MacIlhaggart, M'Ilhaggart and McIlhagart

In my blog I have often reported finding the surname variant McIlhaggart but never with the first names of Margaret or Ann. Now, from Ancestry, I have two marriages, both registered in Ballymena, as follows:

Ann M'Ilhaggart, 1864, Vol. 16, p.191, spouse Robert Linton;
Margaret MacIlhaggart, Apr-Jun 1903, Vol.1, p.109, spouse Joseph Hills.

I have Ann's marriage recorded with the surname McIlhagga on 8 October 1864 taking place at Clough, County Antrim. Ann has a birth year of 1838 which made her 26 when she married. Robert was ten years older, born 1828. They were to have nine children, and in fact Ann was my Great Great Aunt. Again, the new information for me is the registration reference.

The marriage of Margaret MacIlhaggart (or McIlhaggart) is one which I have noted before. It took place on 11 April 1903 in Kirkinriola Church of Ireland to Joseph Hills. Margaret was a Widow when she married Joseph, so she wasn't born into the clan. Her maiden name was Margaret Luff.

With these names in Ancestry I am associating its one reference to McIlhagart. This is to Esther who in my last blog was spelled Esther McIlhaggar. As McIlhaggart she is in the 1851 Census in the townland of Dunaghy, aged 19, a Linen Weaver, a Visitor with the McCrory family. As we know it was not she who married James McCrory, but Martha. She was to marry Robert Whiteside in the same year, 1851. The Census was in March and she married in August.