Thursday 29 November 2012

County Antrim in the 18th Century

My hunch is that all our known clan members born in the 18th Century whom we find in County Antrim, Ireland, must 'fit together' in a Family Tree. After all there are only 25 names covering the period from about 1720 to the end of the century. There are also about half a dozen people in the same families from the first decade of the 19th Century.

Who was the earliest? It is between two men, both of whom appeared in the Belfast Newsletter - either Nathaniel who was coming to the end of a tenancy on Islandmagee in 1770 or William who rescued a beef cow in the parish of Connor in 1781. If Nathaniel was retiring he could well have been born as far back as say 1720 and if William was an established farmer he could have been born say 1740. I have on another occasion suggested that William may have been born in 1743 in Ayrshire, Scotland, son of David of Dalmellington. William is the earliest name we find in Connor parish which suggests he may have been the father of later farmers there, Henry, born about 1865 and five men any or all of whom could have been Henry's sons, Henry (1784), John (1795), James (1805), Francis (1809) and William (1810), all of whom also had offspring.

Nathaniel's link with Islandmagee suggests he could have been the father of brothers Samuel and James ('Senior') who farmed there and were born probably between 1740 and 1755; and perhaps he was even the father of Nathan, born about 1758 who found his way to Carnmoney to marry Betty Burney in 1783 and have (I think) six children, five of whom were born in the 18th Century, Nathaniel, Jon, George, Patrick, Agnes and Nathan. A firstborn called Nathaniel does of course suggest a grandfather Nathaniel. With regard to Samuel, I still think that his eldest child, whose name is lost from his 1818 Will, was Andrew who was involved with the United Irishmen in 1795.

James (Senior) was born about 1755, probably married and had three sons, James 'Junior', Samuel and William. The next question which arises is whether James Junior married and if so could he have been the James who married Sarah and moved to Shankill? The answer has to be not unless he moved back again to Ballytober on Islandmagee where he was know to be still farming in the 1820s. So where do James and Sarah, and Nathan and Sarah (see my last blog) and their children, three born in the 1790s, fit in, if not on Islandmagee? At present I do not know.

I next come to John McElhager and Jenny McCarley of Lisnacrogher who were both born about 1790, who were to emigrate to the USA. John called his only son James which leads me to think that John's father was James. He would have had to have been born before 1765, so could have been either James Senior of Islandmagee or else the James we find in the Tithe Applotment Book for Kenbilly in 1823, when he might have been in his mid-forties. Could this James be the father of both John of Lisnacrogher born 1790 and of William from nearly Ballycloghan born 1795? Yes, I think so. Could he also have been James whom we find in Shankill fathering a William in 1792 and then another William in 1798 followed by  Martha and Ann in 1803 and 1809? Yes, I think so. It is not unlikely that between 1809 and 1823 James could have moved from Shankill to Kenbilly, and this would allow for the possible Shankill scenario that I outlined a couple of days ago.

We have certainly not related all the clan members known to have been born in the 18th Century who lived in County Antrim, but we may have gone some way towards it. What remains to reconcile is what I wrote some time ago on 25 Oct 2011, when I named a younger brother of William, namely John, who was living next door to him in Ballycloghan, and Mary living in Killygore in 1862. I think I was wrong then to imagine she was their mother, more likely a sibling. And we have to deal with two Johns! If the parents of William and John of Ballycloghan were in fact James and Sarah, then John of Lisnacrogher cannot also be their offspring. Still too many loose ends! I will be patient until a new lead turns up!


Tuesday 27 November 2012

A half-sister?

The early Baptism Registers of St. Anne's Church of Ireland, Shankill, Belfast, have two baptisms which look as if they might be related for the surname of the first is McIlhaggy and of the second is McIlhaggey. What is more the name of the mother in both is Sarah. However, the children concerned cannot of course be full siblings for Margaret baptised on 4th March 1790 had Nathan as her father and William baptised on 25 February 1792 had James as father. I have mentioned these baptisms on a couple of occasions in this blog, and puzzled about them, not knowing which family they belong to. There are however a couple of things which occur to me now which might throw a little light.

