McIlhagga - 'A'

Having trawled through all the clan name variations and deviations in the FamilySearch website I am now going to work through all the McIlhagga references to see whether they throw up any new information. I shall do so alphabetically, starting with the first names beginning with A.

First we have the marriage of Agnes Ethel McIlhagga of Maxwellswalls, Connor. In the July Quarter of 1915 she married William McVittie. She was born in 1892 to William G. McIlhagga and Jane Todd. Clearly she fits into the Maxwells Walls Family Tree, though I have no information about any descendants from this marriage, or indeed whether there have been any descendants.

Next comes Ann, a daughter of William McIlhagga and Agnes McCosh of Ballycloghan, who married Robert Linton. The FamilySearch site misspells this name as both Linten and Clinton! There are records of the births of four children, the first of which is simply 'female' on 8th April 1865, a birth formally unknown to me. No name must mean that this infant was either still-born or died very soon after birth. I suspect the latter is the case as in all probability stillborn children were not registered; also this conclusion is supported by the record giving us a place for a baptism, namely 146, Broughshane, County Antrim. I don't know whether the 146 indicates the address of a church or of another building. The second child, almost exactly twelve months later, was Robert, born 4th April 1866. The baptism place on this occasion is given as 142 Broughshane. The third child is Mary, born 1st February 1872 with the baptism place of 120, Ballymena. Finally Martha Jane is born on 12th January 1878, this time the birth place being 'Antrim', which could mean either the town or the county, probably the latter.

I now come to the part of a family about which I have written before, but not with quite all the information. Ann Eliza McIlhagga appears in Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620-1881 as the mother of three children, Eliza Jane, Margaret and Hugh Patrick. All the children have the surname Kelly and we know that Ann Eliza married Hugh Kelly on 1st October 1872 at Wellington Street Presbyterian Church, Ballymena. Interestingly their witnesses were Francis and Agnes Millikin (see my blogs of 18 May 09, 20 Mar 10, 25 Mar 10 and 6 Jul 10). However, the eldest child, Eliza Jane, born 25th May 1876, has the father's name recorded as Joseph Kelly, born Portrush, the place where Eliza got married to Hugh! Now it is possible that Joseph was a brother of Hugh, or that the father was Joseph Hugh who sometimes used one name and sometimes the other. I certainly have no marriage record for a Joseph Kelly. It may of course be a mistaken transcription, though if so, very odd. The Kelly family came from Portrush on the Antrim-Derry border, and Hugh was certainly son of Patrick Kelly, a Fisherman. Hugh was a Gardener. Margaret Kelly was born on 28th June 1880, her father being Hugh, and the third child, Hugh Patrick, born 10th May 1878 must indisputably have been the son of Hugh Kelly. All three children were probably born in Portrush - Hugh Patrick certainly was. Ann Eliza's father was William McIlhagga, a Yarn Boiler. She was born about 1851, so he must have been born before 1830. It is probable that she had a younger brother William who married Mary Spence and had seven children. Like Hugh and Eliza Ann, William and Mary had a marriage witness also of the name Milikin. Again, if anyone can throw any light on the Hugh-Joseph scenario I'd be pleased to hear from them.

The last two 'A's are Annie and Archibald. Annie McIlhagga married in Belfast in the October Quarter of 1909. This is all the information I have about her from FamilySearch. I do however have a probable identification in the shape of a marriage record from AncestryIreland which took place at Belfast Civil Registration Office on 5th October 1909 of Ann McIlhagga of 164 New Lodge Road, Belfast, aged 41 (so born c.1868), widow, daughter of Daniel McIlhagga, Farmer, to James Bingham, widower, aged 42, Labourer, of Upper Charlesville Street, son of James Bingham, Farmer. Their witnesses were Robert and Ellen Do(g)herty. There is an Anne McIlhagga, born 1868 , who in the 1901 Census was married to John McIlhagga, born 1851. It is possible that by 1909 John had died and left Anne a widow, who had remarried James Bingham. However, her maiden name was Ann Kerr and her father clearly was not Daniel McIlhagga (he was David Kerr). Alternatively, if in 1909 Ann gave her father as Daniel McIlhagga, she could have reverted to her maiden name, perhaps the most reasonable assumption, though I have no record of such a father-daughter relationship at or near the relevant date. So again, an unsolved mystery.

Finally Archibald Duncan McIlhagga: from British Columbia records, for some time I have had his birth date (19 June 1882) and his death date (20 Dec 1968). He was one of the sons of Nathaniel McIlhagga and Henrietta Wilson. From the death registration extracted by FamilySearch, the new information I now have is that when he died he was a widower and that his spouse's name was Minnie McNabb. He died in West Vancouver, BC, Canada.