McGill Family

[mab2ya]

I am looking for information on a McGILL family in Ireland
1)James McGill, b. #1795 and 1810 in Louth, possibly the parish of Castletown in County Louth.

2) His son was Michael McGill b. abt 1828-1830 in Louth, Ireland, but lived and died in Sunderland, Durham, England

[shanew147]

For such early dates you would need to check church records, if they exist. To do this you first need to know the denomination of your McGill family, and also where Michael was born - i.e. which parish

see : Introduction to Irish Records
        My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?




Shane

[mab2ya]

Thanks, Shane! I believe the family was Church of Ireland - protestant. Michael's son, my great-grandfather was married in an English Anglican church.

Michael is in the census records of 1851 as a boarder in Durham England with a lot of other Irish folks, so I assume he left Ireland for England not long before that. He married in 1852. In all of the census records from 1851-1901 he faithfully records his birth place every time as Louth, Ireland.

I have one source that may be his father James from the Tithe Applotment Books  in 1833 - and this James is listed in County Louth, Parish of Castletown, Townland of Bellurgan which I will try and find more info on.

Ireland's the toughest place I've come up against in all my years of researching both sides of my family - and I thought Scotland was hard!

[shanew147]

The problem with Tithe records is that there were lots of exemptions, and urban area like towns are not covered - so there could be other James McGills that you would not see in a search... also the Tithe records on ancestry (I presume that's where you accessed them..) are far from complete..

RootsIreland (pay-website) has some parish transcripts for Co. Louth, but unfortunately no CofI records are covered at the moment..



Shane

[mab2ya]

You are absolutely right about the tithes and most records for Ireland. I've joined RootsIreland last week. I'll just keep plugging away at it.

Thanks again

[shanew147]

I dont see any references to a separate CofI parish of Castletown, but it's adjacent to Dundalk - so possibly included in the town parish.



Shae

[mab2ya]

I'll check it out.

Thanks
M