My bafflement is not least because these folk were in the centre of Belfast. Where did they move from, and did they move away again? I have no other reference to the clan name there. The most likely thing seems to be that they moved from Islandmagee. However the parents must have been born as early as, if not earlier than, 1770, and I have no Nathan who might have moved about that time. There is James 'Junior' on Islandmagee, but I don't believe he moved away from the farm there. The next thing to note is that after 1790 there are no further references to a Nathan fathering other children. He disappears from the baptism scene. I have to suspect that he died at a young age, in which case Sarah would have been left with the child Margaret.

Now within a short time frame there are several references to a James with a wife Sarah, with other children who were baptised not long after Margaret, all at St. Anne's, Shankill. First there was William baptised 25th February 1792. Then, after a gap of six years, another William baptised on 29 June 1798. We have to assume that the first William died, maybe soon after birth, which could have made them avoid having other children for a few years. Then five years later there was Martha baptised 6 July 1803 and finally Ann baptised the following year on 6th September. In the Registers all have William and Sarah as their parents, though the surname gets a variety of spellings. As we have learned, that was to be expected at that period. William in 1792 was McIlhaggey; William in 1798 was McIlhagar (though Sarah was McIlhaggar); Martha was McIlhaga and Ann was McIlhagart.

I think these records do raise the question of whether by some misfortune Nathan died soon after the birth of Margaret and whether his wife remarried to James, very probably the brother of Nathan. This would of course make Margaret, assuming she lived, a half-sister to William and to the other siblings.
Now I have one further observation. I have recently learned the death date of my great-great grandfather William in 1882 at the age of 87, giving him a birth year of 1795. Given that many people were a little uncertain of their age, and other people reporting their death even more uncertain, and given that 1795 and 1798 are only three years apart, I have to raise the possibility that my William was in fact the William who was baptised in Shankill in 1798. I know of no other reference to a William with whom I can identify him, and I have on another occasion said that I suspect that his father was James, not least because in the Tithe Applotment Books for Ballycloghan and Kenbilly my William and a James McIlhagga rented neighbouring plots.

Sunday 25 November 2012

A Wedding visit?

In recent months I have been passing on some of the interesting discoveries I have made by searching the Internet site Ancestry.co.uk, using different versions of our clan surname. The final category I have noted for 'McIlhagga' is 'Immigration and Travel', especially the UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960.

It is fascinating to note the comings and goings of both men and women, often unaccompanied, travelling between the home country and the 'New World' of Australia, Canada and the United States of America. One learns the names, ages, ports of departure and arrival, the names of the ships and of the Shipping Companies,  a person's normal place of residence, the address to which people are travelling, their occupations and occasionally the passenger 'class' like 'tourist' or '2nd Class'. Clearly very often the travel was to visit family either at home in Great Britain or in the country of immigration.

There are two journeys of special interest, both, it so happens, of people fairly closely related to myself. The first I have commented on before, that of John S. travelling on the ship Penisular which sailed from Sydney, Australia, to London in 1898. The interest is created by the fact that John embarked at Bombay. I had no idea that he had ever been to India. He would have been nineteen in 1898. He was a great uncle of mine.

The second occasion refers back to one of the earliest blogs I wrote, and I think one of the most interesting, on 24th January 2009, entitled Home Children. It concerned my first cousin, once removed, Thomas who after his mother's death was sent as a thirteen year old to Canada where he was 'adopted' by a farmer in Quebec. I had been able (and have since been able) to find out quite a lot about Thomas in Canada - see my blogs of 11 April and 8 July 2009. I ended the last blog on the depressing note that Thomas had probably lost contact with his family in Liverpool and may be had never returned to his birth 'home'.

How wrong I was! And how pleased I am to discover I was wrong. It is clear that Thomas must have kept contact with at least one of his siblings, his eldest sister. The passenger list for the Canadian Pacific Liner Metagama shows that Thomas was on board from Montreal to Liverpool arriving 24th June 1919. The record confirms that he was resident in Canada and that his occupation was 'Farmer', an occupation to which he must have returned after the end of the First World War, in which he served.

Thomas gave the address to which he was travelling as 118 Tatlock Street, Liverpool, the same address from which his sister Agnes would get married to Michael Doyle a couple of months later. Presumably the pending nuptials gave Thomas the excuse and the impetus to make the return journey to his native city. He would have been twenty-four at the time. I have no information at present about a return journey to Canada, though return he did. An interesting side-light on the visit is that Agnes married in a Roman Catholic Church, something that Thomas was also to do when he returned to his adopted home.

