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Mary Lochrey. Poor returned to Ireland from Scotland 1868

I am still chasing Mary Loughery/Loughran/Lochrey/Lochrie born in Donegal about 1862. When her parents died of typhus in Greenock she was returned to Ireland as were many other paupers. Records show she was sent from Greenock to Innishaven. I have never been able to find this place but as she was returned to family it must have been in Donegal?

In the list only one other person was returned there who has I think no connection. Family remour has a link toInistrahul Island, and there was a woman and child sent there - Mary Lochrie Oxford and Archibald Oxford. They are not listed with Mary Lochrey.

hipeak

4 replies

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Innishaven is likely the Inishowen Peninsula.  Inishtrahull townland is located in Clonca civil parish in the northwest tip of the Inishown Peninsula. The 1857 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Clonca civil parish shows a Fanny Loughry in Inishtrahull townland and likely she was related to Mary. I checked the 1901 census for Inishtrahull and did not see any Loughry households.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for your reply. This seems the best bet I think. The name seems to have fallen into disuse. My DNA test linked me to others, very distant cousins, whose lines seem to run to this area. One problem is the wide variations in the surname she or her parents ( Cornelius Loughrey and Rose McGonigle) used. I have some evidence she went back to Doherty in Inishowen.

David

hipeak

You mention searching records but it’s not clear what records those were. Have you checked the Scottish Poor Law records for Mary? If she was orphaned and destitute and sent to relatives in Ireland then that was probably done under the Scottish Poor Law. Their records (where they still exist) are pretty good and often contain details of next of kin, together with the relevant parish in Ireland. The records for Greenock appear to be in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. They will do a search for you, for a small fee. You might want to search those if you have not already done so. See:

https://www.glasgowfamilyhistory.org.uk/ExploreRecords/Pages/Poor-Law.aspx

If Mary originated in Inishtrahull or somewhere nearby on the mainland then she should have been baptised in Clonca parish. Have you searched the parish records? (They start in 1856). The RC parish records are on-line free on the National Library site:

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

You mention that Mary might have changed her name to Doherty. Inishtrahull was not heavily populated. (In 1901, 14 households with a total population of 65). One Doherty household:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Ardmalin/Inish_trahull/1184418/

Chances are she moved to the mainland for work.

The variations in spelling of the Loughrey surname are absolutely normal. Spelling varied all the time in Ireland. People were often barely literate but even when they weren’t, exact spelling wasn’t something they bothered about. The “gh” sound in Ireland tends to be spelled “ch” in Scotland as in Loch Lomond, and so that additional factor compounds the spelling options.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank you for your reply Elwyn. I have full details of Mary from the time she returned to Scotland in 1883 when she married Hamilton Smith from New Buildings, Londonderry. I and other relatives have searched for a long time to find her birth and that of her Parents Cornelius Loughery and Rose (m s Mcgonigle). and her brothers James and Patrick. They seemed to arrive in Greenock about 1866/67 and all but Mary died of typhus in 1868. She was found on a website where someone had transcribed a list of all persons removed from Scotland between 1867-1868 under a law passed to deal with paupers. A lucky chance find on one of many searches! If you have Ancestry and are interested I have full details there. My information, which I will check, is there are no surviving records for Greenock. I have looked at Clonca parish and R.C. births but nothing conclusive.

Mary had a large family in Scotland, and when one of the later ones was born she gave her name as DOCHERTY, and in later life gave her name sometimes as such when asked. This is what makes me think she may have gone back to an Aunt, a Loughrey who had married with Docherty. Thank you for all your suggestions and I will check these out again.

David Smith

hipeak

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