N.E. Scotland, 1690's early 1700's '7 Ill Years' migration records.

[MMCADEN]

This may have already been asked, please excuse my lack of skill with 'Search'.

As Irish Headstones for the family begin during the 18th and 19th century but no records before then, our locally attributed origin is Scotland.

I am interested, then, in finding any records of migrations from Scotland to Ireland during 7 ill year famine, in particular Aberdeen, and surrounding area, possibly recorded in Kirk records etc of our family root under the anglicized name 'Muckedon', also sometimes as 'Muckadon', yet later appears in Scotland as 'McAden'. I note variants of it as well. As DNA is not accurate over so many generations, I am not using that for this project.

Thank you for your help.

[Forfarian]

As I understand it Ireland was regarded as part of the United Kingdom, even though this was not formalised until 1815. So anyone moving from Scotland to Ireland or vice versa was not emigrating, just moving to a different part of the same country, and records were not kept.

If I am wrong I will be very happy to be corrected.

[GR2]

The north-east of Scotland was hit hard by the famine at the end of the 17th century, and there was some movement of people, however, there are no records from the area which are likely to help you.

Looking at variations on the surname in question in the index for baptisms in Aberdeenshire in the 17th and early 18th century suggests it was not a name from the area. The fact that there are no pre-18th century gravestones for your family in Ireland is just as likely to be because they are lost or were never erected in the first place than because the family had not yet come to Ireland. There are relatively few 17th century gravestones in the north-east of Scotland either.

[MMCADEN]

The north-east of Scotland was hit hard by the famine at the end of the 17th century, and there was some movement of people, however, there are no records from the area which are likely to help you.

Looking at variations on the surname in question in the index for baptisms in Aberdeenshire in the 17th and early 18th century suggests it was not a name from the area. The fact that there are no pre-18th century gravestones for your family in Ireland is just as likely to be because they are lost or were never erected in the first place than because the family had not yet come to Ireland. There are relatively few 17th century gravestones in the north-east of Scotland either.

Thank you for your help.

[MMCADEN]

As I understand it Ireland was regarded as part of the United Kingdom, even though this was not formalised until 1815. So anyone moving from Scotland to Ireland or vice versa was not emigrating, just moving to a different part of the same country, and records were not kept.

If I am wrong I will be very happy to be corrected.

You are not wrong! WIKI reports that 20,000 migrated from Scotland to Ireland in the 1690s due to the famine, 7 ill years, not apparently due to the plantation of Ulster which had been going on during those years.

Just to remark, isn't it odd that commentators of this period spend so much time on the plantation but neglect the Scottish famine?

Thanks for your help.

[Elwyn Soutter]

There was massive migration of Scots to Ireland (mainly to the counties of Ulster) all through the 17th century. In addition to the Plantation, General Monro had a 10,000 strong army of Scots which was disbanded at Carrickfergus in the 1640s. Many chose to stay in Ireland, There was the Hamilton & Montgomery settlements which brought huge numbers from Ayrshire and adjacent counties to Counties Down & Antrim from 1606 onwards - which therefore weren't formally part of the Plantation because they were already so heavily settled - and the MacDonalds of Islay had been encouraging tenants from their estates in Scotland to settle in north east Antrim from the 1500s well into the 1600s. Then there were the killing times (1670s onwards) when Covenanters were persecuted and some fled to Ireland, plus finally a huge influx because of famine in the 1690s.  Some estimate as many as 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland in the 17th century which, if accurate, represents about 20% of the entire population.

Many accounts do explore the whole picture in more detail, eg David Hume’s Eagles Wings – The journey of the Ulster-Scots & Scots Irish” but it is true that the Plantation stands out to many as the “main” source of settlement in Ireland when that was not whole picture at all.

For McCaddin, MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” says:  Mac Caddin, an old erenagh* family in Co. Armagh. See also Mac Adam.” Under Mac Adam it says: “This name has several origins in Ireland. In Co Cork it was an Irish patronymic Mac Adaim, assumed by a branch of the Norman Barrys; in Co Armagh it is a synonym of MacCadden; in Co Cavan it can be for MacCaw; Ballymacadam in Clanmorris barony Co Mayo locates a family there. This place name also occurs in Kerry & South Tipperaray. In Dublin and Belfast MacAdam is often Scottish.”

*Erenaghs were hereditary tenants of ecclesiastical land in Pre-Plantation Ulster.

[MMCADEN]

There was massive migration of Scots to Ireland (mainly to the counties of Ulster) all through the 17th century. In addition to the Plantation, General Monro had a 10,000 strong army of Scots which was disbanded at Carrickfergus in the 1640s. Many chose to stay in Ireland, There was the Hamilton & Montgomery settlements which brought huge numbers from Ayrshire and adjacent counties to Counties Down & Antrim from 1606 onwards - which therefore weren't formally part of the Plantation because they were already so heavily settled - and the MacDonalds of Islay had been encouraging tenants from their estates in Scotland to settle in north east Antrim from the 1500s well into the 1600s. Then there were the killing times (1670s onwards) when Covenanters were persecuted and some fled to Ireland, plus finally a huge influx because of famine in the 1690s.  Some estimate as many as 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland in the 17th century which, if accurate, represents about 20% of the entire population.

Many accounts do explore the whole picture in more detail, eg David Hume’s Eagles Wings – The journey of the Ulster-Scots & Scots Irish” but it is true that the Plantation stands out to many as the “main” source of settlement in Ireland when that was not whole picture at all.

For McCaddin, MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” says:  Mac Caddin, an old erenagh* family in Co. Armagh. See also Mac Adam.” Under Mac Adam it says: “This name has several origins in Ireland. In Co Cork it was an Irish patronymic Mac Adaim, assumed by a branch of the Norman Barrys; in Co Armagh it is a synonym of MacCadden; in Co Cavan it can be for MacCaw; Ballymacadam in Clanmorris barony Co Mayo locates a family there. This place name also occurs in Kerry & South Tipperaray. In Dublin and Belfast MacAdam is often Scottish.”

*Erenaghs were hereditary tenants of ecclesiastical land in Pre-Plantation Ulster.

Thank you for helping.

Reading your excellent posting I am reminded of our US Colonies history of the Scots-Irish migrations, especially in the South. North Carolina is, perhaps, more notable boasting of one region 'Grandfather Mountain' being entirely Scots-Irish. Guessing here that the troubles in both Scotland and Ireland arising out attempts to enforce an established church drove many to freedom in outback America. Most notable is E. Tennessee where the 'over mountain men' were a law unto themselves long before the revolution, 1776, and had perfected the making of both Whisky and Guns! No wonder, then, at the battle of King's Mountain they refused London's taxes.

Interesting aside here - Irish history -, in the 19th century when clergy on church records translated the old Gaelic name 'Muckedon' as 'McCudden' - families complained that they were not the Armagh family, but Scottish. Of those one anglicized as Mc Edin. Too, records show this family appearing in Counties Monahan, Sligo and Westmeath all about the same time, 1700s, working on Plantation Estates, later spreading to local economies.

Began Scotland research in Aberdeenshire from the Cambric root, not Gaelic. Since our roots are the same it seemed a good fit. Obviously, it later gets the Gaelic prefix 'Mc' which among them is reported as 'Muck'.

Cited above, there are no records in the region with mention of this family name.

Thank you Elwyn.