A French version of this text is available here. Special thanks to my dear friend and cousin Lois Thornton Eldridge for her help in the translation of this text.

© Marc St-Jacques

We have already established that Ennis McAllister, his wife Mary McMullan and his family have lived in Muckleramer for a long time. Maybe saying it three times will give me luck to find the exact plot of land where they lived during all these years? This blog post explores valuation rolls in search of our ancestor’s land.

 

The Griffith Valuation

The Ask about Ireland website allows genealogists to search the Griffith Valuation. It is the first comprehensive property assessment in Ireland. It was supervised by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864. The site is easy to use since it offers a search engine by the name of an ancestor. A search in it quickly returns the McAlisters and McAllisters from Drummaul, County Antrim:

• Rose McAlister of Feehogue
• John McAlister of Ballytresna
• Daniel McAllister of Ballygrooby
• Patrick McAllister of Magheralane
• Constantine McAllister of Magheralane
• Eneas McAllister of Muckleramer

This evaluation was carried out in 1862 for the parish of Drummaul. Here are the details given by Griffith’s Valuation on Ennis McAllister. He occupies a house and a small garden on lot 9a that he rents from William Gordon. Lot 9a is part of Lot 9 which has an area of 14 acres, 2 chains and 15 perches. William Gordon rents this land from Reverend William C. O’Neil who owns the vast majority of Muckleramer’s townland. The remaining occupants of Lot 9 are Hill Thompson (9b), Ann Orr (9c) and Margaret Magee (9d). Also note that on lot 8 we find Martha Picken (8a), James McMullen (8b), Samuel Wade (8c) and Daniel Boyd (8d). Who is this James McMullen? Is he related to Mary McMullan? It will be necessary to dig some more in order to discover that.

 

Valuation Revision Books

The Northern Ireland Archives, Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI), have digitized the valuation revision books and these can be viewed on the Web. A search returns four registers that cover the period from 1864 to 1929. Ennis is found in all four registers.

From 1864 to 1929, Ennis McAllister would have rented a house and a small garden on the lot 9a of the townland of Muckleramer for the sum of 15 shillings. If so, he should appear in the 1901 and 1911 censuses. Since he is missing from both sources, it is likely that the revision books weren’t updated when the property was passed to another tenant. A comparative study of the valuation revision book and the two censuses will shed light on the shortcomings of the revision book or vice versa. Nevertheless, we know for certain that Ennis and his family were on lot 9a of the Muckleramer townland. But where is this plot of land? This is again a document preserved by PRONI that will allow us to answer this question. The map shows the subdivision of land in several townlands including Muckleramer. It has been annotated making it difficult to read and arduous to identify lot 9a.

The enlargement below and the highlighting of lot number make it easier to find the desired lot. It can be seen that the house is located beside the road at the edge of the Muckleramer townland. It faces the townland of Coolsythe.

The satellite image below, from 2010, shows the location of Lot 9a in Muckleramer townland. In July 2018, while visiting during my summer holidays, it emerged from a discussion with the owner that the house on the left is a recent construction and that the building on the right is the original house dating back to the 19^th century.

Unfortunately, the little old house was destroyed shortly after the construction of the new house. There is no trace of it today. It was located near the tree to the right of the photograph below taken this summer 2018. Perhaps one day we will find a photograph of this house that no longer exists today! In the meantime, you can still explore the surroundings in Google Street View.

Sometimes wishes we make are heard! It is the case this time. Barely two days after publishing this blog post, my Uncle Steve got his hands on this Google Street View image showing the house of Ennis McAllister and his family. This is where our ancestor Archibald McAllister, his brothers and sisters would have grown up. Congratulations on this detective work!

Conclusion

It can be remembered that Ennis McAllister’s family lived on lot 9a of Muckleramer townland and that the ancestral home still existed in 2010, but has since been destroyed. Note also that Griffith’s evaluation and subsequent revision books testify the family’s presence on this land from 1862 to 1929. However, since we know that Ennis McAllister and Mary McMullan were married in 1833 and that they are absent from the 1901 and 1911 censuses, it seems more than likely that the valuation revision books were simply not updated when the property was transferred to another tenant. Finally, further research will be needed to shed light on this James McMullan who is listed on lot 8 of Muckleramer townland.