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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Derry (Londonderry) => Topic started by: mjsmart90 on Wednesday 08 February 12 16:47 GMT (UK)
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I have searched everywhere in Scotland looking for the origins of my partner's family, the Moffats.
William John Moffat married Ena Emily Campbell Smith in 1920 in Greenock. According to their marriage record, his parents are Thomas Moffat, blacksmith, and Annie McLaughlin.
Thomas Moffat died in Greenock in 1929 aged 73. His father is listed as John Moffat but the mother's name is illegible.
Annie McLaughlin died in Greenock in 1931 aged 69. Her parents were William McLaughlin and Mary Wilson.
Their son William Moffat died in Greenock in 1943. He must have been born about 1888 or 1889, but I have found no matches for his birth or his parents marriage. Also no matches for the 1891, 1901 or 1911 census records. William must have had a brother Robert as he is the informant for Thomas and Annie's deaths and according to my partner's grandad there were at least two other siblings, David and Thomas.
I can only assume these Moffats did not come to Scotland until 1920 at the latest. I was hoping someone might be able to find a trace of them elsewhere in Britain - I am not sure how to go about finding them - or have better luck finding them in Scotland.
Thanks in advance for any help, advice etc
Michael
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If this is the correct family I have more details-
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Aghadowney/Ballygawley/651793
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Aghadowey/Ballyganley/1515867
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Yes, it is the correct family. To start with-
4 Oct.1881 Main St. (2nd) Garvagh Presbyterian: Thomas Moffet, blacksmith, Craigmore, son of John Moffet, blacksmith, to Annie McGlaughlin, 20 yrs., Maybuoy, daughter of William McGlaughlin, labourer.
Children (baptised Aghadowey Presbyterian Church):
1. Rebecca born 30 July 1883, bapt. 3 Mar.1885
2. Mary born 16 May 1884, bapt. 3 Mar.1885
3. Elizabeth Archibald
4. Wm John born 2 Oct.1888, bapt. 7 Feb.1889
5. Thomas James born 3 Jan.1891, bapt. 2 Apr.1891
6. Annie?/Janie? born 28 Nov.1893, bapt. 4 Mar.1894
7. Annie born 10 Mar.1896, bapt. 6 Sept.1896
8. Susannah born 4 July 1899, bapt. 5 Nov.1899
9. Alexr. born 20 Dec.1900, bapt. 20 May 1901
10. Robert Wilson born 3 Aug.1903, bapt. 19 Oct.1903
11. Albert born 22 Sept.1904, bapt. 5 Feb.1905.
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20 Jan.1903 Crossgar Presbyterian Church, David Moffett, soldier, Ballygawley, son of David Moffett, blacksmith, to Lizzie Hemphill, Crivolea, daughter of John Hemphill, labourer.
12 Apr.1910 Coleraine Registry Office, Thomas Macauley, labourer, Ballysally [Coleraine], son of Thomas Macauley, labourer, to Eliza Moffett, domestic servant, Ballygawley, daughter of Thomas Moffett, blacksmith.
Northern Constitution, 12 Jan.1918: DEATH Moffat, at 3, Belville Street, Greenock, on the 1st inst., after a long illness, Annie, fifth and dearly beloved daughter of Thomas and Annie Moffat, formerly of Aghadowey, aged 21 years.
Thomas James Moffett signed Ulster Covenant at Greenock in 1912. See www.proni.gov.uk
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Annie McLaughlin's middle name was Wilson.
Daughter Lizzie in 1901 census-
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Aghadowey/Ballybritain/1515846
David Moffett, wife and family with Hemphills in 1911-
www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Londonderry/Aghadowney/Crevolea/651865
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Yes that is the right family, thank you so much! That is amazing, I had just assumed that Moffat was a Scottish name and they would be there somewhere. Do Moffats also have Irish origins?
Regards
Michael
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It's quite possible that they were from Scotland before Ireland but you'd need to be able to trace back quite a few generations to be sure.
Do you want more details on the family?
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I would love to find out more, I am not familiar with researching family history in Ireland so any help you can give me I would really appreciate it. I would be interested in finding out Thomas Moffat's origins, if his father was also born in Londonderry or came from Scotland?
Thanks so much,
Michael
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Hello,
I'm not sure if this is helpful, but hope it is interesting.
