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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Donegal => Topic started by: sez56 on Tuesday 04 October 11 04:21 BST (UK)
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Would be very grateful if someone could give me some information on the following:
Margaret McGuiness born abt. 1861 apparently came to Australia on "someone else's ticket". She married in Australia and gave her birthplace as Kathmelton, Donegal, Ireland and her parents as Patrick McGuiness and Margaret McCleverty. Perhaps someone out there can shed some light on this. As always the RootsChat community are just wonderful.
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I should think that the correct spelling of Margaret McGuinness’s home town is Rathmelton, in Co. Donegal. It’s about 10 miles north of the county town, Letterkenny.
Rathmelton is in the RC parish of Killygarvan. You can see what parish records survive on the attached link:
www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/
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Thanks Elwyn, It rather looks like her birth would have been before the records :( - do you have any further ideas as how to find out, or will I just have to live with that? (Obviously my knowledge of Irish geography and history is pretty poor!)
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1. You could consider checking the parish records anyway. Baptisms reportedly start in 1868, only 7 years after Margaret’s birth. You might find siblings born to the same parents.
2. You could check gravestones in the local graveyards for McGuinness/McCleverty graves.
3. I saw this McGuinness widow, aged 70, in the 1901 census for Rathmelton. (She’s the only McGuinness in Rathmelton in that census). Could be a relation, I suppose, and gives you a more specific townland (address) to search. It looks to me as though her daughter Bridget McGuinness was born c 1868 and married Patrick Boyle.
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Rathmelton/Carnhill/1193189/
4. I looked for McCleverty/McClaverty/McLaverty in Rathemelton in the 1901 census but none were listed.
5. I looked in Griffiths Valuation of Ireland for Rathmelton (civil parish of Aughnish) and in 1858, there was just one McGuin(n)ess household listed, in Church St, Rathmelton – Mary McGuinness at Plot 52, Church St, where she was renting a house, offices, yard & small garden.
6. There were no McCleverty (and variant) families in Rathmelton but there were some McClaverty households in the parish of Clondacaddog which is not too far away.
7. No McGuinness/McCleverty families in Carnhill townland in 1858.
www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml
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Being resident in Co.Donegal I think the area in question should be Ramelton.
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Thanks for your informative reply :D it rather looks like I might need some help from people nearer than I am in Australia. Perhaps someone living nearby might be able to look up some more information for me.
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Donegal Genealogy Resources online is a very informative site.
Well worth a visit.
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Donegal Genealogy Resources online is a very informative site.
Well worth a visit.
There's a link for that site as well as many others in the 2 stickied topics at the top of the DONEGAL board-
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,383512.0.html
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,518700.0.html