Dear Aghadowey -
An email I just sent to the Clan Montgomery Society..
When I attended the Aghadowey Presbyterian Church...which memorializes...with a plaque on the exterior of its front wall...the Reverend James McGregor...the leader and organizer of the flotilla...I was interested to learn that nobody was aware of our Montgomery family's presence in great numbers on at least two of the boats...and our inter-relationship with many of the other families on the boats..
Most people asked me if I was related to the Orrs...and almost everyone were aware of the McGregors and Cargills...but even David Montgomery was not aware of any Montgomerys on the boats in 1718 - 1720..
I suspect...that over the years...we had fallen through the cracks in Northern Ireland...despite our presence in the Aghadowey Sessions Book..
A few months ago I rented a motor launch to take me up and down the River Bann between the harbor in Coleraine and the North Sea..
This is the route Revd James McGregor and I believe my 7th grand uncle James Montgomery took to emigrate to the US...it is very easy to imagine what these landed Ulster Scots thought...at the beginning of their voyage...as this stretch of the Bann is still very similar to what it was in 1718..
For the 300th anniversary... I would recommend leasing one of the nice replica sailing ships moored on this part of the Bann to take visitors out from Coleraine to the North Sea and then out past Ballyhillion...on the Inishowen Peninsula...in County Donegal...the last place McGregor's emigres would have been able to see land before touching ground in Boston or southern Maine..
I am looking to take another motor launch from Derry/Londonderry harbor...out Lough Foyle to the North Sea ...and out to the end of Inishowen later this fall...or early next spring...depending upon the weather conditions..
This will then permit me to see what my 6th great grandfather John Montgomery and his family saw when leaving Ireland on the linen ship...the McCollum.....I suspect this will be a particularly grand boat ride...but I will let you know what I have seen...after taking it..
Of great importance to me has been identifying the lands and shops and homes of both my Plantation Irish and indigenous Irish ancestors...and have been extremely pleased when after hundreds of years to see cousins of mine on the same property..
I believe that by finding the actual properties of the Montgomery, Cargill, Orr, McGregor, Harper, etc families in 1718...we will begin to learn more about why we chose to leave for America...where those cousins are that are descended from the relatives...that our ancestors left behind..
As most of the Aghadowey Montgomery descendants can no longer be identified by 'Y' or mitochondrial DNA testing...I would recommend beginning an autosomal DNA project where 'Y' and mitochondrial straight paternal or maternal descendants...can be tested and compared...to give the vast majority of Aghadowey Montgomery descendants...an alternative route to match their DNA to Aghadowey Montgomery DNA..
I am very aware of the Folk Park in Omagh...as half of my indigenous Irish family is and were resident within 10 miles of Omagh...and some of our Montgomery cousins were their landlords.....and I also generally stay in nearby Fintona when I am in Northern Ireland...but I have not found the resources at the Folk Park...very useful for much serious genealogical research so far...the best...most friendly...and best organized place for such research for me...is Proni (Public Records of Northern Ireland), in the Titanic Quarter, Belfast..
I suspect that if you put together a two week trip of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland...that you could put together quite a trip of Montgomerys...from the Derrygonelly and Archdale Montgomerys of County Fermanagh..to the Blessingbourne Montgomerys of Blessingbourne Castle, Fivemiletown, County Tyrone...to the Grey Abbey Montgomerys of Grey Abbey Castle, County Down...to the Shaw - Montgomery in-laws of Ballygally Castle, Ballygally, Antrim...where my great grandmother Isabel Brisbane Shaw is the resident ghost...to Aghadowey, County Londonderry...and of course...the famous and historic city of Derry/Londonderry, County Londonderry..
You could also try fitting in the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills Brewery and Morrelli's ice Cream if you pass along the North Coast of Counties Antrim and Londonderry..
With DNA it can be very hard to place Plantation Scots such as the Montgomerys...as the families they left behind in Scotland had the same 'y' DNAs as they had...and the 'y' DNA...unless there is a particular anomaly pertinent to Ulster Montgomerys...probably cannot differentiate between your Carolina Montgomerys and the Aghadowey Montgomerys Scottish ancestors..
However...if we brought in the autosomal...it is possible that one would...in time...begin to differentiate the Montgomerys descended from the Aghadowey's McCollum and Aken in-laws...from those descended from Montgomerys without Aken and McCollum DNA..
Enough..
Thank you for getting in touch..
