The Genealogy portion of this site is separated into three main sections. Each section increases in the depth of information provided, ranging from resources of interest for casual family researchers to serious amateur historians. Visit the links at left to explore each section:
- Entry Level Genealogy
- Intermediate Level Genealogy
- Advanced Level Genealogy
Our belief is also that family researchers have in their possession much historical material of value that is not currently in the public domain. A classic piece of family research at its best which could be a good template for any researcher must be that on the Fergusons.
A sister website which is called ‘A Race Divided’ is now available in e-book format and invites visitors to post such material with the intention to accumulate enough of quality over a two-year period for a bound volume. Continuing in parallel even after that, the e-book format should still prove to be a convenient format for the sharing of information that is of mutual and general interest. Visitors will observe that abstracts for twenty chapters have been posted to provide tasters as to intended content and an author of a chapter will have accumulated hard-earned knowledge in that field. Visitors are invited to submit posts to any chapter of material that is relevant and of interest. This can be in the form of hand-me-down memories and family archive material. The only requirements for a contribution are:
It should relate to North West Ireland or the Western Isles of Scotland.
It should relate to the period 1750-1850.
It should relate to lives and times of that period.
Please note that while blogs are still accumulating there are a good number of interesting links on the site so that even if a visitor does not intend to contribute material the site is still well worth a visit. It is the intention that authors will also post chapter-in-progress material on the site in PDF format.
I am trying to find the family history of my ageing mum, Mary Gallager. She was born in Derry – her father was Joseph Gallager and her mother was Elenor, maiden name Rigby. My mum is getting on in years and we are planning to take her home for a visit in the summer. It would be grand to find out a little history for her. Thankyou, Alison.
Alison,
I am probably far too late but I have just seen your message.
Joseph Gallagher married Ellen Rigby on 26 Jul 1920 in Waterside Registrars office, Londonderry.
A certificate can be ordered from GRONI using the following information:-
Registration District Londonderry
Jul-Sept Quarter 1920
Vol 2 Page 238
Regards
Morrison
Gallagher, spelt with an h, is a long-established name in Derry, mainly to be found on the West Bank. Specifically, the name was to be found in the triangle bordered by the Brandywell, Bishop Street and Foyle Road.
The name Rigby is not from Derry, nor indeed from Ireland, and is most likely from Lancashire or Devon in England.
For more personal information on your family tree, contact Brian Mitchell at Craft Village ( just off Shipquay Street ) in Derry.
From Directory of Irish Genealogy
As the 2008 presidential campaign proceeds, it has been established that the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and the Republican candidate John McCain both have some Irish ancestry. Obama, who stands a chance of being the first black US President, is of course Kenyan in his paternal ancestry, but his forebears on his maternal side include Joseph Kearney, a shoemaker of Moneygall, County Offaly.
Senator McCain is said to be descended from an Alexander McKean who left Coleraine about 1719 . One confirmed Irish ancestor is McCain’s GGGG grandfather Captain John Young, said to have been born in Ballymore, County Antrim, in 1737, and whose wife Mary White was also of the same place. One of McCain’s GGGGGgrandfathers was Dixie Coddington, born Holmpatrick, Skerries, Co Dublin, in 1693, who married Hannah Waller and died in Queen Street, Dublin, in 1776. Dixie’s father, and McCain’s GGGGGGgrandfather, was Captain Dixie Coddington, who is stated to have served with King William at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Captain Dixie’s eldest son and Dixie junior’s brother was John Coddington, who acquired the Oldbridge estate in County Meath from the Earl of Drogheda in 1729. This branch of the Coddingtons remained at Oldbridge until the 1970s and finally sold off the estate in the 1980s.
In what surely must be one of the most ‘Irish’ of American presidential elections, both the Democratic and Republican vice-presidential nominees also possess significant Irish ancestry. Obama’s running mate Senator Joe Biden has Finnegan forebears as well as two GGgrandparents born in Ireland, Patrick Blewitt and Catharine Scanlon, counties of origin at present unknown. Biden’s GGgrandfather Owen Finnegan was most likely from Carlingford, County Louth.
