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McLean/McLane family of Kilcommon Mayo

Mayo

Hello

I am writing this post in the hope that someone can give me some guidance and/or may be related to the McLean/McLane family from this area of County Mayo.

My 3x great grandparents John McLane/McLean b 1821 son of Robert (this is only per family trees on Ancestry, I have no evidence) and unknown mother and Hannah Murphy b 1819 parents confirmed (William and Catherine) migrated to Newcastle upon Tyne around 1860-1863. I believe they had come from Kilcommon, but I am unsure if this is the civil or Catholic parish. They had 4 sons before leaving Ireland- Patrick b 1848, Michael b 1854, John b 1855 and Anthony b 1860. In the 1921 census in England Patrick recorded his place of birth as Kilcommon Mayo, John recorded his as only Mayo so I can only assume that the family were from Kilcommon.  Anthony may have been born elsewhere in Ireland- his birthplace is recorded only as Ireland in any documents I have seen. A fifth child was born after their arrival in the UK- Hannah was baptised in Wooler Northumberland in 1863. Her godparents were listed as Patrick Dane (Dean?) and Mary Hogan. Patrick later married in Wooler area and the document records he was 'ex Mayo'. 

I have been unable to find baptismal records for any of the children born in 1848-1860 in Mayo. Nor have I been able to find baptismal records for John b 1821 or Hannah b 1819 or a marriage document. I have a DNA match who has traced his Murphy family back to Derricorrib near Belmullet and from him I have a Griffiths Valuation of the area. In nearby Bunnahowen there is a McLeane and Dean family. 

If this sounds at all familiar to anyone I would very much appreciate any information you can offer me.  

I have searched Rootsireland.ie, Ancestry, FindmyPast and Familysearch (LDS) websites as well as civil records on rootsireland.com. If anyone has any other suggestions as to how I can find my family's roots I would be very grateful.

I hope all are well and safe

Kind Regards

Karen Coatsworth

Australia.

Karen Coatsworth

4 replies

Hi Karen:

The RC baptismal records for Belmullet parish start in 1841 and marriages start in 1836 but there is a gap in marriage records from May 1845-January 1858  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0742 ;  Belmullet records are on the subscription site Roots Ireland. All searches on Roots Ireland have come up empty as you already experienced. In my opinion, the family likely attended the RC parish of Kilcommon Erris. Baptismal records for that parish start in 1860. Marriage records are available from 1843-1848 but then no records until 1900 except for civil marriage records. There is no parish register on the NLI site for Kilcommon Erris parish.

One possibility is that the marriage occurred in Belmullet (Hannah Murphy's parish) and then the John and Hannah moved north and the baptisms for their children were in the Kilcommon Erris parish. There is a Michael McLean Griffiths record in Kilcommon or Pollatomish. I would focus on that family.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Roger

Thank you for your reply. I will work on Michael McLane from Kilcommon and Pollatomish and will let you know how I go. 

If there are marriage records available from 1843-1848 for Kilcommon Erris but they are unavailable on NLI, do you know how they can be accessed? Would contacting the parish itself be helpful? I have had some success with contacting the parish office at Wooler in Northumberland UK, which is how I was able to find Hannah's baptismal record in 1863 as well as the names of her sponsors. The lady who works in the parish office had also noticed a number of Murphy family names/entries in the same register around the same time, and has offered to chronicle them for me. 

Kind regards

Karen. 

Karen Coatsworth

Karen:

I already searched for the records on the subscription site Roots Ireland . There were two Murphy marriages in Kilcommon Erris between 1843-1848 both were named Mary and both marriages were in 1844 but the grooms were not John McLean. All the best with your research.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Karen,

I am late to your post. I have a McLean ancestor in Mayo - Mary McLean. She married a Loughney and had a daughter Mary who emigrated to Pennsylvania.

 I’ve only discovered her so will do a bit more work on it and update you with anything I find. It may well be you found your ancestors in recent years.

best wishes

Gwen 

Gwen14

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