RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Derry (Londonderry) => Topic started by: ladyk on Tuesday 09 January 18 05:38 GMT (UK)
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Hello! I am trying to pinpoint when an ancestor of mine left Ireland for Scotland, and wondering if there are any record databases that I have not tried. I have his birth record from rootsireland, and I have him in a census abstract from 1851. The next record I have for him is his marriage in Neilston, Renfr., Scotland in August of 1871, so there is a pretty huge window of time there. His name was Dominick McLaughlin, born 1834 in Magilligan, Derry and still living there in 1851. I wonder if there is some record that I'm missing that may indicate when he came to Scotland. If anyone can think of someplace I should look, I'd appreciate the hint! It is important, because I believe he fathered my great-grandfather (illegitimate) in Neilston in April of 1871, four months before his marriage there. I'd love to be able to confirm that he was indeed in Scotland at that time. So far have been unable to locate him in Scotland's 1871 census either, though my gr-grandfather's mother is also not to be found in that census, and I presume that she was there too. Anyway, please share if you have an inspiration as to where I might look! Thanks.
Kat
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Bad news I am afraid
Irish census returns 1821-1891 were destroyed through both government incompetence and an explosion at the PRO in 1922.
If he was a Presbyterian Magilligan church records date from 1814.
RC much later.
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You might get lucky and find a reference in a newspaper archive. Try variations of the spelling that an auto reader might mistake, eg; c's or o's for e's and a's, d for cl, rn for m,
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Darn! Thanks for responding. He was RC too. Imagine all the additional info we'd have today if so many of the old records weren't lost/burned/destroyed! *sigh*
Oh! Thank-you for the newspaper idea! You never know, I will give it a shot.
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McLaughlin has many variant spellings so he probably is in Scotland somewhere in the 1871 census.
I would focus on that.
You are unlikely to find him in local newspaper records. Magilligan in that period was a fairly isolated outpost.