Friday 23 November 2012

Derry

The McIlhagga clan in Ireland has been found almost exclusively in County Antrim, though there are rare references to Galway, Dublin, Down and Derry. One of the Irish Genealogical sites has just published the Index of Civil Births for the County of Derry where you can find just four McIlhaggas in the first decade of the 20th Century, namely:

Mary Ann 1906;
William 1907;
John 1909; 
Samuel 1910.

As you can guess these four were siblings. They were the first four children of James Spence McIlhagga and Elizabeth McGrillis. At the time James was a Railway Locomotive fireman. In fact the town of Coleraine, not far from Londonderry itself, was where Elizabeth was living when she and James married and presumably it was convenient for them to live there, probably in her home town and near her parents. Then after number four child, maybe it was his job - he eventually became a train driver - made it better for them to move to the central Antrim town of Ballymena, where their last three children were born.

Samuel (b.1910) and his wife Jessie went back to live in County Derry, in Portstewart, and his son Ronald James was married in Coleraine. A couple of years ago I wrote about a Jeannie McIlhagga living in Londonderry itself when she signed the Ulster Covenant in 1912.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Probate Records

The Internet site Ancestry.co.uk holds seven sets of PRobate records for the surname McIlhagga. They are for the following people:

Margaret, died 13 May 1927;
Margaret, died 31 Dec 1940;
Robert, died 13 Apr 1951;
Lindsay, died 16 Feb 1954;
Adelaide, died 31 Aug 1956;
George Robinson, died 20 May 1957;
Harry, died 15 Dec 1962.

I think that a number of general and random comments are in order. First, three of the seven are my own immediate family, my father, grandmother and aunt. It is interesting to compare the value of money at different times, e.g. £1000 (sterling) in the 1930s was worth approximately £40,000 in today's money. Second, four of the seven are people who died in Ireland and the amount of their effects, which in each case is fairly small, only applies to the portion of what they owned which was in England. Presumably there is a record in Ireland of the portion which applied to Ireland.

Each record names the person to whom probate was granted. The relationship to the person who had died is of course of interest and usually of genealogical interest. Margaret who died in 1927 is stated to be the wife of William, a Commercial Traveller. So we know that William survived his wife, and we know his occupation. Margaret who died in 1941 is said to be a spinster. The administration is given to Lindsay, a Company Director, without any mention that he was her brother.

Robert who died in 1951 was in fact a bachelor, though on mention is made of this. Probate was granted to Robert Kennett a Merchant, with no mention that he was a nephew. Robert (Jr.) was the son of Robert (Sr.)'s nearest sibling, Rebecca. Robert Senior was one of twelve siblings and maybe he felt closest to the one who had named a child after him. The full name of Robert junior is recorded, Robert McIlhagga Kennett. From a genealogical point of view not only do we have an example of our clan name being continued as a middle name, we have learned for the first time that Rebecca and her husband Charles Kennett had a son, who like his uncle was a merchant.

Lindsay who died in 1954 clearly named his business partner as his executor, to whom probate was granted. What is 'hidden' behind this fact is that they had a private agreement that his partner would look after Lindsay's family from a financial point of view which was honoured until Lindsay's wife died many years later. Adelaide died in Dublin in a Nursing Home directly opposite the house in which her husband was living. She's called a 'married woman' so we know that her husband was still alive, and he is named, with his occupation of Hardware Merchant.

George Robinson McIlhagga, who died on 20th May 1957 gives us an example of an Estate taking quite a time to wind up. Probate was granted two years later, probably because he died insestate. Administration was given to his widow. It is from the probate records that we learn her middle name. Apparently she was Kathleen Madden Trueick. Finally we learn the basic 'vital' fact of the date of death of Harry McIlhagga, on 15th December 1962, administration being given to his widow, Sarah Laura (nee Browne).

Monday 19 November 2012

Correspondence

I have just returned from the monthly meeting of my local Family History Society where the speaker was our local archivist who was born and bred in Northern Ireland. She told me that on the occasion when she had to clear the house after the death of a relative she found a letter signed by a Mr. McIlhagga. Sadly that letter doesn't still exist and there is no memory of its contents, though it must have been important enough for the person who received it to keep it.

Mention of it is a timely reminder that such correspondence can be most valuable in building up a picture of an ancestor, be they sender or receiver. We have a wonderful example in the letter a copy of which was sent to me by a correspondent in Alberta Canada, from Henrietta the wife of Nathaniel Owens McIlhagga, which lists most of the dates of births, marriages and some deaths of her large family.

