McIlhage, McIlhagart, McIlhaggert, McIlhagie and McIlhague

In FamilySearch there are just a few single or double name variants left to note. The record of the birth of Mary Gibb on 22 March 1867 in Belfast gives her parents as William Gibb and Mary McIlhage. In fact they married on 6th June 1863 in Rutherglen, Scotland, using the 'normal' form of our name, McIlhagga. It's interesting that this is a rare example of a move from Scotland to Ireland. Another Belfast birth is of George McIlhagart in 1872. This is the extent of the information given in Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes. This was in fact the birth, on 29th April that year, of one of the children of John McIlhagger and Mary Jane Hull. This family normally used the McIlhagger version of our name.

In Scotland we have also James McIlhaggert born on 9th December 1791. He was the second of the six children of Robert McIlhaggert or (more normally) McElhago and Elizabeth Jamieson. I have already referred to him in two blogs on 25th March and 22nd April 2009. We have one reference to McIlhagie. Hugh Scott was born on 8th March 1867 in Port Glasgow to Alexander Scott and Margaret McIlhagie. Margaret was the youngest daughter of William McIlhagga and Agnes McCosh. Somehow the variant McIlhaggie crept in, but here we have the only example of one 'g' with an 'ie' ending.

Finally we have two examples of the variant McIlhague. On a time line they are well apart. First, Robert was born on 30th May 1687 in Ayr to Robert McIlhague and Bessie Johnstone. We have met this couple before, usually with the spelling McIlhago. The 1824 Scotland Births and Baptisms records Jean born to John McIlhague and Isabella McCallum. Jean's birth was on 8th March and her baptism was on 13th October, in Dundonald, Ayr. Sadly I am not able to fit these people into the known Dundonald family about which I have written earlier.