Poll Books

At the last meeting of the Family History Group that I attend one member brought a Poll Book. Most people had never seen one. They were produced between the late 1600s and the late 1800s. They contained lists of all the people who had voted in a particular election with their address and, what is more, how they voted. In order to have your name recorded in a poll book, and of course able to vote, you had to own either a house or a piece of land, and you had to have actually voted.

Most clan members that we have come across were tenants and not owners. However two men did vote and were listed in the Belfast Poll Book of 1868, so must have owned the property where they lived. This book probably records the by-election on 22 November 1866 when Hugh Cairns, Conservative, resigned as Lord Justice of Appeal of England and Wales. He was replaced by Charles Lanyon, Conservative. George M'Ilhaggo of 24 Kilarney Street, Belfast, voted in Ann's Ward and Nathaniel M'Ilhaggo of 3 Meadow Street voted in Dock Ward. As yet I do not know for which party each cast their vote.

Hinton / Hilton

On 22 November 2010, 6 May 2011 and 21 September 2011 I reported on a family in which there was a marriage between Ellen McIlhage or McIlhaggo and William John Hinton. I also recorded that they had had seven children. In searching the McIlhaggo births in Ancestry.co.uk I have come across two more births for this couple, despite the fact that Ancestry seems to have mistranscribed the name Hinton to Hilton for one of them and given the father an extra middle name for the other.

The first is Elizabeth born in Belfast on 4 Sep 1878. The second is Mary, born in Belfast on 17 June 1880. Also as their first born on 15 December 1872 I had to record the birth of an unnamed female. According to Ancestry's records this date has three unnamed females, so I have to conclude that this was probably the birth of triplets who did not survive. In Mary's case the father's name is recorded as John Hilton and in Elizabeth's as John Hill Hinton!

McIllhagga reprise

Over the past couple of years I have noted half a dozen uses of the spelling McIllhagga and in particular I wrote about it on 16 May 2010. Each resource we use will of course vary in its use of our different spellings and each will make different errors in their transcriptions. For these reasons I have recently been noting how different spellings occur in Ancestry.co.uk. Nearly all are the same as in other sources such as findmypast, but for completeness I will now list the 'double l' versions, most of which are McIllhagga and all or most of which may go back to original sources:

McIllhaga:
Birth of Christopher John Maddocks, in February 1984, Stockport, Lancashire, England, Vol. 39 p.1334. Mother's maiden surname, McIllhaga.

M'Illhaga:
New York Passenger Lists. Joan aged 31, born in Greenock about 1888, travelled from Glasgow to New York, arriving 2 Nov 1919 on board the Columbia. She was a Domestic (Servant) going to Calgary, Alberta, Canada (where as Johanna McIlhagga she married). She gave her brother as William at Abels Terrace, Hamilton Road, Motherwell, Scotland.

McIllhagga:
Australia Electoral Rolls: 1954 - John in Swan, Western Australia; 1972 - Basil and Coralie Patricia in Stirling, Western Australia.
Deaths in Australia: 1883 Margaret Gillespie, nee McIllhagga; 1951 Agnes Scott, nee McIllhagga.
New South Wales Directories: 1925, Robert; 1926, R.

England Marriages: Elizabeth M.J. to Eric A. Harding, July-Sep 1958, Birkenhead, Cheshire; Jennifer to Andrew D. Holmes, July 1989, Sheffield, Yorkshire.

Canada Marriage: John Hutchison to Mary Ellen Kennedy, 16 Feb 1910 at Daly, Manitoba;
In Canadian Military: William, Joseph and Thomas.

USA, Death: Bessie Lowrie Young, nee McIllhagga, died 1940;
Public Records: Shawn A. McIllhagga.

Ireland, Birth: Robert, Oct-Dec 1941 in Dublin South, Vol.2, p.511; (Mother: Robinson).

Scotland, Phone Books, Glasgow 1972: R. McIllhagga.

Migration and Movement Records:
Thomas, from Liverpool, England, aged 13 (born about 1896) arrived Quebec, Canada on 28 May 1909 on ship Corsican;
Six records for R(obert), born Belfast, an Able Seaman, as follows:
From Suva to Sydney, arrived 26 Dec 1917 age 29 (b.1888) on Atua;
from Brisbane to Sydney, arrived 5 May 1918 age 29 (b.1889) on Gabo;
from Rockhampton to Sydney, arrived 24 May 1918, on Gabo;
from Vancouver to Sydney, arrived 18 Mar 1919 age 30 on Niagara;
from Sydney to Honolulu, arrived 9 Feb 1919 on Niagara;
from Vancouver to Honolulu, arrived 28 Feb 1919 on Niagara.

Divorce Revealed

Archie and Minnie

Just occasionally surprising new information arrives on my desk, usually from readers of this blog and this week has seen such a piece. A 'descendant relation' of a McNabb family got in touch. In the 18th Century the McNabbs were in the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland and at the beginning of the 19th Century emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Andrew Donald and Violet McNabbs (the Scots way to show that both husband and wife had the same surname, McNabb) had two daughters, Minnie and Millie. My correspondent is the great nephew to Minnie who married Archibald Duncan McIlhagga in June 1912 in Canada. He was 30 and she was 20. The above photograph is of the couple, I would think soon after their marriage. On the back is written "Irish Bobby Archibald Duncan McIlhagga born in Belfast, Ireland. RC Army R. 1896-1961 and Maru Isabell (Min)". I have permission to reproduce the photo.