It seems as though I am directly descended from the same family
- Lizzie/Elizabeth Hemphill (1879-1966) was my great-grandmother
- Anne McGlaughlin (1861-?) was my great-great-grandmother
- Anne McGlaughlin was married to my great-great-grandfather Thomas Moffat.
- Lizzie was married to my great-grandfather David Moffat (1881-1953)
My grandad Thomas (Tommy) Moffat was Lizzie Hemphill's son, he died in 2002 and was born in Greenock in 1926.
My father, David, is Tommy's son. My father and the rest of my immediate family moved away to London when I was a young child. But my Dad still has recollections of my great-grandfather. My grandmother is 89 years old and will certainly remember Lizzie Hemphill and David Moffat (my great-great grandparents/her parents-in-law).
I have only recently started tracing my family tree and have been finding the Irish (Moffat) side difficult. The rest of my family have come from Scotland since the 1700s you see, so I'd gotten used to all the Scottish websites and resources. If you have any research you can share about the Moffats pre-1950 my father and I would be really delighted.
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Welcome to Rootschat but mjsmart90 hasn't been online since November 2013 so you might not get a reply.
There are now more Irish resources online (free) which would fill in details for your Moffat family that I posted a few years ago. Here are just 2 of them to start with-
1901 and 1911 census- http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
civil registrations (births, marriages, deaths- https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp
See also this other Moffat thread- https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=799615.0
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Hi
I’ve just read this page while browsing the web. I am also related, Thomas Moffat and Anne McGlaughlin are my great grand parents. Albert Moffat was my grandfather. Which would make him a sibling to Sophy’s great grand father.
My father Allan Moffat moved from Greenock when I was a small child.
I do have a small amount of information that I will update with at another time.
I know that Thomas’s father was John Moffat and his father was Thomas Moffat. All were blacksmiths in the same area of Northern Ireland. I haven’t been able to get back any further yet. I’m quite sure they must have moved from Scotland at some point. Probably during the years known as the plantations. I’d love to find out more like when and where they left Scotland from and if that could link the current information on the clan Moffat website referencing a huge loss of land in the 1600 hundreds.
I’d also love to find out why Thomas Moffat moved his whole family to Scotland at the age of 54 or there about. I wondered if it was loss of work, black smithing was a dying trade at that time. Apparently my grandfather had a lot of documents and photos but all were lost after his dead in the 1980s in Greenock. Very sad.
If anyone would like to contact me or has any further information you can email me at
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
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I’d love to know the same!
The Moffats had links to the Hemphills through marriage. My great-grandfather David (that would be Albert’s brother) was married to an Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Hemphill.
There might have been another Moffat-Hemphill marriage further back in time. I might be wrong, but it looks like John Moffat married Rebecca Hemphill around 1849. John and Rebecca would’ve been my 3x great-grandparents.
All of them (the Hemphills and Moffats) seem very much ‘Ulster Scots’. The Hemphills appeared politically active.
It looks like Lizzie Hemphill and David Moffat (David being Albert’s sibling) lived in or around Coleraine, Ireland before moving to Greenock, Scotland when David was in his very early thirties.
David was quite a bit older than his brother Albert, they were about 14 years apart in age. So every single one of them moved across?
A lot of the Moffat family seem (1) very naturally intelligent and (2) very musical. Do any of your close Moffat relations share this? More than one of the descendants I know of are aeroplane pilots, a few are musicians, there’s a professional dancer.
I’m really interested in getting back further but I’m getting stuck at the same place as you! Happy to hear from you.
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This is my grandfather, Albert’s nephew and David’s son, born in 1926 when Albert was (I think) around 20 years old. His name was Thomas Moffat.
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There might have been another Moffat-Hemphill marriage further back in time. I might be wrong, but it looks like John Moffat married Rebecca Hemphill around 1849.
Marriage - 23rd April 1849 in Registrar's Office, Coleraine.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1849/09366/5391936.pdf
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There might have been another Moffat-Hemphill marriage further back in time. I might be wrong, but it looks like John Moffat married Rebecca Hemphill around 1849.
Marriage - 23rd April 1849 in Registrar's Office, Coleraine.
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1849/09366/5391936.pdf
Looks like both living in the townland of Craigmore.
https://www.townlands.ie/londonderry/coleraine/aghadowey/ringsend/craigmore/
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20 Jan.1903 Crossgar Presbyterian Church, David Moffett, soldier, Ballygawley, son of David Moffett, blacksmith, to Lizzie Hemphill, Crivolea, daughter of John Hemphill, labourer.