McCain’s vice-presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, has strong Irish roots via her mother Sarah Sheeran. US records show that the parents of two of Governor Palin’s GGgrandparents, Michael James Sheeran and Maria E Burke, were both born in Ireland. Michael James’s parents, Michael and Mary Sheeran, were born in Ireland and probably emigrated to the US during the Great Famine in the 1840s. The surname Sheeran is to be found in north Connacht and northwest Ulster, while Burke is numerous in counties Galway and Mayo. Clusters of the surnames Burke and Cline (maternal GGGGF) are to be found in Leitrim, which adds weight to the suggestion that Governor Palin’s ancestors may have come from this county.
Carl Jung alludes to the rhizome as that which remains after the ethereal has passed:
“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.” (Prologue from Memories, Dreams, Reflections)
Jung’s allusion to how the rhizome is self-sustaining and remains a fixed structure, even as the ethereal is gone, is highly evocative. Social environment is constantly dynamic and being replaced by new content. The impermanence of what is on the surface creates for an ever-changing social landscape which is still true to its origins.
The etymology of surnames is an obsession or all-consuming past-time, whichever you prefer.
Courtesy of the GlasgowGuide ‘Are the Scots really Irish’ blogsite is this extract:
‘Mac Aodha or MacAodha is the Irish Gaelic spelling of McHugh/McCue. Mhaoil Ghaoithe is the Irish Gaelic spelling for McGee in west Ulster (Donegal). Mag Aoidh or MagAoidh is the Irish Gaelic spelling for Magee in east Ulster. Mac Aoidh or MacAoidh is the Scottish Gaelic spelling of McKay, McKee/McKie and McGhee. Aodh is the Gaelic word for Fire which has been Anglicised as Hugh. There is also an Irish Gaelic surname O’h-Aodha. O’hAodha was Anglicised as Hayes in the south of Ireland and as Hughes in the north of Ireland. Occasionally, the native Gaelic Irish surnames of MacAodha and MagAoidh were also Anglicised as Hughes in the north of Ireland instead of as McHugh or Magee respectively’.
Putting my own toe in the water and rather tongue in cheek (mixed metaphor) , I can offer the following:
The Donegal variation of Magee is Muintear Mhaoil Ghaoithe. Maol in modern-day Gaelic is the word for bald but it used to refer to the particular form of self-inflicted baldness of monks known as the tonsure. In particular, maol referred to the tonsure worn by the followers of St. Columba, the Irish saint who brought Christianity to Western Scotland. As the Donegal Magees originated from Kilmacrennan, were the Magees the disciples of St. Columba whose birthplace was also Kilmacrennan? Alternatively, maol is also a word for an exposed piece of ground and gaoithe is ‘of the wind’. So does Muintear Mhaoil Ghaoithe merely mean those ones that came from the exposed windy places?
I will leave this particular past-time to others as ‘it could do your head in’, as they say in Ireland!
Unusual Names,Templemore (Derry City) 1848, Part I
These names were rare in Derry in 1848, not just corrupted spellings of more common surnames, and perhaps suggestive of their being ‘blow-ins’ from elsewhere. Close scrutiny would appear to show that the majority of English names were from the coastal counties, therefore perhaps English sailors who landed in Derry which was a major port at the time? Due to the scarcity of the names, then and now, perhaps a reasonable assumption can be made that they were later arrivals, and not original English Planter stock from the 1600s.
The surnames with asterisks still exist in Derry today, although in the same sparse numbers as in the 1800s.
A number of these families had members who served with distinction and fell in the Great Wars.
Allander, Place of Origin?
*Allison, Place of Origin – Lanarkshire
Angus, Place of Origin – Fifeshire
*Baldrick, Place of Origin – Northumberland
Beaumont, Place of Origin – Dorset
Birkmyre, Place of Origin?
Bligh, Place of Origin – Cornwall
Burland, Place of Origin – Surrey
Carbena, Place of Origin?
Clara, Place of Origin?
Cluff, Place of Origin – Denbighshire
*Crompton, Place of Origin – Lancashire
*Cruise, Place of Origin – Bedfordshire
*Culbert, Place of Origin – Cheshire
Dorcas, Place of Origin?
*Denice, Place of Origin – Champagne, France
*Dukes, Place of Origin – Devonshire
*Early, Place of Origin – Somerset
Elking, Place of Origin – Oxfordshire
Entrican, Place of Origin?
