John Mclean and Mary(Martha) Wadoup

Hi JandDMclean. when I hear about Irish ancestors immigrating to the American Colonies at that time, I tend to think of them as from Ulster or Northern Ireland – rather than from a southern county like Limerick.  

A big clue is you said, "Story behind them leaving Scotland to settle in Ireland."  Also, you said that they moved from Ireland to England and supported the King in the Colonies, which is evidence to me that they were Protestant.  Was this English marriage certificate you referred to Protestant?  That would be another clue that they were Scotch-Irish (as we call Ulster Irish in the States), which as you know, is an ethnic group in Northern Ireland who trace their roots to settlers from Scotland.  Here is some info about Irish American history to 1845.  See the second section called "Irish American history: 1720-1790":  http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Irish-American-history.html

Joan in Los Angeles

Thank you so much Col and Joan! I appreciate you taking time to help us and I hope this helps me narrow in with my research as I have hit a brick wall the last few months. -John and Danielle

Joan, I looked more closely at John and Mary's marriage certificate which states they were wed in Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Records.​ and their son Thomas was baptised at Newington Chapel. ​After looking I believe in that century at those locations/records that they were most likely protestant. I never thought to look at the information from that angle. Thank you. If you think of any other resources I could prowl through let me know! Thanks.                       John and Danielle

Hi John and Danielle,

It's challenging to research that far back in Irish records, although St. Mary's in Limerick (as CalCaff's research showed) does go back farther than most. But that's a Catholic church, and your Irish ancestors were Protestant, as the marriage certificate shows, and most likely from up north.   Since my Irish ancestors were from southern Ireland, I'm not as fluent in Ulster research, but you may want to check a link out like this "Best sites for Northern Ireland genealogy research":  http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/Northern-Ireland-genealogy.html  I haven't tried any of those links, but it may give you some ideas about your next step, which would be a way to identify which part of Northern Ireland they came from, if possible.   Hope that helps!  

Best, Joan :-)

Hi l have reason to believe that John McLean spoke about in the above posts is my 5 times Great Grandfather. I would be really interested in any information anyone may have regarding him or his family

JoyA.