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Searching for McCreary (various spellings) b abt 1700 migrated to America

I do not know the first name of my McCreary paternal ancestor but am sure he migrated from Ulster and believe he may have ties to Galgoram in Co Antrim.

Several members of this family migrated into South Carolina ca 1760. It is believed they first migrated to Pennsylvania then on to South Carolina.

Descendants of men named Andrew McCreary and Thomas McCrary share the YDNA SNP R-A5535 with my father. The SNP first appeared around 1700 and it's lineage is R-DF49>.BY2606 > BY2628 > FT18789 > A5531 > A5533.

It is believed that the McCrearys migrated from south west Scotland into Ulster at the time of the plantation. They share the R-BY2606 SNP with people who have the surnames Blair, Taggart, MacDougall, Douglas, McKinney and (Mc)Wiiliam(son).

It would be wonderful if I could find McCreary men who still live in Ulster to do the YDNA test at FTDNA.com. I think that finding someone who shares YDNA would give me the best opportunity of tracing my McCreary family line. There are about a dozen unrelated YDNA lines who share the McCreary surname in the McCreary Surname project at FTDNA.

If anyone is able to help me start to solve this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Laurie McCreary-Burke, Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada

Laurie McB

6 replies

Laurie,

Attached may assist in your effort to identify the origin of the MacCreary - McCreery surnames in Ireland.

The Tithe Applotment records have McCreary if Donegal in the 1830's and Griffith's has the name mainly in Counties Antrim and Down 1850/1860's. 

Credit: WikiTree.com, www.nationalarchives.ie and www.askaboutireland.ie/Griffith's.

Regards,

McCoy

Thank you so much for your quick reply. When I started doing research over 20 year ago I was fixated on the John McCreery of Cowpasture in the article you sent. John's descendants migrated to Kentucky then some of them on to Illinois close to where my ggrandfather was born. I would love to have a YDNA sample from this family but was not able to get one from the one correspondent I had. At the end of this article it talks about the Scots-Irish who migrated to South Carolina and this is definitely my line as proven by YDNA.

I have looked through all the early census substitutes I can find including  1630,1660, 1669 and 1740 and have also been in touch with the librarian at Culleybacky Presbytarian Church. The surnames in South Carolina with whom my McCrearys were associated include Gaston, Rossborough, Gowdy, Wiley, Greer, Barton and many others. I found men with surnames whose descendants share the R-BY2606 SNP with my line on the 1630 muster roll for Galgorm Estate including John McCrere, Andrew Dugall, John McLucas, Robert Tarkart and John McDugall. This could be a coincidence but it is certainly something I would like to prove or disprove through YDNA testing. Also, because I found a John McCrere at Galgorm Estate and found McCrearys along with associated names there over the years, I would really love it if I could find male McCreary with connections there to do the YDNA test.

I have also been in touch with people related to the Donegal McCrearys but haven't had any luck getting them to test.

I am administrator of the McCreary surname project and R-BY2060 project so am able to see the various McCreary ancestors others have claimed - these include ancestors in Donegal and Tyrone as well as in Pennsylvania..A correspondent of mine whose terminal SNP is R-A5531 one branch above my father's R-A5533 has not yet been able to prove that his ancestor Robert McCreary b.1742 was the son of John McCreary and Agnes Kennedy of Groomsport, Bangor Parish, Co Down.

Again, I thank you so much for you assistance and am hoping I can get to the bottom of this some day.

Laurie

Laurie McB

I assume you have looked at the 1766 census of Ahoghill:

http://www.ulsterancestry.com/free/ShowFreePage-48.html#gsc.tab=0

Several McCroy families there, all Presbyterian so far as I can see. (So Scots ancestry, in all probability).

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Ahoghill (1832) mention that most of the local population originated in Scotland and included a huge influx in the mid 1640s as result of General Monro’s Scots 10,000 strong army in Carrickfergus being disbanded after the 1641 uprising. Many of the soldiers chose to stay in Ireland and settled around Ahoghill.

Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. If you don’t know where they lived it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location. Cullybackey Presbyterian church is unusual in that it has records back to 1728 or thereabouts when it was built. (Prior to that folk attended church in Ahoghill). No other Presbyterian church in that area – and there are plenty - has records for the 1700s.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. If you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

 

 

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Elwyn,

Thanks so much for your response.

I have looked at all the documentary evidence I have been able to find and realize finding records in Ulster for the time period I need is extremely difficult. I know my family migrated to South Carolina by 1760 and likely to America prior to that. McCrearys still in Ahoghill in 1766 may be related so I would love to get DNA evidence from their descendants.

I am a member of the Ulster DNA project at FTDNA and have my fingers crossed that sometime we will get a match to someone still in Ireland who knows their family roots. There are three McCreary men thus far in our McCreary surname project at FTDNA who were born or still live in Ulster. None of them match each other's YDNA nor do they match my father.

I have hopes that finding a DNA match who still lives in Ireland and who knows his family history will be the answer to my puzzle. That being said, I find it really helpful to learn the history of the Scots Irish. In the end the history is more important than the name.

Thanks again for all your help.

Laurie

Laurie McB

Laurie,

If you are interested in a detailed study of Scots migration to Ireland and then on to North America, a good read is “Eagles Wings – The Journey of the Ulster – Scots and Scotch – Irish” by Dr David Hume. It goes into great detail.

Getting folk in Ireland to participate in DNA testing is tricky. Many find the request intrusive (a little like asking to see their bank statements), and of course many others simply aren’t interested. Fingers crossed for you.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks so much Elwyn. I will do my best to see if I can find the book you recommended.

Again, I appreciate all you help.

Laurie

Laurie McB

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