Erdle, Place of Origin?
Ennar, Place of Origin – Switzerland
Feighery, Place of Origin?
Feskan, Place of Origin?
*Foy, Place of Origin – Cavan
*Galona (Galanagh), Place of Origin?
Gearing, Place of Origin – Sligo
Gilson, Place of Origin – Dumfriesshire
*Godferry (Godfrey), Place of Origin – Kent, England
*Goulding, Place of Origin – Essex
Greenslead, Place of Origin?
Gresham, Place of Origin – Norfolk
Gwynn, Place of Origin – Brecon, Wales
Halpern, Place of Origin – Worcestershire
Harrold, Place of Origin – Argyllshire (a branch of MacRaild and MacLeod).
Hearkshaw, Place of Origin?
Hibbetts, Place of Origin – Cheshire
Heffington, Place of Origin – Leicester
Hurst, Place of origin – Yorkshire
Hyslop, Place of Origin – Yorkshire
Inch, Place of Origin – Perth, Scotland
Unusual Names,Templemore (Derry City) 1848, Part II
The surnames with asterisks still exist in Derry today, although in the same sparse numbers as in the 1800s.
*Jervis (Cornwall). Also known as Jarvis
*Kent (Berkshire)
Kimmitt?
Kinch (Down)
Ladder?
Lawn (Staffordshire). Also in Ireland as Loan and O’Loan.
Louch (Bourgogne). Also known as Loge.
*Lucas (Hertfordshire)
Maddock From Madoc (Brecon)
Marratt (Leicestershire)
Masaroon (?)
*Miles (Hampshire)
Minniece?
Moggridge (Brecon, Wales).
*Montague (Wiltshire)
Mosson (Bourbogne)
*Mount (Peebles)
*Mulberry (Northumberland)
Nimmo (Stirling)
Paisley (Paisley)
Penberthy (Lancashire)
Peterkin (Lincolnshire)
*Piggott Cheshire)
Pine (Devon)
Pinnell (Essex)
Presdee?
Salisbury (Wiltshire)
Sibberry?
Silo?
*Skeffington (Leicestershire)
Skipton (Yorkshire)
Stelly (Bologna)
Stray?
Surplice?
Tease (Nottingham). Also known as Tees
Tolmi?
*Trotter (Berwickshire)
*Wark (Northumberland)
Webber (Somerset)
Weburn?
Killed in Action, Great Wars
755 Derrymen and one Derry woman, Laura Gailey, died while in action in the two World Wars. More than half of these servicemen served in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the main recruiting regiment for Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal. Other regiments that lost Derrymen in action were Seaforth Highlanders, Scottish Rifles, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Highland Light Infantry, Black Watch, Kings Own Scottish Borderers, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and various Canadian regiments.
There is limited information easily available on these servicemen, only their names and military medals if awarded. Those who earned medals for valour were:
Lt. William Dunlop MC, MM and Bar
Born at Carrigans in County Donegal, Willie Dunlop was killed in action at Le Cateau on October 30, 1918. Awarded with his second MC for bravery as a gunner, Willie’s remains are interred in La Vallee Mulatre Communal Cemetery Extension, Aisne, France.
Rev. Alexander Spence MC
His citation read as follows : ‘He worked for 20 hours attending to wounded in an aid post during an attack. On the following day, hearing that some wounded were lying out in shell holes, he went out in daylight under machine gun fire and brought back several wounded men to the aid post. He rendered splendid service and showed great gallantry and contempt of danger’. London Gazette.
Lt. Leonard Stevenson MC
Those who earned medals for meritorious conduct on the battlefield were:
Corp. Robert Cooke MM
Corp Thos. Diver MM
Corp. Thos Doherty MM
Pt. Jas Donaghy DCM
Corp. Wm. Green MM
Pt. Jos. Gallagher MM
Corp. Wm. McClay MM
Lt. Fredk. Irwin MM
Sgt. Jas. Jackson MM
Pt. John Lough MM
CSM Daniel O’Hea MM
Sgt. Peter Owens MM
Sgt. Wm. Roulston MM
Corp. Andrew Sinclair MM
Pt. Wm. Shields MM
At least one WW2 soldier from Londonderry, Corporal James Cavanagh (married and lived Londonderry, but born County Down), who had also seen active service in WW1, lost his life in the Sinking of the Lancastria on 17th June 1940.
