In December 2007 I began my genealogy research into Cheryl’s family. The Hudson’s. This blog concentrates on the early homestead in Northern Ireland.
Early in our Hudson research we received a copy of an aerial photo of the Hudson Farm once belonging to Henry James Hudson, Cheryl’s Great Grandfather. The only information we were given regarding the location of the farm was that it was in “Lowertown” County Londonderry.
In 1907, Cheryl’s Grandfather William Henry Hudson was born on in Derrygarve, Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He lived there until 1928, where at the age of 20 he boarded a ship in Belfast bound for Canada in hopes of a better life and to lessen the burden of one mouth to feed for his father.
Since discovering this information we have been on a journey to locate and visit the land we will call the “Hudson Farm”.
Since there has been no one to ask and little documentation, I started with the 1859 Griffiths Valuation held in Londonderry. This valuation lists all land registered and valued. Based on the valuation taxes we assessed based on the size of property, number of buildings on the property and the state of those buildings. The taxes assessed were used to support the poor.
In 1859 there were 6 Hudson households in the County Londonderry listed on Griffiths Valuation. In all cases the Hudson’s were Tenants and not Landlords (aka Land owners).
Using Griffiths Valuation (GV) Record Information and Map Reference Numbers, I mapped out the lands where the 6 Hudson families lived. Lowertown was/is a very small area of Derrygarve. Of the two Hudson Families recorded on Griffiths Valuation in Derrygarve, neither were in Lowertown.
I was stumped. The picture of the Lowertown farm was owned by Henry James Hudson (1877-1951). We do not know when the aerial photo was takes but would suspect in the 1940‘s or 1950’s time frame. According to Griffiths Valuation in 1859 there were no farms owned by Hudson’s in Co. Londonderry. Of the farms on GV where Hudson’s lived they were not in Lowertown. I worked on this problem off and on for years but not making any progress.
In 2011 Cheryl and I decided that we would visit Northern Ireland in 2013 for Cheryl’s 50th birthday. So I had to step up the genealogy research. In 2012 I attended an Irish Genealogy Seminar in Toronto and got a few tips and tricks and I also focused more on specifics rather than just gather data. I went back and read copies of some letters and materials that we got from Cheryl’s Uncle Harry before he passed away. It spoke of the Hudson Farm but never revealed an exact location. When I returned to this information in 2012 with more of a laser focus I realized that there were huge clues I had previously missed. The letters contained Folio Numbers which referred to Land Ownership documents. I made some inquiries with the Northern Ireland Land & Property Services - Land Registry Office. Through a written request and £60.00, I was able to request copies of the Folio documents.
In early December 2012 I received the paperwork back from the Land Registry Office in Belfast. Now I just had to figure out what all the Jargon was. I received paper work for 3 Folios 14301, 15838 and15837. The Folios outlined the ownership since Henry James Hudson purchased the land.
I picked up the papers and read them and put them down at least a half a dozen times not being able to make heads nor tails out of any of it initially. Each folio showed that the owner of the property was Henry James Hudson. He acquired ownership these properties in 1934 and 1935. The three Folios totaled 5 parcels of land, with 2 of the Folios each having two parcels of land. In 1942 Henry James transferred ownership of all of his properties to his eldest son Henry Hudson (1905-1976) (Cheryl’s Great Uncle).
In July 1992 Henry sold off all of the land. Folios 15837 and 15838 were sold to John Evans of Castledawson, County Londonderry, Farmer. Folio 14303 was sold to Mervyn Fulton of Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Farmer.
Fulton? Fulton? Fulton? It seemed familiar. I looked back into the family tree I had created on Ancestry.ca. I started this tree 10 years ago with my family and then in 2007 began adding in Cheryl’s side. There was in fact a Mervyn Hudson Fulton in our tree. I had added him some time ago as a branch of the family but really paid little attention to it since the last name was not Hudson! That was one of my many mistakes. Turns out Mervyn Fulton is the grandson of Henry Hudson.
At this point I will focus on the properties separately. We will start with Folio 14301 now owned by Mervyn Fulton.
According to my records Mervyn Hudson Fulton, is probably around our age, in his mid to late 50’s. So in early January the hunt to make contact with Mervyn began. My hope was that he was still at the same address as in 1992 when he became owner of the property or had not strayed too far.
Using some different online searches including www.192.com I was able to find Mervyn and his family still living at in Magherafelt. Next was how to make contact. I began scouring Facebook for any Fulton’s in Magherafelt or Co. Londonderry. I was able to find a number of them and send them all private messages about who we were and why I wanted to make contact. On January 7, 2013 I hit pay-dirt when Florence Fulton responded to my Facebook request. She confirmed it was the correct family and that she was Mervyn’s wife. Since then, over the past few weeks Florence has been very helpful in answering questions for me and assisting with some Hudson genealogy.
Florence confirmed that they did now own the property that was once owned by Henry James Hudson. Florence was able to provide me with the exact address of the farm. Henry James had a mixed farm with pigs, hens & cows. Today, Mervyn lets out (rents) part of the farm and he farms the rest. Sheep at (winter) this time of year.
We are all so excited to find out that the farm is still in the family and still a working farm. It will be an amazing experience and feeling for Barb, Steve, Sandy, Cheryl and Cathy (Hudson) as well as Theresa and myself to visit and walk the land that was walked by their Grandfather, Great Grandfather and other relations.
Now that I had some good detail and history on the Hudson Farm property it was time to again look at the Folio and try to delve deeper. Along with the Land Registry Folio I also received map extracts of the property. In reviewing the map extract which shows the shape and location of the property, I noticed that the shape and location did not match any of the properties lived on by Hudson tenants according the the 1859 Griffiths Valuation. Confirming, this was a different property. So last night, January 25th, I spent the evening combing through the Griffith Valuation Map. First I found Derrygarve which is south of Castledawson and west of the town of Magherafelt. The next step was to exactly locate Lowertown on the map. It is a very small area that looks like it is boarded by Derrygarve Road and the Moyola River. Best guess I would say there are probably around 7-10 properties on the Griffiths Valuation in Lowertown. I was able to blow up the map and search each property to attempt to locate a property with the same or similar shape to that drawn on Folio 14301. The property shape is quite unique so once I was able to zero in on the area it was quite easy to find the exact property. The GV Map shows this property as 5A and 5B. Next step is to find out who owned and lived on this property in 1859 at the time that GV was taken and work forward from there. Not an easy task, but, why should this be any different. I went through all of the Derrygarve GV sheets online one by one until I found the sheet referencing map property 5A & B. Property tenant was John Searson. Lessor (owner) was Augustus Courtenay Sheil. It also looks as though John Searson subleased a building (home) on the property to Thomas Clarke. The size of the property is listed as 20+ acres.
Mystery solved. Sometime it takes time, but the answers are out there!!
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