I included that letter in my blogs of 8th and 19th of May 2010. If any readers of this blog have family correspondence or of course other documents or photographs that they would be happy to share, I would be delighted to receive copies and preserve them in the clan archives.

Saturday 17 November 2012

Champion Jockey

I have written before about Richard McIlhagga who lived in Dublin in the mid-20th Century and who bred race horses. I have often found references to him in Irish Newspapers and in Ireland he is probably best remembered for winning the Irish Grand National with King's Sprite in 1971.

The internet site findmypast.co.uk has just added British Newspapers 1710-1950 to its genealogical resources, where we can find four references to Richard McIlhagga in the newspapers of South-West England. Three are only notices of runners, two in the Western Morning News in 1949 and one in the Gloucester Echo in 1950. The fourth however is more interesting. It is in the Western Morning News for 21 April 1949 where we find the following report:

'Mr R. McIlhagga's five-year old grey Impeccable, ridden by Gordon Richards, was one of the easiest winners of the City and Suburban Handicap in the history of the race at Epsom yesterday.
After being among the leaders for a mile Impeccable took the lead in the last two furlongs and Liberty Light, who had taken second place, was unable to get in an effective challenge, Impeccable winning by three lengths.....
Mr. McIlhagga who is a Dublin manufacturer who has won many races with the horses he runs in England... said after the race: "I hope that one of my future wins on this course will be in the Derby in 1952 with Impeccable's full brother, now only a foal".'

We have no record of Richard McIlhagga ever winning the Derby, but at least we have this report of one of his horses being ridden by Gordon Richards, perhaps the most famous champion jockey of the 20th Century.

Thursday 15 November 2012

1860 Census

There are no surviving Ireland Censuses for 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 so it's difficult to keep track of people - unless of course they emigrated! And this is the case for two families from Lisnacrogher / Newtowncromelin, County Antrim. They emigrated to the USA in the 1850s so appear in the US Federal Census taken in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1960. Here they are:

James McElhager, 24 (b.1836 Ireland), South Shenango, Crawford, PA;
Liza McElhager, 19 (b.1841, PA), South Shenango, Crawford, PA;
Augusta McElhager. 8 months (b.PA), South Shenango, Crawford, PA.

It would appear that very soon after emigrating James met Liza, married and had a daughter. In fact there may be an error here as other evidence shows that Liza was born in Ireland (see my last blog);

Isabell McElhager, 20 (b.1840 Ireland), Factory Hand, living with the Ferand family in Kinsman, Trumbull, Ohio;
And living next door with the Pell family is Sophrona McElhager, 12 (b.1848, PA).

Isabell was James' cousin, but who was Sophrona, of whom I have never heard? Surely the family didn't emigrate before 1848, so perhaps Sophrona is simply adopting the same name as Isabell? However, another mistake - Isabell wasn't 20 in 1840, she was 25. I have a reference to her baptism. So was Sophrona her daughter? If so Isabell would have been 13 when she had her. Unlikely, but possible. But I guess unlikely for surely Isabell would have been in Ireland then.

John McElhager, 19 (b.1841 Ireland), a Carpenter living with the Smith family in Jamestown, Mercer, PA.

John was Isabell's brother.

David McElhages, 25 (b.1835 Ireland), a Tailor, at Gustaves, Trumbull, Ohio;
Maria McElhages, 21 (b. PA);
Catherian McElhages, 17 (b.1843, Ohio).

First, I suspect the enumerator wrote down two names incorrectly. McElhages should have been McElhager and surely Catherian should have been Catherina. Perhaps like his cousin James, David married soon after he arrived in the USA, to Maria. But who is Catherina? Clearly not their daughter. So was she a sister of Maria and adopting her new surname? How strange! Or was she a sister of David? But it says she was born in Ohio. Maybe this was another enumerator's error, or perhaps she was just a visitor and was assumed to be 'family'.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

"Wm. C. McElhager"

A couple of days ago I included a note about Wm C. McElhager age 21 born in Pennsylvania in about 1879, living in 1900 in the Philippine Islands. He was a Private in the Military, possibly in a Signal Unit. A correspondent in Australia has kindly sent me the Schedule of the Census with William's name on it, which I can magnify to show that Ancestry.co.uk has not only mistranscribed some information but also has omitted some other.

