David McGraddie (All sorts of spellings) born Ireland about 1785 was my Great Great Grandfather. He produced four children at Busby in Renfrewshire in the period 1830 - 1841, including my Great Grandfather James McCready in 1841
Their mother was an Elizabeth Long baptised, as far as I can ascertain, on 13 Sept 1802 at Ballynagalliagh Armagh Ireland. David and Elizabeth may not have married, but census, her death & their marriage certs of the children all support this relationship.
Now the interesting thing is that apparently the same David McGraddie is noted in various sources as the father of four other children. Three were born in Ireland: William in 1805; Thomas in abt 1808; Hugh in abt 1811. (I can't find any baptism records)
A fourth child, David was born in 1815 in Mearns (close to Busby) in Renfrewshire, so David snr appears to have moved from Ireland in the period around 1811 - 1815
This makes me think that David McGraddie snr had another wife before he linked up with Elizabeth Long in about 1829. It's very unlikely that this Elizabeth could be the mother of David's first four children.
Census and other records for David's first four children consistently name their mother as Margaret Lang born Ireland around 1793. An example is a FamilySearch tree:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.2.1/M7K3-9CZ I cannot find any record of Margaret Lang's birth or marriage
If available, this information might in turn lead to more information on the origins of David McGraddie/McCready. I suspect he and Margaret Lang came from the Ballynagalliagh, Lisnadill and Killyfaddiy area a few Km south of Armagh City as his second "wife" Elizabeth came from round there.
At one time I thought that Margaret Lang and Elizabeth Long might be sisters, Lang & Longcould be the same family. However there is a fair amount of info to say that Elizabeth's parents were a John Lang b ~1776 & Frances Ross b ~1780. They married in 1802 and are unlikely to be the parents of Margaret Lang.
I'd be very pleased if anyone is able to throw any futher light on the life of Margaret Lang and her possible links to David McGraddie/McCready.
Thanks Watersidejim
