Story (Storey) Family Inquiry of Parish Aghalurcher

Mark,

I had a look at the 1821 census, and one thought that struck me is that this may have been a second marriage for William Story. He was 40, his wife 26 and there was a 10 year old daughter Margaret. Clearly Elizabeth could be that girls mother (just). But I suspect not.  My feeling is that William probably married Elizabeth around 1816 or thereabouts, and that he had previously married someone else who had died. (In the 1800s, 1 in 8 women died in Ireland from childbirth or post-natal complaints).

A problem I have faced is locating Tullnaharney. It seems to have disappeared by the time of the tithes (1833). Looking at the whole 1821 census, I see there were only 3 households in Tullnaharney with a grand total of 18 people. That indicates the townland was very small probably just 20 acres. There was only one farm (according to the 1821 census, the Story farm was 20 acres), one carpenter and a labourer. They probably lived in cottage son the Story farm. When the Griffiths Valuation clerks surveyed Ireland in the 1830s, they attempted to standardize townland names and boundaries and so some were lost to posterity. However it may be possible to locate Tullnaharney yet with the help of local knowledge.  You could try the Lisnaskea historical group to see if they can pinpoint where it was. See:

http://www.clogherhistory.ie/Lisnaskea-Historical-Society

As far as church records are concerned, you don’t say what denomination the family was, though I’d guess Church of Ireland. There are several churches in Aghalurcher parish. Aghalurcher itself has records from 1788,  Lisnaskea from 1804 & Fivemiletown (originally part of Aghalurcher parish) from 1804. It sounds as though you may have already searched some of these records, but if not, they are the ones to focus on, in my opinion.  You say there’s no trace of Thomas’s baptism in 1822. There could be a number of reasons for that. Firstly, not everyone was baptised, secondly if they were it could sometimes be years after their birth (it’s not uncommon to see batch baptisms where 3 or 4 children of different ages all get baptised on the same day), sometimes the Minister forgets to complete the register and sometimes a child is baptised in a different parish (because the mother was there at the time of the birth). Then we have lost and illegible pages in the parish registers. Some parish records have been mistranscribed on the pay to view sites too. And so on.

The above Church of Ireland records may not all be on-line. However there are copies in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. A personal visit is required to view them though. If you can’t get there you might need to employ a researcher.

You are keen to find William’s parents. If he was born in Aghalurcher parish prior to 1788, then it doesn’t appear that any records exist that would show his birth or his parents marriage, and so it’s probably unlikely that you will establish that information (at least not from Irish records).

You might find his marriage though. (Indeed 2 marriages, if my hunch about him being a widower is correct).

The name Story is still found in the Aghalurcher area. My wife is from the parish and was at school with some Stor(e)ys in Lisnaskea in the 1960s. Some still live there.  I think the families are of Plantation origins and came to Ireland in the 1600s from Scotland or England.

Elwyn,  I am so surprised to receive a response so quickly.  I cannot thank you enough! 

Yes,   all  the Canadian records I have in relation to William & Elizabeth Story and their children indicate they considered themselves to be of the Anglican (Church of Ireland) denomination.   I also considered what you have outlined concerning a possible second marriage for William.   I had noticed the age difference.   However, my Uncle and I felt that perhaps 16 yrs of age may not have been so uncommon in Ireland during this period for a potential bride.  Beyond that I could find no death record relating to a spouse of William during the expected timeframe of 1800 through 1816.  So it seemed to be a dead end for me.  But it is still something worth pursuing further.

I am most interested in your comments concerning Church records that may exist in Aghalurcher.  I have not reviewed them, nor can I find access to them anywhere online.   I have used the Church of Latter Days Saints web site, Roots Ireland and FindmyPast but so far no luck.   So, the baptism record for Thomas may exist in the Parish  but I simply have not been able to locate it.   That plus baptism records for his siblings Elizabeth, Mary Anne, Jane and David.   Your note concerning the grouping of baptisms is not something I had considered either.  

I have hypothesized that our William and Thomas are of a Story/Storey line that would have come from Hexham, Northumberland England as part of John, Robert and Mark Story who sold their lands and moved to Ireland under the auspices of the Church of Ireland and lived in County Cavan and/or Corick near Clogher.   It is all that makes sense because we do not believe we are directly descended from the John Story who was one of Cromwell's Adventurers who received land in Antrim.   We have not been able to document any connection there.   So working backward from Canada (1831 arrival) and William was a farmer in Canada, I think this is likely the source of the family connection. Finding William and Elizabeth in an adjoining County left me hopeful at least.   We shall see.