First, I do not think his second initial is 'C'. It could be 'A'. It does make it clear that he was a Private in the Signal Corps and adds what is I presume his home address, 248 Dorset Street, Cleveland, Ohio. It clarifies that his birth was April 1869 and that he was 31 (not 21) and single. Vitally it also gives his place of birth as Jamestown, Pennsylvania, and the country of birth of both his parents as Ireland.

I am now sure that this Census reference is to William son of James and Eliza McElhager of Jamestown, PA. He did have a second name, though we don't know what it was. I'm glad to have evidence that both his parents were born in Ireland. I was uncertain about his mother, for the burial records of Eliza (wrongly) state that she was born in Pennsylvania. Although we don't know for certain her maiden name was probably Rogers.

Also William was certainly in the Signal Corps, as his War Pension Records make clear. William's interment record gives him a year of birth of 1864, so maybe he wanted to appear younger in order to get into the Military. Who knows? There is a possibility that I have not yet been able to prove, that he married someone called Hanna and had a daughter Mavis in 1892. If so, Hanna was a Widow by the time the 1910 Census was taken, so William must have died before that date.

Sunday 11 November 2012

American Census strays

1840 US Federal Census
John McElhagin, New York Ward 14, New York.
Head of family plus the Free White persons:
   one male (30-39);
   one female (20-29);
   one female (30-39).

The three 'free whites' must have been born 1810-1820 and on the assumption that John, for whom no age is given, is a generation older he could be John McElhager born 1788 who emigrated from Ireland and ended up in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. He married and I think had children.

1900 US Federal Census
Wm C. McElhager, age 21 born Pennsylvania in about 1879.
His home in 1900 was San Isidro Huos Esijo, in the Philippines Islands.
William was a Private in the Military and Naval Forces. If I interpret the rest of this entry correctly he was in a Signal Unit.

I have no other reference to a William C. McElhager though there were a couple of Irish immigrant McElhager families in Pensylvania from the mid-nineteenth century and presumably he belongs to one of them.

1910 US Federal Census
There is a family of five in Collier, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, none of whom I have heard of before.

Addison J. McElhage, age 35, born c.1875 in Pennsylvania, whose father and mother were both also born in Pennsylvania. His wife was Anna B. (no maiden surname given), age 29, born c.1881 whose parents were both born in Pennsylvania.

They had three children:
   Mary A. age 10 b.1900 Pennsylvania;
   William L. age 8 b.1902 Pennsylvania;
   Aleta B. age 5 b.1905 Pennsylvania.

Again, with the McElhage version of our clan name, it could be that they belong to either of the Irish immigrant families (having dropped the final 'r'). However, there may be another link for this nuclear family for there is a McElhago who is buried in Allegheny Cemetery, namely Margaret who died in 1875, and I think she relates to the Scottish Ayrshire family.

I should add that I have twice written to the Allegheny Cemetery authorities to try to get more information about Margaret's burial, the second time sending the requested $10, but on neither occasion have I received a reply.

Friday 9 November 2012

Public Domain

Recently in this blog I have included a number of lists of clan births, marriages and deaths. There are more, in particular the England & Wales Birth Index 1931-1996, and the England & Wales Marriage Index 1916-1999. However, the majority of people on both these lists are or could be alive, and I have tried to keep to the principle that I shouldn't refer to people who are alive without their permission. So, for the time being I have decided not to print these lists. Of course I understand that they only contain information which is in the public domain and which is therefore accessible to anyone who takes the trouble to look it up, so what I am happy to do is, if anyone writes to me, I will do a 'look up' for them for any particular person and send the information in an email. I hope this is helpful. There are 111 people on the Births list and 54 Marriages, all McIlhagga.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Klamatu and Blackfeet!

Sometimes one gets a real surprise. Something crops up that is totally unexpected. On 14 May last year I wrote a blog about the name McHaggart which contained some unusual things, including a Scottish Highland Shepherd's family, but nothing to compare with a note I added later to that date, that in the 1930 US Census there is a reference to a Roy McHaggart, aged 48 (so born 1882), who was resident in the Klamatu Indian Reservation in the State of Oregon. Apparently he had been born in Indiana.

