John McElroy/McIlroy married Ann/Anne/Annie/Anna Sloan/Sloane around 1883. In the next few years they had a number of children baptized /registered in the Townland of Deehommed/Dechomet, Parish of Drumgooland, County Down, Ireland.
The Banbridge register shows that by the time that James was registered in 1888, John was off to the US.
Ann and her sons were still in Deehommed by the Census of 1901...
... but they must have followed later that year. The family took root in Wayndotte, Michigan, and there is plenty of information from that point. A death record for Ann shows that her father was John Sloane.
I can find no information on the marriage... anywhere. I'm guessing it was in Ann's parish; the 1930 US Census shows her birthplace as Northern Ireland. Registration was well established by 1883; it should be easy, but I can't find anything.
Checking the Irish Civil registers I notice that there are a couple of lists of nine names, so obviously something wrong there, the list maybe should have been ten, or perhaps only eight. Have to go out in a minute but I'll try and check better on my return.
The only other one that caught my eye was
Annie Ellen Sloan and John M'Ilreavy
Date of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep, 1885
Registration district: Coleraine, Ireland
I suppose this is really too far out?
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
Thanks Mary. 1885 is maybe a bit late; the first child was born in January 1884. As for too far out... need to keep an open mind. By this time you would expect to find church AND civil records, but I can't find either one... there's something odd... A registration card for their son James in the US in 1917 shows his birthplace as Dundrum, although he was registered as 'Deehommed'. The 1901 census shows a big concentration of Sloans on the southern coast of County Down not far from Dundrum. Maybe Ann came from there and was with her mother when the child was born?... just speculation... irishgenealogy seems to be down this weekend which seriously restricts searching!