Part of the new information is the photograph itself which has come down through the McNabb family. We have always known that Minnie, whose full name was Mary Isabella, predeceased Archie. She died in 1961 and he in 1968. It is not surprising therefore that his death certificate, from West Vancouver, says he was a widower. What has recently come to light and is new information for us, is that Minnie died not in Canada but in Auburn, Washington, USA. She is buried in Hillcrest Burial Park there, and her death record states that at the time she was married to John Maggert. We must therefore conclude that she and Archie divorced and that she remarried, which indeed she did on 2nd March 1931 in Whatcom County, Washington. She was then forty one. To the best of our knowledge she had no children with either Archie or John.

Mate James McElhago

Mate's Ticket

I have found, on Findmypast.co.uk, a Mate's Register Ticket for a James McElhago born at Irvine, Ayr, on 22nd November 1822. His height was 5'10 3/4", fresh complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes. He had a scar on his left eye. He first went to sea as an apprentice in 1835, when he would have been 13. The Ticket was issued at London on 6 April 1846 when he was 24 and says that he could write. It says that when unemployed he resided at Irvine.

But where does James fit in to the Ayrshire Family Tree? In attempting to reconstruct that tree I have six children listed for Robert McElhago and Elizabeth Jamieson of Irvine. They were born between 1789 and 1803. Clearly one of their sons could have had a child in 1822. Their third son James married Jane Harvey and had children between 1821 and 1837 so could well have had James in 1822. Their fourth son was Robert born 1796 who may have married and had a son Robert in 1821, who married Elizabeth Boyd. Robert was also a seaman and could well have had a sibling James born 1822. A third possibility is that both Robert and James could have been sons of James and Jane. Perhaps this is the most likely scenario.

MacIlhagger and M'Ilhagger

In Ancestry.co.uk there are 292 references to the McIlhagger spelling of our surname all of which I have entered in the Indexes I have compiled. In addition there are two references to MacIlhagger and nine to M'Ilhagger, some of which may be repeats of the more usual spelling, but I include them here for completeness so that they can be found if they do not appear elsewhere.

The two MacIlhagger references are in the 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, as follows:

John, Assiniboia West, Saskatchewan, born about 1878;
Archie, Assiniboia West, Saskatchewan, born about 1881.

Under the spelling M'Ilhagger there are five marriages and four births, all in Ireland and all Civil Registrations, as follows:

Marriages:
Mary Ann, registered 1867, Ballymena, Vol.16, page 109;
John, registered 1870, Belfast, Vol.1, page 417; spouse Mary Jane Hull;
George, registered 1876, Belfast, Vol.16, page 485, spouse Mary Jane Boyd;
David, registered Jul-Sep 1906, Belfast, Vol.1, p 320, spouse Elizabeth Louisa Sherwood;
William John, registered Apr-Jun 1908, Vol.1, p.447, spouse Eleanor M'Arthur [?]. 

Births:
Martha, registered 1876, Belfast, Vol.16, p 301;
Samuel Robert, registered Oct-Dec 1884, Ballinasloe, Vol.4, p.27;
Henry Joseph, registered Apr-Jun 1886, Ballinasloe, Vol.4, p.33;
Mary Kathleen, registered Jul-Sep 1887, BAllinasloe, Vol.4, p.33.

McIlhaggar

In Ancestry.co.uk there are 14 references to the McIlhaggar spelling of our name. When I wrote my blog on 12 September I included this spelling in its title. There I should have used Mc Ilhaggar with a space between Mc and I. Inevitably Ancestry has recorded some items twice under both Mc Ilhaggar and McIlhaggar! This applies to the marriages of Elizabeth and Esther both in 1851. Of the rest, seven of the references are to births where in all cases McIlhaggar is given as the maiden name of the mother. An interesting thing is that all seven are registered in Galgorm, Antrim. I presume this was the address of the registration office, rather than all seven babies having arrived in a Galgorm maternity unit! They are as follows:

Barr, male, born 10 Jan 1868, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: Matthew Barr;
  Mother: Matilda McIlhaggar;

Samuel Francey, born 4 Mar 1870, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: Thomas Francey;
  Mother Jane McIlhaggar;

William Francy, born 7 May 1865, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: Thomas Francy;
  Mother Jane McIlhaggar;

Agnes Francy, born 16 Aug 1872, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: Thomas Francy;
  Mother: Jane McIlhaggar;

Jane Francy, born 13 Jan 1872, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: John Francy;
  Mother: Rachael McIlhaggar;

Mary Ann Fullerton, born 31 Jan 1872, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: John Fullerton;
  Mother: Mary McIlhaggar;

Robert Witherspoon, born 11 Apr 1865, Galgorm, Antrim;
  Father: William Witherspoon;
  Mother Jane McIlhaggar.

I know where to fit numbers two to five in my clan Family Trees (all in that originating in Connor Parish) but am uncertain about the other three. Concerning the Fullerton birth I am confused. I have a marriage of John Fullerton to Margaret McIlhagga on 8 Jan 1872 at Connor Church of Ireland. This could well relate to a birth on 31 January 1872. Mary Ann was certainly the name of John's mother-in-law so it looks like the right family, and Margaret did have a sister Mary. So is the mother's name wrong on the birth record of Mary Ann?