I'm trying to connect the dots on a relative named Cormac McCall who immigrated to the United States from Co. Donegal, Ireland. Here's what I know:
- 1879 - He is born and listed as Cormac McCahil. He is the only person with any variation of this name on record on IrishGenealogy that I can find.
- 1901 - Living in Ireland as the oldest son of a large family, his name is given as "Cormick Mc Cahill." His age is given as 2 years younger than he really is. He is the only variation of this name listed in the county.
- 1909 - Cormac travels from Londonderry, Ireland to the U.S. with several family members/neighbors in tow. At this point, he says he's lived in the U.S. since 1905 and gives his last residence as Sansom St., Philadelphia. One assumes he traveled to Ireland and back to help his friends and family make the trip.
- 1920 & 30 - Cormac revises his immigration year to 1904 on both censuses. He claims to have naturalized. He also ages himself down, first 2 years, then 12.
Now I've been searching around trying to find his initial immigration documentation and I came up with
another immigration record from November 1904 for a "Cormack McCahill." This Cormac only says "Donegal" as his place or origin, which isn't very helpful, but I think there's a lot of circumstantial evidence suggesting he's a match:
- It's another trip from Londonderry to New York, like his 1909 trip.
- The timing is 1904, like the censuses say, but quite close to 1905, as this trip was November.
- Ancestry transcribes the age here as 73, but it appears to be a 23 in reality. (Several other 2's on the page are similarly sloppy.) This is two years younger than Cormac's actual age, but the 1901 and 1920 censuses also put him as two years younger.
- IrishGenealogy and the 1901 Census suggest there weren't any other Cormac McCahills in Donegal besides him.
- He says he's going to stay with an Uncle Cormick McCall in Columbia, Pennsylvania. I know that he would have had an uncle named Cormac.
- There were only two Cormac McCalls in Columbia that I can find, a father and son who lived at 531 Union Street, slightly further down from the 236 Union Street that this Cormac intended to visit. The fact that there are only two suggests that the nephew who immigrated there didn't stay.
- The Cormick McCall in Columbia's parents were named William and C Thomas. My Cormac's grandparents were "William and Catherine."
- A Hugh McCall who lived in Columbia, PA for a time listed his parents as "William McCall and Catherine Thomas," which suggests "C Thomas" was Catherine. My Cormac would have had an uncle named Hugh, born around 1836. This Hugh was born 1839. This Hugh also was from "Mt Charles, Donegal," which is the largest town near where my Cormac was from.
- The Cormick McCall in Columbia was born in 1828, which matches the "abt 1829" birthdate for my Cormac's uncle.
- The Cormick McCall in Columbia died in 1906, which might explain why my Cormac ended up in Philadelphia (where I know his mother's brother lived).
Now here's the problem - the Cormick in Columbia has an extensive family, many of whom use Ancestry.
There are 11 trees that match. None of them mention my Cormac. Three of them give him quite different siblings than the ones he'd have to have to be my Cormac's uncle. Two of them list him as from an entirely different part of Co. Donegal. Most of them list each other as sources of information and I can't for the life of me find where they would have gotten this information.
I'd like to be able to declare that I've made a match, but the number of people who say otherwise makes me hesitate, especially given that my evidence is circumstantial.
Does anyone have any thoughts on other ways I might confirm that the Cormac McCall that immigrated in 1904 to live with his uncle in Columbia is the same as mine?tl;dr Part of me in concerned the evidence I've built isn't as strong as I think it is when viewed from outside eyes. What do you all think? Can you think of anything I might be missing?
