Hi. I am searching for any relatives of my great great grand parents john and mary mccaughy . Marys maiden name was dunlop .They had a son john b 1856 who married rebecca hamill in durham In 1878 and a son hugh b 1863 who married hannah gillespie from antrim in port glasgow in 1883 .i am sure there was more siblings . Our surname is now mcgachy but it has also been mccahy ,mcgahy mcgaughey among others.
Francis,
The 1883 Port Glasgow marriage certificate tells you that John McCaughey was dead by that date. Mary was still alive. He was presumably alive when his son Hugh was born in 1863, so I searched for deaths from 1864 – 1883 in Co. Derry. I found one in 1873 that might fit except that the occupation is labourer (whereas the marriage certificate says he was a farmer). The couple lived in Moyagall, near Gulladuff. Parish of Maghera.
Birth registration started in Ireland in 1864. I searched for children born 1864 onwards to this couple but did not find any more. The Catholic parish records are on Ancestry and I searched them for the couples marriage and the baptisms of their children but did not find the family at all. However not every parish has records pre 1864 and so that may be the explanation.
There were no McCaugheys in Moyagall in the 1831 census, nor Griffiths Valuation c 1860 nor in the 1901 census. That’s not unusual, particularly for labourers who moved about to follow the available work. It just makes them difficult to trace. I searched for a death for Mary Dunlop but again without success.
I looked at the Valuation Revision records for Moyagall 1864 – 1881 to see if the McCaughey family were listed. They were not. That could mean they were lodging with someone or that they didn’t live there very long and never made it into the records. (Griffiths clerks revisited every couple of years so if you didn’t stay that long you would not be in the records).
I can’t say the Moyagall couple is the right one, just I can’t see any others.
Elwyn
Thank you very much for your reply . Hugh was my great grandfather and may have been the youngest sibling. I assume he came to live in port glasgow with his mother after his father passed. On the 1901 census it said he came from ireland but ive never dicovered what county. As there was a good age difference between hugh and john i am sure there was more family so heres hoping someone somewhere will see this and form a link. Again many thanks
Further research has found a brother James b1852 married Isabella mckeown in 1873 and a sister Mary e married Henry o hara in 1878 both marriages in our lady of mercy RC church termoneeny and most likely their father John's death in April 1873 at moyagall co Derry . Any idea of a possible resting place of John From these dates and locations ?.
Francis,
So the death I found proved to be the right one? That’s good to know.
Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church so as far as James’ marriage is concerned it doesn’t follow that Our Lady was his church (though it might have been). But Mary married in Lavey RC church when she was living in Ballymacpeake (which is a about a quarter of a mile from Moyagall so that suggests it was her church then). It has a graveyard so I would start there. Failing that try Maghera RC churchyard. (Someone in Maghera has done quite a bit of work on their gravestones and burial records. They have good lists. If you can’t find that on-line e-mail the parish office).