Equally surprising is a second US Census reference, five years later on 31 December 1935, to James McIlhagery, a white man, living in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in the State of Montana. No place of birth or age is given for him, and I have to admit that his surname is a variation of, or a deviation from our clan name (if indeed it is that) I haven't come across before. One might be excused for thinking that Roy or James had landed in an Indian Reservation at those dates because there happened to be a job going at the time, and that might be true for Roy, but was not so for James.

The rest of the entry, which incidentally is found in the US Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940, makes it clear what attracted James to Montana. The next name is 'wife', Violet (McGovern) aged 19, tribe Blackfoot, born 27 September 1917. Clearly she wasn't classed as 'white', though her 'maiden' name was the Scots or Irish McGovern. We must presume that her father was Scots or Irish and her mother a Blackfoot Indian. Somehow the McGoverns had become known to James McIlhagery and he had fallen in love with Violet. Maybe he was about the same age, so born about 1915. We may presume that they were married by 1934, for the third Census entry is that for their daughter, aged one, Joanne Belle McIlhagery, born 11 July 1935. Unfortunately none of the above facts about this family help me to relate them to any other members of our clan. Has anyone a family story about American Indians?

Monday 5 November 2012

Nathaniel Owens McIlhagga, 'Junior'

On the eve of the American Presidential election I can record what little we know of an emigrant to the USA. James Wilson McIlhagga of Belfast, an Oil Merchant married Sarah Jane Hoye in 1907 at St. John's, Langbank, Church of Ireland. They had two sons, Nathaniel and Robert. Robert sadly died as a teenager. Nathaniel, whose second name was Owens for his grandfather, emigrated to the USA as a teenager. His journey landed him first in Quebec on 23rd April 1927, aged 18, aboard the Cunard PS Alaunia. In the States he met and married Marjorie Adele Taylor, about whom we know a little from the fact that she illustrated a book for parents, entitled 'Mom, I'm bored'!

The Internet site Ancestry.ca has recently allowed a free Census search which has resulted in my also knowing a little more about Nathaniel Owens the second. He was born at the end of 1908 and his wife was six years his junior. In the 1940 US Federal Census he was therefore 31 and she 25. They were living at 5515 South West Corbett Street, Portland, Multomah, Oregon, and had indeed been living there at least since 1935. Nathaniel's occupation was in the Engineering Department of a Telephone Company. The Census gives us the information that he had been employed for the previous 52 weeks for a salary of $3800.

The final piece of Census information is that Nathaniel and Marjorie had no children. From my correspondence some years ago with a lady in the States I think they may subsequently have had a daughter. Nathaniel died on 25 March 1988, aged 79 and Marjorie on 31 December 1992 at almost the same age. I have a note from another correspondence that Nathaniel may have been buried in Milwalkee, Wisconsin, though I have not verified whether this is true.


Saturday 3 November 2012

....Haggo: a wee problem

There is a birth in Ancestry.co.uk which can be found by searching for the name 'Haggo'. In fact it is the only result when 'Haggo' is searched. It is of Stewart Walker on 24 Mar 1880 in Belfast, to parents Stewart Walker and Mother Margaret Mc....Haggo. Clearly something is not readable on the birth record where Ancestry has put the dots. The likelihood is that Margaret's full name is McIlhaggo.

Now there is a Margaret McIlhaggo (the only one I know of) in Belfast who the year before, on 27 Feb 1879, married a Walker, though he was, according to my records, Samuel Walker. There could easily be a mistranscription somewhere of Walker's first name, possibly in the baptism record, or even in my own Marriage Index (!). The marriage was at Trinity Church of Ireland, Belfast and I have for some time thought that this Margaret was the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (nee Glass). She was born on 14 May 1854 so would have been 26 when Stewart was born. For the time being, despite the discrepancy between Stewart and Samuel for the name of the father, I'm going to settle for this solution as the 'best possibility' until further evidence persuades me otherwise.

