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Margaret McGowan b 1860 Bangor

DownBangor (Down)Killinchy (Down)

My great grandmother was Margaret McGowan and her known father is Peter aka Patrick McGowan. He was in the Crimea War and had a sabre cut down his cheek according to knowledge of my great aunt. Margaret's mother was said to have died when she was about 3 years old. Peter was a coal miner and was in Dalry, Ayrshire, Scotland where he married Mary Hamilton May 18 1863 at St Palladius Cath Church. He was listed as a widower. I also found in the Parish register in Dalry with2 delayed baptisms on Nov 18 1863 -Margaret Feb 1 1860Bangor and John Oct 25 1861 Bangor. So these two children were baptised after the marriage to Mary and I want to find the mother of them. I assume she died 1861-1863 and always assumed she died in Bangor.

I have been searching for the mother of Margaret without any luck.John died as a child. Not understanding why the children would be baptised or rebaptised in Scotland at a later date. Possibly not Catholic at birth?

Peter's parents were Bernard McGowan and Catherine Pue. There is a 1851 Census Substitute which I believe is them living in Killinchy in the Woods Down with children Pat, Anne, John, Francis, Mary.

Margaret's father Peter died in 1877 in Dalry. Her stepmotherMary Hamilton McGowan immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1887 with her children and died in 1905. Her daughter Margaret had married Bernard McNeish in 1888 in Pennsylvania shortly after they arrived. All records I have located refer to Mary as mother however since

I have done my MtDNA hoping to find some clue but have not. Anyone familiar with this family? or where to look?

Joan FitzGibbon

9 replies

Where someone was married more than once, Scottish death certificates usually list all their spouses (assuming the informant can provide the information). Have you checked Peter’s 1877 death certificate for his first wife’s name?

If Margaret’s mother died in Ireland in 1861-1863 then the bad news is you won’t get a death certificate for her. They weren’t introduced in Ireland until 1864. And if RC, that denomination generally didn’t keep burial records.

The RC parish that includes Bangor is Newtownards and unfortunately they have no records at all prior to 1864. So if that’s where Peter/Patrick married his first wife, and it was an RC ceremony, there are no records to find.

You wondered if his first wife might have been of another denomination.  Non RC marriages were recorded in the statutory registers in Ireland from 1845 onwards. I searched them but did not find a Peter/Patrick marriage in that area at all.  So that points towards it being an RC marriage, or they married outside Ireland.

The delayed baptisms are odd. I have seen children baptised into the RC faith when the parents changed denomination but I haven’t seen that described as delayed. It suggests that for some reason the children just weren’t baptised at birth (which is very unusual in the RC faith but must happen occasionally).

The townland where you believe you have found the McGowan family in 1851 (Killinchy in the woods) is in the RC parish of Kilmore. They have baptisms from 1837 onwards but no marriages before 1864. So if Pat/Peter was born there c 1828, and was RC, you won’t find a record of it. Likewise if he married there.

I looked to see if I could find Bernard McGowan and family after 1851. They are not listed in Killinchy in the woods in Griffiths Valuation (1863), and I couldn’t see a death certificate for Bernard. Not sure where they went.

Summing up, I think your best hope of identifying his first wife is via the 1877 Scottish death certificate.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Elwyn,  It seems like a lot of my family lines lived under the radar and they have been so hard to track. 

I didn't get the actual death certificate, I got his death info many years ago when I went thru all the birth, marriage and death records on microfilm.  I will see about getting the certificate today! Thank you for letting me know about them recording all the marriages.  I don't recall seeing that.

thanks for your help!

Joan

Joan FitzGibbon

The death looks to be registered in Dalry, GROS Ref 587/74. Peter McGown, aged 54. You can view that certificate on the Scotlandspeople site for about £1.60. You will need to buy some credits.

Don’t know if you noticed but Peter’s 2nd wife Mary Hamilton May was also born in Ireland (going by the 1881 census).