I am very much so interested in your comment concerning your wife having encountered a number of Story's in Lisnaskea.  I have been so frustrated with trying to document William and Thomas via Ireland over the years that I broke down a few months ago and had a DNA test completed through Family Tree DNA and I joined a project called the "Border Reivers Project" through them.   The Storey family allegedly hails from that area and so I was, and I am, hopeful that perhaps the DNA results will help confirm familial connections in Ireland and England.  Unfortunately, not too many Story's have participated at this point.   Any thoughts on how I might reach out to male Story's/Storey's in Lisnaskea to see if there is any interest in having their DNA tested?   Also,  it appears I may have to hire some one to research Church records in Belfast (PRONI) as I am confident I will not be able to go there any time in the near future.  I have a daughter who will be getting married next August and at the moment, the wedding plans include having the ceremony in Ecuador, her finance's birthplace.   So if you have any recommendations on who to hire, I would welcome those as well.    Not sure if this web site offers such recommendations.  I will check later today.   

You have given me a number of pointers and suggestions.  I am most gratefull, Elwyn.   I hope I can reciprocate in some way any time you think you might need assistance.   Kind regards,  Mark

Thanks Elwyn!

Clare

Genealogy Support 

Elwyn,  I have been doing a little bit more digging in records.  Even though I see William and Elizabeth with children Margaret, John and William in the 1821 Ireland Census with reference to County Fermanagh in the Parish Aghalurcher, I think the baptism records I do have on the 3 children are from the Clones Parish in County Monaghan.   I don't find baptism records for the other children there.   Wonder if that makes William a tenant farmer, moving from farm to farm?  The baptism records reflect parents as being William and Elizabeth Cloyd/Clarke/Cloid.   Although spellings are all over the place, I suspect they are one and the same couple.   If this is a valid record for the parties on whom I think the belong, then Elizabeth did marry William quite young.   Therefore it is less likely that there were two marriages.  Also, somewhere over the years I speculated that William was the son of Robert Storey, a military man.  Perhaps that explains the movement from County to County as well.   This was my off handed attempt to connect to Joseph Storey (Clergy) through the line from Hexham Northumberland.  I believe they refer to this group as the Bingfield Storeys.   Just thought I would add this in case any other suggestions come to you. There is a Griffith record for a William Storey at Parish Kinawley in County Fermanagh and in the Townland of Cornaskeoge.  Thanks again.  Mark  

Elwyn,  hope I am not confusing you.  I am doing a good job of confusing myself.   I have found my baptism records on Margaret, William and John.  They have the right dates in terms of being consistent with the 1821 Census.  They are from Parish Clones, Cty Monaghan and the townland is listed as Tattinbarr.  As mentioned, I cannot locate the baptism records for the rest of the children.  I suspect it is due to what you mention that Aghalurcher records are no where on line.    So, I still think hiring a researcher to view the Parish records in PROMI may be the right course to take.  There is a marriage record from Tattinbarr for a William Storey and Susanna Gordon dated June 18, 1826 in Clones.   There is a baptism record for a Thomas born to this William and Susanna that is close to the date we had.  This one is Sept 23, 1823 vs. 1822 that we had.  If I have the right information, William would have married the Elizabeth Cloid/Cloyd/Clarke in 1810 ish.  If she perished and he remarried Susanna Gordon in 1826, then she must have perished too as he would have remarried yet a 3rd time, bringing a younger wife also named Elizabeth to Canada in 1831.  I guess this is possible.  But it means Susanna and Elizabeth-1 died in Fermanagh Cty, the records that would have to be viewed in PRONI and then there should be a new marriage record to Elizabeth-2 from the same.  This would make more sense to me.  Look forward to hearing your recommendations on hiring a researcher for PRONI records.  I did not find info. on this site relating to it.   Thanks again.   Mark

Mark,

Regarding the dates of baptisms, in the RC faith, baptism is almost invariably within a few days of birth. The reasoning being that if the child were to die without being baptised it might end up in limbo. Most Protestant denominations take a different theological view and so there isn’t the same urgency. Typically, baptism in the Church of Ireland is between 1 week and 3 months after birth but I have seen many where it’s been years after and, as I have said, batch baptisms of 2, 3 or 4 children of differing ages together are surprisingly common. So you need to search several years after the date of birth (which might not be that accurate either).

Yes there are plenty of records for Aghalurcher. At least 3 of the Church of Ireland churches within the parish have records for the period you are interested in.  I have worked with the Aghalurcher registers and know that you will find pages that are torn, pages faded to blank because the Minister didn’t use very good ink, and some entries that are simply illegible. So there are gaps and you won't always find every baptism. As far as finding the records on-line, some churches records haven’t made it on to any on-line sites at all. 

