Andrew McCartney was the father of Henry McCartney. This was shown on the marriage certificate for Henry and Ann McCaw. The document listed his occupation as shoe and boot maker. How many other children he may have sired is currently unknown.
While we don't know much about this man,we believe at some point he lived on a large estate in Portglenone. No, he was not wealthy. He was employed there. We thought he was a caretaker or game warden. It is also possible that he worked for the Alexander family making shoes. When he retired the owner of the estate supposedly allowed him to remain living in the cottage in which he had lived for some years.
In the 1840s a project was started to catalog all commercial interests in Ireland. The result of this project was a publication known as I. Slater's Commercial Directory of Ireland. On page 523 of the directory is the list for Portglenone. There are nine boot and shoe makers listed. Among the nine are Andrew McCartney, James McCartney and John McCartney. This tells us that Andrew was indeed in Portglenone in 1846 working as a boot and shoe maker. It does not, however, tell us what his guild rating was nor who James and John were. They could have been sons, brothers or nephews of Andrew.
My father, John Brown McCartney, told me the following story. At first I thought it was about his great grandfather Henry. It now appears to have been about his great great grandfather Andrew. I have written it as I currently remember it. There is no confirmation of its facts and it could contain some things that I remember incorrectly.
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My grandfather, Henry, and his brother Andrew wanted to bring their great grandfather into Belfast to live because of his advanced age. At that time he was supposedly in his late eighties or early nineties. (I vaguely remember the age as ninety.) The two brothers built a room on the back of Andrew's house in the Shankill section of Belfast and moved the old gentleman in.
As the story goes, the brothers came home one day to find a note from the old man saying that it was too noisy in the city. He had packed his bags and walked home to the cottage, a distance of more than twenty miles. The two brothers set out after him.
Approximately twenty miles away from Belfast they came upon an accident. A runaway horse had trampled someone. When they investigated, they discovered that the victim was their great grandfather and he was, unfortunately, deceased.
There are several facts which make this story more plausible:
Portglenone, Antrim, where we believe Andrew spent most of his life, is about forty miles from Belfast, so it is plausible that he was still living there before his grandsons took him to the city. What's more, Portglenone boasts a stately house, which had (and still has) parklands and a 300-acre farm.
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Some guesses concerning Andrew:
- Assuming he was twenty years old when Henry was born, he would have been born in 1807.
- He was supposed to have been ninety when he died. This would put the year of his death around 1897, the same year my father was born.
For more information about the Portglenone area, visit their web site.
