Hi,
I'm researching my grandmother's family whose surname varies a lot. I've seen it written as McCallig, McCallough, McCallion, McCallie, McCauley, and occasionally Campbell. She says it is pronounced in Irish like Mac Cah-weel (I don't know the proper spelling).
Her parents were Daniel McCalliog (b.1877) and Annie Rodgers (b.1893) who lived in Upper Keeldrum, Gortahork, Donegal. Their address was usually given as 'The Mines' as they lived near some old lead and silver mines.
Daniel's parents were James McCalliog and Angel who also lived in Upper Keeldrum. From the censuses, Angel was born 1842 in Donegal and James had died before 1901. They had 12 children total and 9 still living in 1911. One of them was Margaret (b.1874), who married a John Carrick. I've been told there were at least two women who moved to the USA.
I've been through the online parish records but been unable to find a marriage record so Angel's surname remains unknown. I thought Angel would be easy to track down as it doesn't seem to be a common name in Donegal at all (neither does Angela), but I've been proven wrong very quickly!
Angel was living next to a Denis McCallough in 1901 who seems a good fit to be James' brother. He was born in 1821 in Donegal and married a woman named Mary. I know he had at least two children - Jack who was an Estate-Bailiff and Catherine who married a Patrick O'Neill and moved to Tyrone.
My grandmother has had her DNA tested at Family Tree DNA and we are waiting on the results back from AncestryDNA. So far, no luck in identifying any new cousins. I'm hopeful that I'll convince one of her nephews to do a Y-DNA test for the McCalliog surname in the future.
I would be pleased to hear from anyone with a possible connection to this family or any additional information.
Hugo