1861 Scotland

What happened to the Dundonald - Dunbar family who were in the 1841 and 1851 Censuses? There is no one in Dunbar but there are four people in Irvine, Ayrshire, with the variant name McIllhago: James 68, 'head', Jane 60, 'wife', Eliza 34, 'daughter' and Jameson 2, 'granddaughter'. This is clearly the same family who were in Dundonald, but without children Jane, Richard and Jamieson, who do not seem to be recorded in the Census elsewhere. Is Jameson really a two year old granddaughter or has their son Jamieson, who would have been 28, simply been recorded incorrectly? I attempted a solution to this problem on 16th December last under the title 'A Census anomaly'. I still think the probability is that Jamieson McElhago (4 male) in 1841 in Dundonald (named after 'his' grandmother) is Jameson McElhago (14 female) in Dundonald in 1851, is Jane McH McElhage (24 female) in Tradeston in 1861, is Jane McElhago (52 female) in Anderston 1891. I also think the probability is that Jameson McIllhago (2 female) in 1861 is Jemima McElhago (12 female) with Elizabeth 49 in Tradeston in 1871. In addition to what I wrote on 16 December, the only explanation I can think of for Jane's middle initials in 1861, McH, is that her mother's maiden name was Harvey and that Jane knew 'Mc' meant 'offspring of' and she adopted the middle name McHarvey. In 1861 with Jane were Elizabeth McElhago and Robert McElhago. Robert was I believe Jane's cousin who had married Elizabeth Boyd. They had no children of their own and it would have been very reasonable for Jane to have been living with them.

In 1861 this leaves us with one other family living in Greenock and a single man, William McIlhago, in Renfrew. This William was 22 so had been born about 1839. The print-out of the Census entry shows he was one of two lodgers with a Dierny family in Conel Street. He was a 'Ship Carpenter' born in Ireland. I believe this to have been the William McIlhaggo who two years later on 3rd July 1863 married Catherine Johnston(e) Easton in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire. They were to have five children in Scotland. William's parents were John McIlhagga and Mary Houston of Maxwell's Walls on County Antrim. The family of six in Greenock were William McIlhaggan, 28, his wife Elizabeth, 36, sons William 8 and James 6 and daughters Matilda 3 and Agnes 1. This was part of the 'Ballycloughan' family that we have met in earlier blogs. William was the eldest son of William McIlhagga and Agnes McCosh, so the Census surname is one of the enumerator's 'mishearings', possibly due to an accent to which he was not used.

The most interesting thing we find in analysing the references to the Clan in the 1861 Scottish Census is that no longer do we have just one family, albeit in two places, with its origins in Ayrshire, Scotland, but also the beginning of an influx of people into Scotland from Northern Ireland. This must have begun to happen in the middle or late 50s. In one case a single man came looking for work and found it in one of the major industries of the Scottish Central belt, shipbuilding. In the other case a whole family moved into the West Coast town of Greenock where work could be found with another major employer there, the Sugar Industry.