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Riddell Graham:   Coming a little late to the party, on the heels of my relative Pam Chetland.  I am the great grand-daughter of Eliza Ann Taggart who lived 10 miles from my Northern Ireland home in her youth.  She had brothers George James and John, sisters Kate (Pam's ancestor), Sarah Jane, who went to Canada, and Mary, who stayed at home until her parents and maternal aunt all passed away, and married a Mr Millar and went to Scotland, taking her two daughters who would have been teenagers, plus a nephew that she had raised with them, and afterwards having her third daughter.  My great grandmother was the only girl to marry locally - to the grandson of the neighbour at the tiny family farm which was at a location called Glengad, in the district of Vow, on a scenic portion of the River Bann.  If you follow a NI map it flows through Lough Neagh, our extremely large lake, into the sea between the small towns of Portstewart and Castlerock.   Glegad is about two thirds of the way along the river flowing north on the east bank.  One known Taggart relative remains just off what was the Taggart farm, in a bungalow on a small development.  George was also given the prefix of Mc, and McEn from time to time.  He married May Wallace and I suspect this could have been a mixed religion marriage as Wallace is largely a Presbyterian name, and she took on George's Roman Catholic faith, as her sister Matilda may have done per census 1901.  There was a lack of registration of births and baptisms, so we can but guess at the date of the births of all but Sarah Jane who is on Rasharkin Parish Catholic registers.   About six years after Sarah Jane was born a new Roman Catholic Church opened at the nearer location of The Plains and I suspect the younger children were baptised there, but without a register having been set up.   All the girls became Presbyterian on marriage apparently and James George married a Protestant neighbour, but she converted to RC.  I am in touch with several relatives, and had the pleasure of spending time with Sarah Jane's great grand-daughter on a recent visit here, and a knowledgeable local farmer showed us the very spot where our family had lived.  Hope this is of interest!

I am sorting out a DNA match in Northern Ireland.  It appears to be based on a cousin of my Grandmother to some degree, surnamed Scullion,  marrying into Stewart, a traveller family where two sisters Emma and Martha married in Newry Registry Office, the daughters of a James Stewart, a dealer.  Emma married William Knowles also a dealer.   My DNA match tells me her father Robert Stewart had a sister Emma who married Knowles (unknown first name) and later became known as Oceania Queen of the Gypsies, possible death in England 1957
 and this is her main point of doing the DNA.   Any info that could verify this and lead us to connections appreciated.   I found the Knowles couple to have had a daughter Margaret in Downpatrick shortly after marriage, and then a son William born in Ballycastle at the opposite end of Northern Ireland a couple of years later early September, they could have been there for the Aug Bank Hol Lammass Horse Fair still going.  And they may have stayed long enough to meet one of my Gran's relatives who are from that area.  We'll get the latter sorted but keen to find out more about Oceania! 

Thanks Aghadowey.  So I have established that these McFadden ladies were Mary, mother to James whose father was Colvin, and her sister Jane who was Joseph's mother.  Census states they were born in Co Antrim, so that matches the family in Stranocum in 1901.  My ancestor was Andrew McFadden probably Andrew who died at Dervock in 1882.  His son John married Rose Ann Wilson, and daughter Jane married William Mebin in the 1850s, both married Loughguile Parish.  John's daughter Mary Ann was my great great grandmother and married William Alexander aka McCaldridge.  Nancy Jane McFadden of Drumtullagh had a daughter Jane with William McAldridge who was aka as William Alexander named as father some years before he and Mary Ann McFadden married, in 1874, but there is some doubt if the registrar got the surname wrong and the father was William McCambridge whom she later married.  We have good DNA matching with this Jane's descendants, could be just from her if she Nancy Jane and Mary Ann were cousins of a degree, or from both if my ancestor William was this Jane's father.  So with so many Jane McFaddens in a small geographical area I am wondering if the McFaddens who crossed counties in the early 1900s are related to me too. Mary Ann also had a sister Eliza, but it is highly possible that not all her siblings were registered, and it is possible that John McFadden and his sister Jane Meban had siblings too who remain unknown to us.

Aghadowey - my sincere thanks, you always come up with the goods.   I had toyed with the idea that she may have been buried with her parents, but then thought that she was perhaps in Main St Garvagh grave and not recorded.  I know my maternal side has this problem in Bushvale, where I was told that in past times the ladies were not always recorded as the menfolk owned the graves!   This info will be gratefully received by Martha's G Grand-daughter in NZ, especially as there is so much of history of Martha's family included, and this had been our next planned endeavour. Much appreciated.

As a teenager I lived in 41 Moneybrannon Road, Aghadowey, Coleraine, NI.  Our house was one of two remaining of the Black Row as it was known, and a few wallsteads surrounding indicate that there were probably at least a couple more.  There was a strange hollow ring when you stepped on the concrete yard and someone suggested once we had a cellar - but that would have been only found in grand houses and this was a two up two down.  There was a brick feature arch around a window and we wondered if it was a carriage house, as a former resident had a great ghost story about a phantom horse that nuzzled the door beside it at midnight.  A relative also had an ancestor named Magee/McGee who was on census as in the house next to the old lady with the ghost story - I wonder if census collectors in 1901 and 1911 listed the houses in order of visitation, or of location.  If anyone who knows the history of these dwellings can supply info on the residents, etc we'd be most grateful.  In the seventies this was the property of landlord Adam Black, and we believe his farm at Keely House may have been in the possession of the Orr Family who connected also to Lizard Manor in the late 1800s.