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Elwyn

I do have the Scotlandspeople now on Peters Death  and it only has Mary Hamilton listed as (Married to Mary Hamilton), no other wife.

Yes Mary is my another challenge, born somewhere in Ireland.  Her father was James Hamilton and there are a million of them and mother was Ellen (Helen) Harrison b abt 1811.  Have no idea what county they came from in Ireland but have been looking for them for years.  She was on the 1871 Dalry Scotland census with son Patrick(Peter), Mary and family.  James was dead by 1863 when Mary married Peter McGowan.  Not sure if she was living in Scotland or just visiting. She didn't appear on the 1881 census and the family immigrated 1887.

thanks for your help

 

Joan FitzGibbon

Joan FitzGibbon

My McNeilly ancestors from Killinchy intermarried with the McGowans.  

The earliest McGowan ancestor I found was Hugh McGown who leased land in Ballybunden, Co Down in 1779.  His daughter, Anna McGowan, was b abt 1800 in Ballybundon, and married my ancestor, Hamilton McNally/McNeilly 3 Aug 1816 in Killinchy.  Hamilton lived in Ballybunden 1818-1820, before moving by 1848 to NewtownArds in the Parish of Bangor, County Down, where he appears in Griffith's Valuation. My great-grandfather, Charles McNeilly was baptised in Killinchy Presbyterian Church 4 Nov 1820.  On a research trip to Belfast in 2012, I arranged a tour from Belfast to Newtownards to see where my grandmother was born, then south along the Irish Sea to Strangford, and then on to Killinchy.  I made an appointment to visit the church in Killinchy, and had the honor of seeing the inside of the church.  I have pictures!!!

Maybe we're distant cousins!!!!  :)

Jill_R

 

 

Jill Russell

Hi Jill_R

maybe we are cousins!  I know McGowan is a fairly common name.  I will keep this info in mind while I continue to research.  I am going back thru all my records right now to see if I missed a clue since I have records going back 40 years!  

 

Joan

Joan FitzGibbon

I also may be a distant cousin. George JAMISON b. ca. 1796 m. Rebecca MCGOWAN 1817 Presbyterian Church Dromara, Down. I believe that George had a first wife, Elizabeth KINNEAR who likely died after May 1813 to 1816/1817. George and Elizabeth had a daughter, Elizabeth Jamison b. ca. April/May 1810 and a son, George b. ca. April/May 1813 (both dates based on early May christening records from Dromore Cathedral). Elizabeth Jamison, the daughter, married Joseph MARTIN about 1830. She died near Dromore or Dromara, Down between 15 April 1834 (birth of last child) and 1 August 1836 when Joseph married Mary ADAIR in the 1st Presbyterian Church Dromara.

Since Rebecca was not a biological ancestor of mine, I've not done any research into her ancestry, but perhaps the other surnames will help.

gramssearch

Hi Jill_ R

I noticed your note re: your gr grandfather Charles McNeilly  being baptised in the Presbyterian Church. I have not yet checked a map to see how close or remote he was from Kilkeel where my COFFEY grandfather, William, originated. He was baptised in the Mourne Presbyterian church -  birth November, 1842. His mother was Elizabeth McNeilly, dau/o George McNeilly and Mary ?. Mary is believed to have died at or about the time of birth in 1820 of son Richard McNeilly. Names used through the generations in my McNeilly family include Alexander, Andrew and Francis. Any similarity with any of your line of McNeillys?

Further about above Elizabeth - she emigrated to Canada in 1846 or 47 with her husband Wm. Coffey and their children William and Ann, had more children, moved from Ontario to British Columbia about 1890, where she died in 1913 at age 97.

Any connection with your people?

Donna          Owen Sound ON

owensoundon

I have a family member William Dinsmore (son of John Dinsmore and Mary Ellen Walters) married a Rose McGowan. They lived in Rostrevor, Co. Down.

Kelly Eileen

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