Hi Tirohanga,
Yes, I believe the answers are out there somewhere. To let you know a bit more, another of our proven Ydna MOODY ancestors as I mentioned before was an Alexander MOODY b.c1747 who m. Priscilla DICK. His line of Moody's per family tradition and stories told (which can be found at PRONI), state that his family came over from Fifeshire, Scotland. This is the area around Dunfermline, Dysart, Wemyss etc. on the mid east coast of Scotland. My own Moody family states that our Moody's link to the Capt. George MOODIE of the ship the Cutty Sark. Capt. Geo. Moodie was also from Fifeshire, Wemyss, Dysart area...the same area as the Moody's to whom we share proven Ydna with. However, I have been unable thus far to link my family line to Capt. George Moodie's.
Anyway, in the earliest records we've been able to find in the area of Nor. Ireland where our known Moody's went to church were from the late 1600's to the early 1700 Baptism records of the Ballykelly Presbyterian Church in Co. L'derry.
There we found an Alexander MUDIE (spelled that way in the oldest common form of our surname), whose daughter Margaret MUDIE was being baptized in 1700. Alexander was from "Maglogan" (a misspelling of Magilligan). There was also a Patrick MUDY, Edward MUDIE, James MUDIE etc. Sons that were baptized in these early records were Robert MUDIE, Joseph MUDIE and I believe a John MUDIE...all baptized before 1710 in the same church. These were all no doubt related and no doubt part of our earliest Ydna family line from Scotland to the Lenamore/Magilligan area of Nor. Ireland. Alexander Moody and Priscilla Dick had known sons John MOODY who m. Mary HOPKINS and Israel MOODY who m. Elizabeth CASKEY. Israel and family in 1841 removed to Kings Co., Nova Scotia, Canada where my own exact matching MOODY family line also lives.
This was quite a find and surprise to say the least. So all of these lines were/are no doubt interconnected.
I have 3 books on the early lines of the Moody/Moodie/Mudie families...The Moodie Book publ. in 1906, The Mudies of Angus publ. in the 1950's and the Mudie's of Dundee publ. in the 1990's. One of our Ydna links in New Zealand states that their MOODY family came from Dundee, Scotland. A recently found onlinie genealogy from the line of Alexander MOODY and Priscilla DICK also shows one of the descendatns being born in Dundee, Scotland, however none of the others were so I think it might be in error.
There were also early MOODIE's in Co. Tyrone which I also think ~might~ somehow link in to our Moody's of Co. L'derry. Some of them lived in Strabane on the Abercorn Estate. The names were Samuel, John, Matthew, Henry, Andrew etc. as I recall. The records were also found at PRONI which I have around here somewhere. Hope this extra bit is helpful to you somehow. Take care and if you find anything please stay in touch.
Good Luck to you in your own research.
