Tracing Margaret O'Hara/Mcaleese

[orkrad]

 Hi everyone

I would like some help in tracing my 3xg -grandmother Margaret O'Hara .

Margaret married James Mcalees/Mc Aleese/ Mc lees/Mc Leish  where and when I am not sure but most likely in Derry Co.  somewhere around 1840 .My reason for this assumption is that their daughter Jane O'Hara McAleese  was born circa 1842 in Derry Co and married William Mc Garry/Galloway on 20 May 1860 in Co Derry  according to downloads from IGI. I do not have either of Jane's birth or marriage certs so am relying on the IGI user submitted genealogies to be  fairly correct. I am also assuming the family were Catholic.

Margaret O'Hara Mc Aleese appears in the 1881 census for Greenock where she is living with her son James. She died in Greenock in 1885 and according to her death cert(here her name is spelled Mc Leish ) her parents were John O'Hara and Jane Brown . Her age is given as 53 on the death cert which sounds improbable if she had a daughter born in 1842 in Co Derry. Her death cert says she is "married to James McLeish labourer " so we can assume her husband is still alive. Her other son Hugh has signed the certificate with "his mark"

I have already spent quite a few euros trying to trace Margaret's elusive husband  James  on the Irish Family History sites without success. He  does not appear on any of the Greenock Scotland  censuses from 1871 onwards and I think he probably stayed in Ireland  while his wife moved to Scotland with two of her sons. Jane the daughter also moved to Greenock and died there in 1908.

 I am hoping some rootschatter can point me in the direction to find Margaret O'Hara.

R egards orkrad

[aghadowey]

Unfortunately the dates are before the start of civil registration in Ireland- births, deaths and Catholic marriages from 1864 and non-Catholic marriages from 1845.

To see if any Irish records of the family survive you'll need to know both their religion and where they lived (parish if not actual townland).

Have a look at Introduction to Irish Records and My Ancestor came from Ireland - where do I start?.

[orkrad]

 Thanks Aghadowey

Read the links you supplied with interest.

I guess I was hoping that someone might suggest areas where the O'Hara's might have come from (The Irish Times site has no  records of any O'Hara's ). The Mc Aleese name seems to be prominent in Antrim and Armagh, but not in Derry where at least one of the McAleese children was born.

This may just be a brick wall that I can't climb over.

Regards Orkrad.

[aghadowey]

Don't believe everything you find online 

There are/were lots of families called McAleese in County Londonderry- and don't forget variants such as McAlees, Maclees, McLees, McAlease...

Some O'Haras might be listed as Hara in some records.

[orkrad]

 Thanks again.

I am not usually gullible when reading Internet information,but when pursuing Irish  genealogy from New Zealand , I often  have to grab at  everything that is offered in the hope that there may be  just a grain of truth  that I can investigate further !

Regards Orkrad.