Alexis MacAllister

[hdw]

Apparently the Argentinian international footballer Alexis MacAllister had ancestors from Fife. I have seen this mentioned on several sites, but no more information. His MacAllister ancestors were from Cushendall in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. Does anyone know where his Fife forebears lived?

Harry

[Kiltaglassan]

His MacAllister ancestors were from Cushendall in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64011522

[aghadowey]

From Wikipedia is this conflicting information-

His family were in the Irish town of Donabate since 1690, before a Joseph Mac Allister moved to Pergamino in 1865, where many Irish had settled. Joseph then arranged for his nephews John and William to also emigrate from Ireland to Argentina.[51] Mac Allister also has ancestry from Fife in Eastern Scotland.[52]

Sources-
[51] Culhane, by Darragh (18 December 2022). "Alexis Mac Allister's Irish heritage explained as he plays in World Cup final". Irish Mirror. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
[52] "Who is Alexis Mac Allister? Argentina midfielder with Irish roots on verge of World Cup final". SportingNews.com. Retrieved 14 December 2022.

Donabate isn't that far from Dublin but Cushendall in the Glens of Antrim is also claiming he's their MacAllisters.

[hdw]

Yes, there's plenty of information available about his Irish ancestry, but just that annoying offhand comment that he also had ancestors from Fife, but no details.

It was my son who asked me about him, I'd never heard of him.

Harry

[Andrew C.]

It’s incredible how his father in his younger days looks so stereotypically Scottish/Irish. Is there any research of MacAllisters from Fife going to Ireland in the plantation.

[hdw]

MacAllister is not a Fife name. There is no Mac- name that is native to Fife. It's probably a different branch of his family tree that came from Fife.

Harry

[Elwyn Soutter]

I can’t comment on McAllisters elsewhere in Ireland but the large grouping of them in north east Antrim around Cushendall did originate in Scotland. However they didn’t come as part of the Plantation and they didn’t come from Fife. Co Antrim was excluded from the Plantation because it had already been heavily settled by Scots notably from the MacDonalds lands in Kintyre and the southern Hebrides. More detail in “Family names in the Glens of Antrim” by Brian S Turner. 

Large numbers of MacAllisters had lived on the Earl of Argyll’s lands around the Loup in Kintyre. In 1609 he decided to eject many of his tenants and they were encouraged to move to Antrim (a journey of about 12 miles). As a consequence MacAllister is now the second most common surname in the Glens and the whole area is awash with Argyll surnames generally. (Turner p 35 & 119 - 124).

[Forfarian]

I had a rake about in FamilySearch.

1869 census of Argentina, Pergamino
José Macallister, 27, Irlandes, Dublin, Estanciero
So he was born in Dublin (town or parish or county?) in 1841/2.

On a different page, but still in Pergamino
MacAllister Anita, 27, Argentinia, Buenos Aires, Estanciera

1895 census, Pergamino
MacAllister Martin, 20, Argentino, BA, Estanciero
MacAllister Carlos, 22, Argentino, BA, Estanciero
MacAllister Maria, 25, Argentina, BA, Proprietaria
MacAllister Ana, 16, Argentina, BA, Proprietaria
MacAllister José, 12, Argentino, BA

Still Pergamino, but a different page
McAllister Juan, 35, Irlandes, Estanciero
Tobim Maria, 33
McAllister Mariana, 10
McAllister Brijida, 8
McAllister Juan, 6
McAllister Guillerm, 4o
McAllister Arturo, 2
McAllister Ramon, 1
All Argentinian and born in BA.
So if this is Joseph's nephew, he was born in 1859/1860.

(There are also a 35-year-old Henry and a 30-year-old A MacAllister, both born in England, in the 1895 census.)

Guillermo MacAllister, 39, son of Juan MacAllister and Brigida Keeling, married Margarita Seery in BA in 1895.

Noting that Juan MacAllister in Pergomino had a daughter Brijida, it would not surprise me to find that the parents of Joseph's nephews John and William were John MacAllister and Bridget Keeling.

Aha! Juan MacAllister, son of Juan MacAllister and Brijida Keeling (mistranscribed Reeling) married Maria Tobin in Pergomino in 1885.

John M and Bridget Keeling had Christopher, 1857; John, 1859, Donabate, Co Dublin; Mary Ann, 1864; James, 1866; Patrick Joseph, 1868; Jane, 1870; Eleanora, 1871.

Juan MacAllister, 5, son of José MacAllister and Anita Fox, died in Pergamino in 1876. There are other references to Ana or Anita Fox or Fose (probably mistranscribed) as mother of assorted M*cAl*sters. So it would appear that Joseph MacAllister's wife was Anita Fox.

Could the forebears of either Anita Fox or Bridget Keeling have come from Fife? Or Joseph's mother, whoever she was?

.... Getting a bit speculative now, but Joseph, son of Charles M and Mary Quinn, was baptised in Donabate, Co Dublin, in 1838 .... a few years adrift, but the same place?