My great-grandfather David (that would be Albert’s brother) was married to an Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Hemphill.
It looks like Lizzie Hemphill and David Moffat (David being Albert’s sibling) lived in or around Coleraine.....
Marriage - 20th January 1903
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1903/10222/5720755.pdf
Lizzie living at Crivolea (sic) townland.
https://www.townlands.ie/londonderry/coleraine/aghadowey/aghadowney/crevolea/
1901 census for Hemphill at Crevolea.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Londonderry/Aghadowey/Crevolea/1515960/
KG
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Sophy, that is a great photo. I'm going to print it off and show my dad next time I see him.
I've just called him to ask if he ever met David your GGD or his son Tommy, unfortunately he doesn't recall ever meeting either.
Listen to this though, I told him about your post about David etc, and he said this which I thought was a bit weird, he recalls a memory from his childhood which was a conversation between his parents discussing his dad's brother David, something along the lines of 'David was the smart one and could anything he wanted'.
He can't remember anything else about it or even why that memory has stuck in his head, but I thought it was weird especially after your points about (intelligence).
So it looks like the intelligent gene might have gone down your line...
While I got the small and bold gene, bum deal there me thinks!
Mind you I think my kids are all smart but I'm bias.
Your grandad Tommy is my dad's first cousin, which will make your dad my second cousin and you must be third cousins to my children. I think that is the correct terminology.
I have four children, my eldest daughter (35) was to a different partner and my relationship with her has been on and off over the years. she now has four children.
I have two boys and one other daughter.
The eldest boy (25) is an electrician and lives in the midlands, he is naturally smart, a problem solver.
Next boy (23) is currently living in London, holding down a fulltime job as an estate agent and is also fulltime at Uni (Goldsmiths), don't know how he is managing both. He is smart but in more of a people way, very easy to get on with.
My youngest (21) is still living with us in Wales, she is a wonder to me, has been since she was born. I currently wondering what she is going to do with herself...
I myself, I'm a software developer and have been for the last 20+ years, mostly in Oracle, so I must have got some of the smart gene as well.
My dad knew there were a lot of Moffat(s) in Greenock that he was related too but never met. The only brothers of his dad he recalls meeting were Thomas and Robert.
I think you are right about being politically active, I know my grandad was in the Orange order, and I think a lot of the family were as well.
Here's a link to the Ulster Covenant signed by a Thomas Moffat, and a few lines above a David Moffat. However the handwriting looks too similar to me, I think one person signed both names.
https://apps.proni.gov.uk/ulstercovenant/image.aspx?image=M0040420006
My dad however was not interested in that and I never even knew much about it until I was much older.
The next time my dad comes to visit me I will ask him to bring all the documents he has so I can scan them to upload. He has copies of marriage lines etc.
In terms of Thomas moving his whole family over from NI to Greenock, I think I was a bit presumptuous. I assumed they had all moved over, because I knew the oldest and youngest had and I know that at least one of the daughters moved as well, because she died in Greenock when she was young (21). That was Annie. So I assumed they all moved over, I could be totally wrong about that. One day when I get some more free time I'm going to try and uncover more. I did write the Church in Aghadowey to see if they had any records, but never heard back. Must have been busy with God's business.
Here's another weird thing when I was a kid my next door neighbours were Hemphills, a big family and one of the son's was a good friend of mine (passed now), they also moved from Greenock. I'm sure they weren't connected but it is a weird coincidence, how that name keeps overlapping with Moffat.
On a separate note, thanks to Kiltaglassan for the links.
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I did write the Church in Aghadowey to see if they had any records, but never heard back.
Which church did you contact? (there are several churches in the area but not sure exactly what records you are looking for)
I have baptisms from Aghadowey Presbyterian Church for children of Thomas Moffat & Annie McLaughlin (they married in 2nd Garvagh Presbyterian Church).
David Moffat & Lizzie Hemphill married in Crossgar Presbyterian Church.
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Does anyone know why on Thomas' marriage record to Annie McLaughlin his father is recorded as Thomas? Same thing for Thomas' son David, his father is recorded as David Moffat?
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I have a Moffat heritage going back to leadhills, Ayrshire, Dalmellington, Dumfriesshire
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I have a Moffat heritage going back to leadhills, Ayrshire, Dalmellington, Dumfriesshire
The Moffats in this thread have been in County Derry for quite a while so it would be difficult to make a connection back to Scotland.