According to my guide to Church of Ireland records, the originals of these Aghalurcher registers (which might be slightly more legible) are still held by the respective Rectors/Vicars for each of the 3 churches. You can contact them and ask for assistance. If you go in person and search yourself, I think they charge £12 (sterling) an hour for access or, if the Rector does the research himself/herself, it’s around £19 an hour. But they don’t have to agree to do it, and many won’t. (They get rather a lot of genealogical enquiries, usually more than they can handle). The PRONI microfilm copies would therefore be cheaper (they are free to view) and would have the additional benefit that all the records you need are in the one location.

I had a look at the Muster Rolls for Co. Fermanagh c 1630. There are 2 Storys listed in the county at that period.  One was a David Story. He was on the Balfour estate (ie in or near Lisnaskea and Aghalurcher). He had no arms. That is to say no sword, pike, snaphance or caliver. So not very well off.  The notes say he lived in Ballybalfour townland. James Balfour of Balfour Castle in Lisnaskea was from Fife, and so some settlers in the area may have come from his estates there.

The other Story in the Muster Rolls was a Robert Story on the Atkinson estate. He too had no arms and so was not very well off. Further away from your family area though.

Stor(e)y is not a very common name anywhere in the UK or Ireland. (Just 18 Storeys in the 1901 census for Fermanagh). In the 1841 Scottish census there were around 123, the English census had about 10 and the Welsh 15.  The numbers go up a bit if you widen the spelling parameters but all the same it’s not very common. Mostly focused around the north of England and the south of Scotland. So Border Reiver territory, as you say. Thousands of Reivers were encouraged to settle in Ireland in the 1600s and many made for Fermanagh. Consequently the county is riddled with Scottish border names like Armstrong, Henderson, Hogg, Crichton, Graham and so on. The most common surname in the county is Maguire, a native Irish name. Next is Armstrong.

Regarding how to find male Storeys in Lisnaskea today, I do know of 1. If you go to the UK phone book and search under Storey and BT92 postcode, you should find 3 in Fermanagh. One lives in Lisnaskea (and used to play with my wife when she was a child). You could try him. The other 2 in the county aren’t too far away from Lisnaskea, and could well be related to him. I couldn’t say. But you might want to try them too if they have a willing male DNA volunteer.

http://www.ukphonebook.com

I note what you say regarding having found some of the baptisms in Clones records, and that this might mean the family had moved from Monaghan to Fermanagh. The answer to that is no, they didn’t necessarily move counties. Though Clones town is in Co. Monaghan, the parish of Clones straddles the border between the 2 counties. So someone baptised in the Fermanagh part of Clones would appear in Monaghan records even though they didn’t actually live there. The 3 baptisms you have found were in Tattinbarr. That’s in the Co. Fermanagh part of Clones parish. Aghalurcher and Clones are adjacent parishes. So Tattinbarr and Tullnaharney must be pretty close together. (Tattinbarr is on the southern side of Roslea village, on a minor road leading down to the county border).

However I suspect there are 2 separate families here. The tithe applotment records list a William Storey farming in Tattinbarr in 1832. See:

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

Since your William was in NB in 1831, this has to be a separate William Storey, so far as I can see. So a separate family (though possibly related).

We know the Tullnaharney family were in Aghalurcher in 1821, so I would search those records  from say 1810 to 1831 to see if there are baptisms for your 8 children (plus the parents marriage too).

You suggest William may have been a tenant farmer. He was almost certainly a tenant. Very few small farmers in Ireland owned their own freehold. (It was a great grievance all through the 1700s and 1800s and a factor in many farmers decision to migrate to lands where they could acquire the freehold). Having said that farmers didn’t move about too much if they could avoid it. Most effective farmers would put a lot of work into improving a farm over a long period of years, so moving around didn’t make good business sense at all. Wasted work. Farmers mostly tried to stay put if they could, but obviously there were times when this wasn’t possible. But you wouldn’t expect them to move very often if they could avoid it. It doesn’t make much commercial sense.

Regarding finding a genealogist to go to PRONI, you could try Historical Research Associates. They have been in business for many years and have a good reputation. But there are others in the Ulster area too if you google for them.

http://www.historicalresearchassociates.com

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Elwyn, thank you once again.  I had thought I was on to something but understand that it is simply a hypothesis.  I am definitely going to use the source you provided to research some of the records at PRONI.  I am determined!    I will also reach out to the Story's to see if there is any interest at all.   Thanks once again!   Kind regards, Mark

Hi mark my name is David storey. Iam from LISNASKEA. My family came from clones. Looking to find out more about my past. U know a right wee bit about the family. My email address is

davystorey11@hotmail.com.

