McGrath, William born 1745

[rockybayirish]

William McGrath was born abt. 1745 in County Cork, Ireland. He immigrated to the British Colony of Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1790 with his Three sons:
John McGrath b. abt. 1769
Thomas McGrath b. abt. 1771
William McGrath b. abt 1773
They sailed from the port of Youghal, County Cork
I don't have the name of William's wife. I am hopeing that there is a McGrath researcher who may have these individuals in their family tree.

[aghadowey]

You are more likely to find details of the family in Canadian resources than in Ireland.

You've probably already searched through the listings on Pictou's GenWeb page- any gravestone inscriptions, family Bible, local histories, etc. which might provide more details?
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nspictou/

Have a look at this topic for more ideas-
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=498742.0

[rockybayirish]

I should have emphasized that I have over 200 pages in my family tree for William McGrath. My road block is finding the connection in Ireland. This is true for all but one of the Irish families I am researching. In most cases I can get to the County and maybe the parents but no farther. Many were born circa 1750 to 1810 and settled in Cape Breton or Nova Scotia 1790 to 1830 but the majority were born circa 1800 and settled in Cape Breton 1818/19. There are four families of McGrath with 10,000 plus descendants in Canada, USA & Australia. My interrelated families are: Hearn, Doyle, Keating, Kehoe, Kavanagh, Kiely, Kenny, Power, Britten & Flynn.

[aghadowey]

It is usually quite difficult to get details of Irish ancestors pre-1800 unless you know their religion and church records survive. Some of my Nova Scotia ancestors came from Scotland via Ulster c1770 but I was fortunate to find a copy of the pages from an old family Bible which doumented the family's move from Scotland and Ulster to N.S. in PANS, Halifax (now Nova Scotia Archives).

[rockybayirish]

I have been researching my McGrath's for over 20 years and have spent many an hour at the Nova Scotia Archives and have found amazing facts on their early days but never that one piece of info that would tie them to a parish in Ireland. I believe that many of the families originate from the same spot in Ireland. They were all RC, single & about 20yrs old when they landed here. William here is the exception. Dungarvan, Waterford County seems to be the core town of origin.

[aghadowey]

There's a lot of useful information on Cork records here - as you can see a few are pre-1800:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/counties/rcmaps/corkrc.htm

(Site also covers other Cork data and other counties)