According to his obituary, our ancestor,Michael McGillon, was born in County Tyrone. He was born 16 Dec, around 1868 -- conflicting birth years on censuses. His father was Michael Mcgillon and his mother was Annie Conway. He lived in Wilmngton, Delaware, USA since he was 19 years old. He died 4 April, 1951, in Wilmingon, De. He was Roman Catholic.
He's a little younger than you believe your MIchael to be, but he was born in Dec. in Tyrone and his mother was Ann Conway. His father was Bernard, not Michael.
Here's the birth of a Michael Gillin on 10-Dec-1874
Address:Broughdergh, parish of POMEROY, Co. Tyrone
Father: Bernard Gillin, farmer
Mother: Ann Conway
Occupation: Farmer
Same family in 1901 census:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Tyrone/Beaghmore/Broughderg/1730750/
Children (that I cna identify):
Hugh 10.10.1872
Michael 10.12.1874 Broughderg
John 3.12.1876
Bernard 15.5.1879
Bridget 2.7.1881
Rose 16.9.1883
Patrick 22.11.1885
Peter 30.1.1888
Mary 14.8.1890
Bartley 20.12.1894
Ann (Nancy) died 24.10.1895 aged 43:
1911 census tells us Bernard had 11 children of which 8 were still alive:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Beaghmore/Broughderg/860366/
There were Conways living nearby in the census, so I’d guess she married the girl next door.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Beaghmore/Broughderg/860367/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Tyrone/Beaghmore/Broughderg/860368/
Thank you both for replying to my post. Michael McGillon's marriage record shows that he was 21 when he married on 18 Oct, 1888. If he was born in 1874, that would make him two months shy of his 14th birthday. This is also where I saw his father's name as Michael. As someone who goes by my middle name, I can understand the difference of names. The birth date does make me wonder if we are both looking at the same person. What are your thoughts?
Can’t say for certain that it’s the right family but on the other hand there’s no sign in the Irish birth records of a Michael McGillon born to Michael and Ann around 1868.
Dates of birth in the 1800s need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Irish people then generally didn’t celebrate birthdays and often had no idea of precisely when they were born. If officialdom later asked for a date of birth, it was common to make one up. Likewise when parents registered a birth the date on the certificate was sometimes just a guess too, or an “adjusted” date to avoid a late registration fee. (Registering a birth was free if done within 3 weeks but after that there was a small penalty for late registration. Obvious thing therefore was simply to move the date to one that avoided the penalty).
Saying you were 21 when you married would make you an adult and might avoid any consent difficulties over actually being a minor. It’s possible he wasn’t 21 then. Who would know?
The Mc & O’ prefixes in Irish names are detachable and it was common to see them dropped, or re-attached, in the records according to whim. Most Irish search engines automatically look for both versions.
There are several trees on Ancestry that list Bernard Gillen and Ann Conway eg the Haffey-Danowitz tree. They list Michael b 1874 but have no other information on him save for his birth. Might be worth comparing DNA with someone on that tree.