Co Londonderry

[p.mca]

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but I wanted to post a question relevant to Articlave in Londonderry and there doesn't seem to be a Londonderry specific forum? Should I just post it here instead?

[Mutley]

County Londonderry or County Derry is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland in the Province of Ulster and we have not been asked for a specific forum for this county.

So here will do nicely.

[p.mca]

Cheers!
So my question is; concerning my ancestor Thomas Archibald Johnston, b 28 Mar 1871 in Barmouth, near Articlare, Co Derry. On the map the closest I can find to this is a Barmouth Road just near Articlave, does it seem likely that the name of a road would be given as a birthplace on a birth cert? I had previously thought it referred to Barmouth in Wales, but the cert just says Barmouth and I presume Wales would be mentioned if he was born out of Ireland but the birth registered there.
His father is named on the certificate as Thomas Johnston, a builder, of Barmouth. His mother was Scottish and probably about 17 years old, and ended up in Ireland for the birth for reasons I know not. Does anyone know if there was any particular building project in the area TJ senior might have been involved with? And/or would he be on any sort of trade register or similar as a builder? I am clutching at straws after looking for this man for the past six years.

[stepives]

May I suggest ARTICLAVE, Coleraine.
http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Articlave

Birth reg. Thomas Archibald Johnston. 1871. Reg. District. Coleraine. Vol.6 Page.527.

Baptism - Thomas Archibald Johnston. 28 Mar 1871. Londonderry, Ireland. Father - Thomas Johnston. Mother - Mary Davidson.

Steve.

[p.mca]

Thank you Steve, that is the birth which I have a copy of the birth certificate of, issued in 1991. I note you give the date for baptism, is this from some other source ? On the birth cert it notes birth on 28 Mar 1871 in Barmouth, with the other details you note. Would there be any other information recorded in either the baptism record or in the original registration document? I am looking for any link or other info on T Johnston the father.

[stepives]

The baptism was on An****ry. That's all the info there was. The dates and names added up, plus Londonderry. No original to view.

Steve.

[stepives]

The record is also in IGI - Familysearch.

Steve.

[Elwyn Soutter]

The River Bann (which is navigable) enters the Atlantic at the Barmouth, just down the river from Coleraine. There is always work going on to keep it dredged and usable. In the 1880s there was a big piece of work to build moles (concrete piers) to make the entrance/exit safer for navigation. They are still there today, having been extended in the 1920s. I expect that’s what your ancestor was working on. Articlave is nearby. Here’s a photo of the Barmouth.

http://www.
mcdowellfoto.com/photo_4046750.html

There were no street names in rural Ireland in the 1870s, and people just gave their townland as their place of birth. In this case there may have been a work camp near the barmouth and so that appears to have been used instead.