Friday 2 November 2012

Death Index for McIlhagga in England & Wales

Yet another list, but I am switching from Ireland to England and Wales. Appropriate to All Souls Day, the list below is the 'England and Wales Death Index, 1916-2000' for the surname McIlhagga in Ancestry.co.uk. I have only italicised three names as they are the only ones I cannot place in a Family Tree. The order of the information is: Given Name, age at death (year of birth), Quarter or Month and year the death was registered, the Registration District followed by the volume and page number in the records of that District (not in the National Records):

William 71 (b.1867), Jan-Mar 1938, Liverpool North 8b-473;
Margaret 59 (b.1868), Apr-Jun 1927, Birkenhead 8a-607;
Thomas 58 (b.1868), Oct-Dec 1926, West Derby 8b-472;
Crawford 55 (b.1871), Apr-Jun 1926, Liverpool 8b-25;
Esther 86 (b.1873*), Oct-Dec 1959, Surrey South West 5g-910;
Margaret A 81 (b.1876), Jan-Mar 1957, Crosby 10c-105;
Agnes 48 (b.1879), Jan-Mar 1927, West Derby 8b-749;
John S 43 (b.1879), Apr-Jun 1922, West Derby 8b-415;
Mary G 79 (b.1889), Jul-Sep 1968, Conway Caernarvon 8a-129;
James W 44 (b.1892), Oct-Dec 1936, Conway, Caernarvon 11b-533;
Lindsay 60 (b.1893), Jan-Mar 1954, Wirral 10a-836;
Olive Mildred 91 (b.1897), Mar 1989, Birkenhead 37-993;
Margaret 43 (b.1898), Jan-Mar 1941, Liverpool North 8b-776;
Samuel James 80 (b.1903), May 1984, Wigan 39-2414;
William J 41 (b.1905), Apr-Jun 1946, Birkenhead 8a-614;
Margaret 79 (b.1908), Oct 1987, Chatham Kent 16-570;
Annie Stephenson 63 (b.1912), Jan-Mar 1976, Wigan 39-3213;
William 79 (b.1915), Dec 1994, Wallasey 50A-118;
Dorothy Margaret 84 (b.1916), Nov 2000, Birkenhead D8C-135;
Daniel 67 (b.1926), Jan 1994, Wycombe Buckingham 825C-239;
Margaret Helen 39 (b.1931), Apr-Jun 1971, Wycombe Buckingham 6a-1329;
James Spence 67 (b.1933), Feb 2001, Sheffield E90A-204;
Lucy 0 (b.1933), Jan-Mar 1933, Conway Caernarvon 116-681;
Margaret Rose 67 (b.1937), Jun 2005, Wigan & Leigh, B24B-155;
Catharine Anne 63 (b.1938), Apr 2002, Northumberland North 24A-57;
James 20 (b. 1938), Oct-Dec 1958, Ince 10c-451;
Henry 60 (b.1940), Aug 2000, Bromley D37-162;
Norma Anne 44 (b. 1944), May 1989, Birkenhead 37-900;
Sandra 49 (b.1945), Dec 1994, West Lancashire 2A-273;
James P 0 (b. 1959), Oct-Dec 1959, Ince 10c-482;
Meryl H 0 (b.1962), Jul-Sep 1962, Bridgend, Glamorgan 8b-63;
Robert Boyd 20 (b.1963), Oct0Dec 1983, Oxford 20-2362.

* This date is possibly wrong. I think her date of death was 6 Nov 1868.

Thursday 1 November 2012

McIlhaggar births and baptisms

Yesterday I produced the 'Ireland Birth and Baptisms' records from Ancestry.co.uk for the surname spelling McIlhagga. Today I'm continuing the same records but with the spelling McIlhaggar. All are from the parish or district of Galgorm, Ballymena. Unlike yesterday, I am italicising those that were new to me:

John, 4.11.1868, John+Mary Atkinson;
Eliza Jane, 9.11.1871, John+Mary Atkinson;
George, 15.11.1871, Matilda McIlhaggar;
John Bell, 21.7.1873, William+Mary Jane Bell;
Agnes, 4.12.1874, Frank+Mary Jane Brown;
[female], 6.9.1869, Matthew Barr+Matilda McIlhaggar;
Samuel, 15.10.1870, Matthew Barr+Matilda McIlhaggar;
Margaret, 28.5.1875, thomas Francey+Jane McIlhaggar;
James, 1.12.1867, Thomas Francey+Jane McIlhaggar;
Martha, 7.3.1874, John Fullerton+Mary McIlhaggar;
James, 28.4.1869, Robert John Millar+Mary Mcilhaggar;
Elizabeth, 14.1.1871, Robert John Millar+Mary McIlhaggar;
Jane, 8.8.1873, Robert John Millar+Mary McIlhaggar.

Again, you will spot one name with no father recorded, because the father's name is not known.