 |
| Mckays, Darraghs, Antrim and The Celtic F.C. connection |
|
| |
|
| Posted by: Maccahc on July 27, 2010 at 11:33 PM |
|
Bear with me on this first post!
I realise you probably get bored and or inundated with family history requests but mine is two fold both family and historical!
Through reading through this forum and your fine website I became aware that my family history has a fairly high likelihood of having evolved in The Glens based on griffiths, 1901/1911 census information and some albeit thin anecdotal family evidence.
My greatgreatgrandfather was James Mckay he was born in Antrim in around 1851/52 to James Mckay and Bridget Darragh, I found his place of birth through the 1901 census on Scotlands people and was surprised he was Antrim born until I undertook more research via your and other websites and became aware of earlier migrations of prereformation R.C Mckays some of whom returned to Scotland in the last century or two.
He must have moved to Scotland between 1871 and 1873-75 and is invariably listed in all census as a freestone quarryman, in fact he opened one of the first quarries in Fauldhouse west lothian where he eventually settled having at least ten of a family that I know off.
His parents are listed in most info I have as a farmer or ploughman and a domestic servant respectively. He was a tall man, around 6" 5" according to one uncle of mine and my great granda his son who was born here in glasgow was around 6" 3".
Through cross referencing the Darraghs and Mckays there seems a higher likelihood they came from the glens I imagine especially given his occupation as I understand there were a number of freestone quarries in the area.
I would be grateful for any advice or local knowledge on finding them, I have some anecdotal evidence from a "cousin" who was part of my grandads brothers family who moved to Yorkshire in the 30`s that the Darraghs may have came from Ballycastle and that some Coyles from the area may have visited Yorkshire in the past but thats very tenuous to say the least.
I have aslo started reading about the Mckays from Kintyre and Islay who followed the Clan Donald south movements and am finding this both informative and fascinating, any tips there welcome too!
Which brings me to the second separate part of my post!!
I am also a member of a couple of Celtic football club related forums one is kerrydalestreet and the other The Celtic Graves Society, we have recently been doing work on the history of the club and are at present working on the founding fathers and first commitee members.
Two names I came across were James Mckay and Hugh Darroch who were Celtics first treasurers, I speculated that both may be Antrim names based on my own family tree ( I did not make or claim any family connection as I doubt they are related, but you never know ).
We found through the 1851 census returns that Hugh Darrochs father (also Hugh, married to a Boyle ) was indeed from Co. Antrim, they at first stayed in New Monkland area before moving to he Calton area of Glasgow where most of the founding fathers had connections with local St Marys church organisations like the SVDP, League of the cross or additonally The Home Government branch in Glasgow.
Its an ongoing peice of work initially set up to honour them, find out more information about there lives and origins and locate their last resting places and hopefully descendants.
I have not been able to prove or disprove James Mckays Antrim connection yet as he was born in Glasgow as was his father and there may be a Highland connection as an alternative ancestry for him for further info please see these links.
http://celticgraves.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=founding
http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/8313783/1/
Any help or advice in tracing Hugh Darrochs/Darraghs Antrim origins also appreciated.
Chris |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: gingrashome on July 28, 2010 at 01:31 PM |
|
These sound like names from Glenravel. You can contact St. Mary's Queen of Peace RC Church at [email protected] to look for info in their records. The Church records start in 1825
Susan |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: Maccahc on July 28, 2010 at 09:03 PM |
|
Thanks Susan I live in Glasgow but have two wee ones which makes visiting difficult just now, I will try to find out some more info about Glenravel and email the parish re the above.
Chris |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: gingrashome on July 28, 2010 at 09:10 PM |
|
| I have a tree on ancestry.com called Glenravel Historical Society, no Darraghs or McKays yet, but I'm still connecting. I found the name Darragh interesting - my great grandparents Frances and Susan Scullion McCann were born in Glenravel and moved to East Liverpool, Ohio, USA in 1868. In Susan's obituary, it says she was related to the Darraghs, another Irish family in East Liverpool. |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: Maccahc on July 28, 2010 at 11:00 PM |
|
Thanks again Susan please let me know if you do encounter any, I intend to try and "map" the Mckay/Darragh concentrations on a parishes map from the Irish Times website to see if this helps also, I am not sure how accurate Griffiths will be for concentrations as I imagine not everyone held land enough to be mentioned in it.
One other fact I forgot to add was that my greatgreatgrandfaher married in Scotland in 1875 to a local lass, the 2 witnesses were a Charles and Margaret Mckay, I have no idea whether they were siblings, cousins, Aunt/Uncle or other extended family and have been unable to trace them in relation to family here with any success, so they may have been visitors from Antrim.
In naming patterns Charles does not appear closer down the family line but Margaret does. |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: Maccahc on August 08, 2010 at 12:54 PM |
|
Hi again Susan I emailed the parish at the address given, father lyons indicated that the records would be up on your glenravel historical society site from 4th august via ancestry, I have checked but there does not seem to be anything as yet, do you have access to copies of all Glenravel parish records?
Thanks again |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: gingrashome on August 08, 2010 at 01:27 PM |
|
Fr. Lyons allowed my cousin to xerox the records, but she did not copy all of them - I just asked her for 8 specific families - however the sheets include many other families - in fact the stack is about 1 inch high. I know I hae seen some Darragh names, I will search through them for both names this afternooon.
|
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: gingrashome on August 08, 2010 at 05:41 PM |
|
I looked through all the church records I have, and could not find anyone named McKay. There are several Darragh births and marriages, but no Bridget - So I think you have to assume they were not from Glenravel.
Susan
|
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: Maccahc on August 31, 2010 at 09:09 PM |
|
We continue to work on the founding fathers and first commitee men of the Celtic f.c, there are definite long term connections with Antrim and the Glens. Confirmation that two very significant early founders/commitee men, brothers William and Daniel Mckillop were from Antrim stock. Though both born in Ayrshire their father Daniel was from Glenarm. Any additional information welcome. http://celticgraves.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=founding&thread=213&page=1 |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: innisfayle on September 01, 2010 at 10:04 PM |
|
| You might want to try a fairly new genealogical website-www.rootsireland.ie-it seems to have access to the church records(and civil records) for most of the counties of Ireland. Registration is free and you can then search their records for free.The only problem is that you only get the most basic information e.g James McKay born 1852 and you have to pay €5 to get the full info on that person e.g parents etc. It might be the one you are looking for or it might be someone else. I just found a record for a James McKay born 1852 and it was the only one near that date. if you have precise info on your ancestors it can be very helpful tho' the €5 can mount up if you have difficulty finding what you are looking for. But it can give you pointers that you can follow up |
|
| |
|
|
| Replied by: Maccahc on September 20, 2010 at 10:53 PM |
|
Innisfayle thanks for the reply, sorry I have not said so sooner but I have been offline for a while. The link you sent is also used by a company previously called the Irish Family History Foundation and I think also the Ulster Historical Foundation, they seem to change thir name and website a few times and I have used them before, there are no new records to be had on there and I am not sure about the accuracy or reliability as I previously was informed they had password and account information compromised so have tended to avoid since.
They also know how to make a tidy sum of money with tantalising searches based on very basic info but many thanks for your help, I have a relative travelling to Dublin soon who will have a quick look up in the National Library, based on statitics i.e that 25 of the 70 or so Mckay households in Antrim from Griffiths were in Tickmacrevan or Carncastle we will start there, I note they border each other geographically so will check out the R. C. parishes within to start with.
Thanks again. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
