I'm wondering if anyone can provide me with any information on a William McGachan (a coalminer - born about 1834)? One document I have (from 1855 in Scotland) states that he came from Gargadis in County Tyrone to live in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Later documents in Scotland simply list his birth place as County Tyrone, Ireland. He was married to a lady (listed on the 1855 document as from the same area) called Mary Cunnigan (born about 1836). At this time I have no details to say if they were married in Tyrone, or in Scotland. Any help in directing me to local libraries/churches/areas of contact from anyone in the site would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Craig Ryan. mailto:[email protected] ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 9.0.0.2308, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.21440) http://www.pctools.com/ =======

Hello Craig. No one seems to have replied to you yet, so I will have a quick attempt to start some help for you. Firstly, you mention the townland of Gargadis. Googling told me that that is within the parish of Kilskeery / Kilskerry in County Tyrone. Here is a link to the Failte Romhat site, which provides name indexes to the Griffiths Valuation -- taken in the 1860s in Tyrone if I recall correctly. This link takes you directly to the surnames in Kilskeery parish. I cannot see anything much like McGachan in that list --- but an Irish person who is more familiar with pronunciations of McGACHAN might find surnames in this list which are similar in sound/pronunciation. However, it does show two entries for the surname of CONNIGAN, which might interest you. Here is the relevant link: http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/tyrone/kilskeery.php Now, here is a different link. This one is to the askaboutireland website for the full Griffiths Valuation of Ireland; and this particular link is for the PLACENAME search. http://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=placeSearch If you search for Gargadis here, it provides ONE result. If you click on the heading for OCCUPANTS; that shows ALL of the surnames of occupiers at that time in the Gargadis townland. http://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&PlaceID=1257888&county=Tyrone&barony=Omagh, east&parish=Kilskeery&townland=<b>Gargadis</b> Looking through those names, the one which strikes my eye as POSSIBLY being similar to yours is McGURRAN. (Again, an Irish person might give an opinion as to whether I am imagining a similarity between those surnames or not. Next, I tried looking at the askaboutireland site for any McGACHANs in the entire Griffiths Valuation of Ireland, and it showed NO results -- for this spelling. Try it yourself here: http://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch This NIL result leads me to think that alternative spellings for McGACHAN will need to be explored. Again, just guessing as a non-Irishman, perhaps McGAHAN might be one such alternative spelling; and then from that McGANN or MAGANN might be possible. Taking a different tack, perhaps something like McGUCKIN might be relevant. Play around and see if you have any luck. Hopefully others will weigh-in with their thoughts to assist you too. Good luck. ray in oz On 13/08/2013, at 3:59 AM, Craig Ryan <[email protected]> wrote: I'm wondering if anyone can provide me with any information on a William McGachan (a coalminer - born about 1834)? One document I have (from 1855 in Scotland) states that he came from Gargadis in County Tyrone to live in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Later documents in Scotland simply list his birth place as County Tyrone, Ireland. He was married to a lady (listed on the 1855 document as from the same area) called Mary Cunnigan (born about 1836). At this time I have no details to say if they were married in Tyrone, or in Scotland. Any help in directing me to local libraries/churches/areas of contact from anyone in the site would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Craig Ryan. mailto:[email protected] =======

Hi Craig, To follow on from what Ray wrote - if you look at the Griffith's on failteromhat.com and put GAHAN in the search box you will find entries for GAHAN, McGAHAN and MEGAHAN in Tyrone, mainly for Killyman parish. None for Kilskeery, I'm afraid. Rob Doragh Liverpool UK

