Help to decipher name

[moya]

Husband was Alexander Mackey, wife Eleanor ???? Marriage in Ireland 1831, can't read Eleanor's maiden name. Anyone help. Thanks Moya

[daggers]

It could be Musten, with a long 's'. I think the groom is MackAy, not Ey.
D

[MaryA]

Yes Mackay not Mackey.

Very difficult, I think more likely the long "s" but could be f, not sure about the last letter, n or w?

Very few entries on familysearch if you use Musten with place Ireland, disappointing.

[dickiesam]

Eleanor's maiden name could be MAYHEW?

[northmeols]

they married in maghonagal Ireland I think it definately starts with M and ends in EW

[dickiesam]

Hi,
Hadn't looked closely before but I think that place-name is Magheragall in Co Antrim.
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuse ... nty=Antrim

[moya]

Thankyou all. It's a toss between Mulgrew or Muldrew, both of these names appear in Ancestry.com for County Antrim. I don't think it was Mayhew, as all the other "a's" in the record are closed at the top. The place was Magheragall. Alexander was 15 years younger than Eleanor, and this proved to be a childless marriage. Alexander took up with a much younger woman and had three children by her while his wife was still living. When Eleanor died he did marry the woman six months later and had a further 5 children by her. They must have been the talk of Magheragall ! Moya

[Tina]

Interesting info Moya!! Thank you.
Yes the net curtains would have been fluttering in the village.

[dickiesam]

Alexander was 15 years younger than Eleanor, and this proved to be a childless marriage. Alexander took up with a much younger woman and had three children by her while his wife was still living. When Eleanor died he did marry the woman six months later and had a further 5 children by her.

Not an unusual marriage for the time in Ireland and even up to relatively recent times in rural areas. Older spinsters with perhaps land and/or money would marry a younger man in an effort to continue 'her line' and young men would marry an older woman in order to acquire property or money.

Up to very recently, I believe the 1990s, a married woman was regarded in law in Ireland as a chattel of her husband and everything she owned going into a marriage automatically passed into the ownership of the man. When her family died and she was an inheritor the property passed to her spouse. It took a very brave lady from Cork to do battle in the EU Court to get a change forced into the Irish antedeluvian legislation.