Jamestown and Greenville

Following on from my last blog - previously I had the ages of the Pennsylvania families (see blogs 09: 22 Jun, 13 Aug; 10: 23 May, 8 Jun, 17 Nov, 22 Nov; 11: 13 Feb, 16 Feb, 1 Jul, 7 Jul and 18 Oct.) from the records at the Jamestown Cemetery. The evidence of the Census is that people in the 19th Century were ofter quite uncertain of their age. These are the families that emigrated from Newtowncromelin, Limavallagan and Lisnacrogher in County Antrim, the older generation of which was born back in the 18th Century. Somehow in the move the spelling of their surname was changed from McIlhago and McIlhaggar to McElhager. The eight from Jamestown in the 1880 USA Census are:

Jane McElhager 87 (born 1793) [1790 in Cemetery];

Eliza McElhager 50 (born 1830);

James McElhager 42 (born 1833) [1836 in Baptism Register];

Eliza McElhager 36 (born 1844) [1842 in Cemetery];

Augustine McElhager 20 (born 1860) [Augusta in Cemetery];

Mary McElhager 19 (born 1861) [1856 in Cemetery];

Sarah J. McElhager 18 (born 1862);

William D. McElhager 16 (born 1864) [Wm. B. in Cemetery].

Apart from dates, we have two significant changes. It look as if Augustine was male, not female Augusta and William's middle name possibly began with D not B, maybe as his uncle was David. Eliza clearly doesn't fit into this nuclear family. She was in fact a single cousin, daughter of David senior and sister of David in Greenville below. She was a Linen Weaver who had stayed in Jamestown.

The younger family in Greenville were cousins of the Jamestown lot and were:

David McElhager 39 (born 1841) [1834 in 1851 Irish Census];

Mariah McElhager 38 (born 1842) [1838 Maria in Cemetery];

Minnie McElhager 14 (born 1866) [1864 in Cemetery];

Annie McElhager 12 (born 1868) [1866 in Cemetery];

Dollie McElhager 10 (born 1870) [1868 in Cemetery].