Hope to hear from you. David

Hello to Mark & David & all other Stor(e)y folk who read this article,

In Brisbane, capital of  Queensland, Australia is a grand bridge spanning the river. It is named Story Bridge.

In the University of Queensland, at St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, there is a J. D. Story Building. Details  here

The biography of Mr. John Douglas Story is recorded by the Australian National Uiversity here.

With DNA a marvellous way to establish familial connections, you might find you have relatives 'Down-Under', at times called The Big Ireland.

I will add the State Library of Queensland has solid support for family history, and most staff go 'the extra mile' to assist, SLQ

If you are interested in the expansion of Irish (& Scottish, Welsh & Cornish) settlers into Australia in order to become property owners (again!) there is a marvellous movie based on the novel(s) written by a descendant of the Durack Family, being a renowned Cattle King.

The film was a venture between entities in Ireland and Australia, with actors and filming in both nations. It runs in 2 X 98 min episodes. Part 1   Part 2  It is splendid viewing.

Lastly, a public thank you to Elwin and Clare for their dedication and effort in supporting your endeavours to find more about your own Storey.

Francis,  thank you for your post and the information.  Believe it or not, I am a member of Family Tree DNA and several of their projects, one of which is the Story/ey surname project.  There is a member there from Australia as well!   Not a match but he (via his sister) is learning quite a bit as am I.  I match a couple of people in Australia who were originally from Ireland and they have an altogether different surname... a common occurrence in the DNA testing world.   It would definitely be nice to get more Story/ey’s to join from all over the world.  I have not completely viewed the movie but I intend to do so.  Finally, I echo your thank you to Clare and Elwin.  Clearly, both are extraordinarily nice people.

Progress report- Davey was willing to participate in a Ydna test.  Turns out we are a match and share a common paternal ancestor, at this point, likely 6-7 generations back.  We are jointly tracing as much of Davey’s line as possible with the hopes of narrowing down that common ancestor.  We now know that the Clones Parish is the right place and the concentration of the family line seems to be in the County Fermanagh side in places such as Clontivrin and Clontibret.  It is likely that some of this same family moved into Aghalurcher (ie.  My ancestor who removed to Canada).  More soon.   Mark

Good work, Mark, keep it up.   Many facts lead to the target truth.

They say Rome wasn't built in a day....   Never were ancestors found!

Regarding CLONES:  Ironically nearby some of my distant DNA in Australia is a town/village called "Clunes".  After reading the 1840s onwards history of the area from Sydney north to "Clunes" and the ethnicity of the 1860-70s Irish setters, from the Upper Lough Erne area, I will propose is the CLUNES is the Anglo spelling of how the Irish pronounce "Clones". 

Francis- you may very well be right about Clunes.   I have heard that is the phonetic spelling of the Irish version of Clones.   So do you have Storys/eys in your family line at some point?

Hi, I have been researching my family tree and stumbled across this storyline by accident. My Great Great Grandfather was John Storey, a farmer from Clontivren near Clones around the 1830s. I know he had at least 3 children. Sarah was my paternal Great Grandmother who married a local shoemaker called James Ferguson. Elizabeth, a sister, Married James' brother John Ferguson. And Margaret, the other sister married a man called Pritchard. Sarah and Elizabeth both moved to Belfast and Margaret moved to Newton Butler. I was hoping that maybe the John Storey mentioned might fit in somewhere in this family line somewhere? Here's hoping. Thanks for any help. 
Ed

Hi Ed, this is a welcomed surprise. My email address is : Mastorey05@gmail.com. If you would like to email me I would be happy to share what I have thus far. Kind regards, Mark

Ed- I checked my work and I found your connection. Yes, you are distantly related to me. But you are closely related to Davy Storey. I will certainly share everything. But what is important is for you to take the Family Finder autosomal DNA test at Family Tree DNA.com. Both Davy and I are out there. If I am correct, you and Davy should wind up confirmed second or third cousins. I can guide you. Mark

Ed- I checked my work and I found your connection. Yes, you are distantly related to me. But you are closely related to Davy Storey. I will certainly share everything. But what is important is for you to take the Family Finder autosomal DNA test at Family Tree DNA.com. Both Davy and I are out there. If I am correct, you and Davy should wind up confirmed second or third cousins. I can guide you. Mark

By the way, Ed, your Great Grandmother, Sarah, appears to have been named after her own mother. It was a very large family. I found 11 children born to John and Sarah Storey. Your GGM would have been a brother to Davy Storey’s GGF.

A sister to.... sorry.

This is amazing news Mark. I'm so happy you have replied. I'll email you tomorrow and share what info I have with you. Many thanks Ed