The event was one that little mention was made of at the time, apparently hushed-up by Churchill, but none-the-less a harrowing part of the war, as anything from 2,500 to potentially 5,000 or more, were killed that day.
Corporal Cavanagh began his career in the Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers, but at the time of his death he was in the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps. He is buried at La Bernerie-En-Retz Communal Cemetery.
An excellent site on the tragedy is to be found at:
http://www.lancastria.org.uk/home.html
Sgt. Peter Owens MM from Derry was my great great uncle. Anyone got information on him? Where he died? Where he was buried? etc Thanks
To enquire about any known details of fallen soldiers from Derry, contact directly the Diamond Memorial Project at http://www.diamondwarmemorial.com/pages/about-us
Whether any relation I do not know, but there is also a Sergeant Richard J., Owens, 9860, 11th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Donegal Volunteers) who died at Passchendaele, aged 25 and husband of Edith M. Owens of 80, Fountain Street, Londonderry.
Something for Marjorie to get her teeth into!
Although Anne Toner came from Newry, County Armagh, an assumption should not be made that the witness Maguire came from there. He or she may have come from Newry, County Down, perhaps just across the street! Newry is split in two, with half being in each county.
Anne was aged 22 if she was shipped out on the 1840 ‘Adam Lodge’, so why the need for a protector in Bernard Neale, and why the need for a witness in Maguire who could have been a Notary Public or some other official? Why travel to NSW at all in 1840 which was 5 years before the Great Famine? Having said that, the Stritch sisters from Donegal left just three years before.
Maguire is a Fermanagh name and uncommon in the east of Ulster. Toner is a common name in Down and Armagh. Neale is almost unheard of in Ulster and may be a fancy version of Neal which is slightly more common and found around Banbridge.
The part of Newry town in Armagh is in Killevy parish and possibly Loughgilly parish if further out; the part of Newry Town in County Down is in parish Newry South.
I have tried triangulating all three names and, with one exception, it doesn’t work. If the Armagh information is correct, all three names may have come from Killevy/Loughgilly, otherwise I suspect Neale was not from Newry. Likewise, Gilchrist is a name from Downpatrick and the Quoile basin; Alexander is from further up north in County Down again – no Newry connections there. If the Armagh information is less certain, Anne Toner and Maguire may have come from Newry town itself. To check out further, visit the Down Genweb site and post a query. One of the administrators could check out this interesting story in PRONI as she visits there regularly.
Finally, you wonder how good a protector Neale was if he gave Anne over to a convict, but that is being prejudiced. Irish people were sent as convicts to NSW for trivial offences and often were decent people. In any case, Anne was old enough to make her own mind up.
My GGGGrandfather Andrew Sinclair was born in Kirkinriola in 1803. His two sons Francis (b 1826) and Charles (my line, b 1828) also in Kirkinriola. Andrew is mentioned in the Griffith Valuation at Leeke, Dunluce Lower 1848 – 1864. I would love to hear from anybody who has same name rellies in that area.
The surname Sinclair in Northern Ireland is found almost exclusively in Belfast, with small pockets in country areas.
Sinclairs came over from Scotland (their clan territory was in Caithness and Orkney) in 1642 when Lord Sinclair (John), together with his brother Lt. Col. Henry Sinclair, took over a regiment of over 1,000 men to Ireland to protect the Scots there against the Irish Confederates (Catholics) and Scots Covenanters (Presbyterians).
This would be par for the course for the clan Sinclair which remained loyal to the Scottish monarch and the established religion through the centuries. Their presence in Dunluce is strange as that was the seat of the Earls of Antrim, McDonnells of Catholic faith and related to the MacDonalds of the Isles of Scotland.
Stranger still is that the Sinclair tartan has a very close resemblance to the MacDonald tartan, although there is no obvious connection or allegiance between the two clans.
Kirkiola is a little townland and also the parish within which sits the borough of Ballymena. Sinclair is not a Derry name and there is no presence there of people of that name.
Has anybody any idea of the wife of Captain Micaiah (Michael) Browning (siege of Derry) Have been told that it was Margaret Ranken but can find no more. Thanks for any info