Madole, Mcdole, Macdole

Laurie:

I searched for civil birth records for any McDole/MacDole or Madole from 1900-1920 and no records came up.

The 1911 census had this McDole family from Belfast Co. Antrim  http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Shankill/Toberg…

I went back to the civil birth records at the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie and searched for all Mona births from 1909-1915. There was a Mona McDowell born in 1911.

See first record  https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/birth_retur…

I would suggest you try to find her parents names. Are you aware of siblings?

Have you considered a DNA test?

Roger McDonnell

Laurie,

Madole, McDole, MacDole & McDowell is all the same name in Ireland. The spelling varied all the time and changes such as you have found in your family were routine. The idea of a single “correct” spelling is not a concept that our ancestors here in Ireland would have been familiar with it varied all the time according to the whim of the person recording the information. 

According to MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” the name is “the Irish form of the Scottish family of MacDugall which came from the Hebrides as galloglasses, and settled in Co Roscommon where Lismacdowell locates them. It is mainly found now in north Ulster, largely due to more recent immigration.”

Galloglass were Scottish mercenaries. Irish tribes were engaged in constant squabbles and minor warfare with each other for centuries but during the period 1200 – 1500 many of them hired Scottish mercenaries, mostly from the Western Isles, to help protect their lands and to assist with stealing their neighbours. The mercenaries were given land in Ireland in return for their fighting skills. Most stayed.