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McMahan and Hargrave (Hargrove) Families

One of my biggest brick walls are my 5th great grandparents, John Hargrove (Hargrave) abt. 1744, Ireland, died in 1825 in Jeromeville, OH and Sara (unknown), b. abt. 1750, died 1817 in Somerset, MD. The source says they came "from Newry, Ireland."

All I have on them are these two sources,https://archive.org/stream/commemorativehis03lees#page/n835/mode/2up/search/Hargrove. and John's picture of his headstone spelled "Hargrave" athttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66256171/john-hargrave.

I do find their daughter, Margaret ("a native of England") with this same site and then in Find A Grave. She married John McMahan. And, they are just as mysterious! I've been stuck on them for years. Any suggestions on where and how to start digging if this is the only information I can find on them? I'm all about records, but I am lost.

What confuses me is that the source says that Margaret is a native of England, but thatshe came with her parents from Newry, Ireland.

marlogan68@out…

2 replies

Marlee,

Hargrave/Hargrove is not a common name in Ireland and John Grenham’s website says the name originates in England. Given that Margaret was described as a native of England, perhaps that’s where the family came from and they had gone to Newry for work, before moving again to the US.

Unfortunately there are no church records for Newry for the 1700s and I’d say there is little chance of finding any documentary record of someone born or married there in the 1700s. (If they were born or married there).

I looked in the 1901 census for Co. Down but there was no-one named Hargrave or Hargrove in the county. (There was one family of Hargreaves in Belfast but the head of household was born in England.). So unlikely to be any living descendants in the Newry area today.

Research in Ireland in the 1700s is notoriously difficult due to the general lack of records.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks so very much. I apologize for my delay in responding. I do appreciate your time and information.

marlogan68@out…

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