Air. There’s a blue plaque on the wall in Limavady to mark the occasion.

According to a local historian, Jimmy McCurry learned the tune from his father who was also a fiddler and who came from Portnahaven on Islay.  So what is probably the most famous Irish song in the world may have a Scottish tune, and the words of course were written by an English solicitor and lyricist, Fred Weatherly. How Irish is that?

[Jo McKee]

It's so lovely to see your message. My Mother left Limavady in 1949, arriving on the Atlantis 1950. Her Grandmother was Sarah Jane McCurry and she was Jimmy's cousin. My Mother died at Xmas and wanted her obit to acknowledge her own family as my Father, her husband, left the family in 1976 and remarried.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Glad to have given you good memories.

[Jo McKee]

Just a little correction there, whilst there is history in the mid 1700s to the McCurrys of the Scottish Hebrides, their family was Limavady based. The Blackburns and the McCurrys of Myroe are chronicled in 'Never to be Heard from Again-Searching for the McCurrys of Myroe' by Frances McCurry Bach. She is descended from the John McCurry line and I am descended from the Alexander line, these two men being Brothers or cousins, DNA results don't really make that clear as they are so intermarried.