Barry,
Your information about Movenis seems pretty clear and so I did a bit more digging.
It has been standard practice to use your townland as your address in Ireland for at least a thousand years. (They were in use in Norman times). There were no street names and house numbers. The townland alone was enough to identify you and for the postman to deliver a letter. In rural areas street names and house numbers started to creep in around the 1950s but until then you just used the townland. Most emigrants gave their townland as their address on passenger lists etc. And many named their homes after their townland. So I feel you are on the right track here.
You can see all the townlands in Co. Derry on this site:
http://www.thecore.com/seanruad/
You’ll see that Movenis is quite distinctive. Sometimes you get the townland name used several times in the same county. But there’s only 1 Movenis and no other townland spelled anything like it.
I looked at the tithe applotment records. (Compiled for tax purposes. You had to have land to be in the tithes, so again it’s not a complete census). There was a Samuel Graham farming in Movenis in 1822. A family name obviously.
http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/desertoghill-parish.php#.WeDqmhR9eg0
So where has that farmer gone in the 1831 census? I searched adjacent townlands and found a Samuel in Caulhame, which borders Movenis. He was a Presbyterian and there were 3 males and 5 females in the household. Checking that same townland in Griffiths, in 1859, I find that the farm is now occupied by a Robert Graham. Robert Graham remains the tenant in the land records right up to the 1900s. However I think it went from father to son, and both were named Robert. So no change required. Here’s the family in 1901:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Bovagh/Caulhome/1519568/
Same family in 1911:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Bovagh/Caulhame/590683/
Generally farmers don’t subdivide their farms in Ireland. They usually leave the farm to one son, often the eldest, and the other sons have to make their way in the world. What was your Robert Graham’s occupation, do you know, from his childrens marriage or death certificates? Was he a farmer?
I had a look at some probate files. I found this:
The Will of Robert Graham late of Movenis County Londonderry Farmer who died 23 August 1887 at same place was proved at Londonderry by Robert Gardiner Graham of Movenis (Garvagh) Farmer the sole Executor.
The will itself is on-line on the PRONI wills site. The farm is left to Robert. There’s no mention of a wife so she probably pre-deceased her husband. Two daughters are mentioned Fanny Jane McGowan and Elizabeth Anne Moore.
Robert Graham was 76 when he died in 1887, so born c 1811. So he could easily be the father of children born 1840-1855. You can view the original death certificate on-line on the GRONI website, using the “search registrations” option:
https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk
You will need to open an account and buy some credits. It costs £2.50 (sterling) to a view a certificate.
It won’t escape you that Robert Gardiner Graham is the farmer in Caulhame in 1901. So it looks as though the family had land in 2 townlands, Movenis and Caulhame. I checked PRONI land records for Movenis for the years 1860 – 1888 but there’s no sign of any Graham farm there. Just the one in Caulhame. I looked to see if there was a Movenis farm that had been sublet but no. So can’t explain that.
I also spotted this:
Letters of Administration of the personal estate of William John Graham late of Maghera County Londonderry Grocer deceased who died 27 March 1877 at same place were granted at Londonderry to Robert Graham of Movenis in said County Farmer the Father of said deceased.
The above William John died intestate so there’s no will and the abstract is all that survives. He was 23 when he died, so born c 1854.
So I think we have found your family. You’ll notice some of the names you are familiar with like Samuel and Robert repeated in subsequent generations. That was the Scottish and Irish naming pattern.
The picture that is emerging for me is that Robert Graham (1811 – 1887) had at least 5 sons and 2 daughters. 3 sons presumably went to Oz and other children remained in Ireland. Robert Graham’s father was probably Samuel and died between 1831 and 1859.
Looking at the land records for Caulhame, there’s still a Robert Graham farming there in 1929 which is when the Valuation Revision records stop.
I found a marriage for Elizabeth Graham to Joseph Moore on 27.3.1877. Registered in Coleraine. It was tradition to marry in the bride’s church, so it’d be worth looking at that marriage cert to see which church it was.
Here’s Joseph and Elizabeth Ann in 1901. Clearly Joseph married the girl next door.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Bovagh/Caulhome/1519571/
Fanny Graham married John Governor on 29.11.1881. Both were from Movenis, so again marrying the girl next door. They married at Garvagh 2nd. Since she’s Fanny McGowan by 1887, presumably John died and she remarried, but you’d need to check that out,
At this stage, I’d be inclined to get someone to look at the Garvagh 2nd Presbyterian baptism records for your Thomas, Samuel, & James. Worth searching the graveyards too, I suspect. Farmers usually had gravestones. (I can do that research for you. If so send me a pm).
Elwyn