Thanks to Ray & Rob for the information they have provided to help my search. It's gave me more info to look into. I'm wondering if the change in surname spelling (coming from Ireland) has been the issue and the surname originally was McGahan? The records I have found of the family have shown various forms of the surname. They are as follows: My Grandmother (born in Glasgow in 1923) is listed on all documents (birth, marriage, & death) as Margaret McGachan. My great Grandfather (born in Dalziel, Lanarkshire in 1888) is listed in his birth certificate as John McGahaen. His marriage certificate (1919) & death certificate in 1941 lists the name as John McGachan. My great great Grandfather (the first one of the family born in Scotland in late 1853 in Newarthill, Lanarkshire) does not have a birth certificate (as it was before records began in 1855 in Scotland) but his baptism in St Margaret's RC church in Airdrie, Lanarkshire on Scotland's People website as McGlashon. But when you read the document itself it definitely says McGachan. His Dad is listed as William McGachan, and the mother as Mary Cunnigan. His surname on his wedding certificate from 1883 is spelt as McGechan, and on his death certificate in 1920 it is spelt McGachan. My great, great, great, Grandfather - William McGachan (born around 1834) is on census records for Lanarkshire, Scotland for the years of 1851, 1861, & 1881. I can't find anything else on him directly (apart from his children's birth certificates). No birth, marriage, or death records on either him, or his wife Mary Cunnigan. The birth certificate of their first daughter (Bridget - who died soon after) from 1855 in Scotland is the only document that lists them as from Gargadis, County Tyrone. All census records state only - County Tyrone. Another weird coincidence is that his wife is listed on the latter children's birth certificates as a maiden name of Cunningham. Is this an attempt to make both her maiden name and married name sound "Scottish"? Thanks again for the help folks. Craig. ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 9.0.0.2308, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.21450) http://www.pctools.com/ =======

Craig, My first thought was Cunnigan was actually Cunningham. So for you to mention it later documented as Cunningham seems to solidify for me this was the correct spelling. There were no spelling rules back then and most people were illiterate. When you put McGachan in the the search field on www.rootsireland.ie (IFHF) you get the name McGaughan and not McGahan which also exists. There is only one Michael McGaughan left in Tyrone living in Drumkee Killyman Parish during the Griffiths, interestingly enough there are also many McGahans in the same parish. I would say McGachan is the way your family adopted the spelling from early Scotch recordings of the name. A pretty common happening for many families. McGaughan and or McGahan would be alternate spellings in Ireland. Have you ever checked Scotland's people to see how many people have their surname spelled this way? It just many be the Scottish way of spelling it. Maybe you can find the 1871 census using one of these alternate spellings or by searching for just the first name William in the particular area, which may take some extra work, but will possibly help you locate the record. Thanks for sharing. Regards, Michael Kelly Emporium, Cameron County, Pennsylvania, United States of America -----Original Message----- From: Craig Ryan Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2013 6:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [CoTyIre] McGachans of Gargadis, County Tyrone Thanks to Ray & Rob for the information they have provided to help my search. It's gave me more info to look into. I'm wondering if the change in surname spelling (coming from Ireland) has been the issue and the surname originally was McGahan? The records I have found of the family have shown various forms of the surname. They are as follows: My Grandmother (born in Glasgow in 1923) is listed on all documents (birth, marriage, & death) as Margaret McGachan. My great Grandfather (born in Dalziel, Lanarkshire in 1888) is listed in his birth certificate as John McGahaen. His marriage certificate (1919) & death certificate in 1941 lists the name as John McGachan. My great great Grandfather (the first one of the family born in Scotland in late 1853 in Newarthill, Lanarkshire) does not have a birth certificate (as it was before records began in 1855 in Scotland) but his baptism in St Margaret's RC church in Airdrie, Lanarkshire on Scotland's People website as McGlashon. But when you read the document itself it definitely says McGachan. His Dad is listed as William McGachan, and the mother as Mary Cunnigan. His surname on his wedding certificate from 1883 is spelt as McGechan, and on his death certificate in 1920 it is spelt McGachan. My great, great, great, Grandfather - William McGachan (born around 1834) is on census records for Lanarkshire, Scotland for the years of 1851, 1861, & 1881. I can't find anything else on him directly (apart from his children's birth certificates). No birth, marriage, or death records on either him, or his wife Mary Cunnigan. The birth certificate of their first daughter (Bridget - who died soon after) from 1855 in Scotland is the only document that lists them as from Gargadis, County Tyrone. All census records state only - County Tyrone. Another weird coincidence is that his wife is listed on the latter children's birth certificates as a maiden name of Cunningham. Is this an attempt to make both her maiden name and married name sound "Scottish"? Thanks again for the help folks. Craig. ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 9.0.0.2308, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.21450) http://www.pctools.com/ ======= ------------- Our community web-site: http://cotyroneireland.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COTYRONEIR[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message