Thanks very much Ava,I really appreciate this. McGonigal is certainly a Donegal name with roots in Inishowen,not sure about Coyle,but it's a very common name in Ireland. My gr.gr.grandfather James Nevin,born 1827, also came from Derry,his wifes name was Catherine Owens. Their daughter Mary Ann my gr.gran. was born "At Sea" west of the Mull of Kintyre. James parents were ???? Nevin and Margaret Gallacher( could we have a connection there ?:o). Catherine Owens parents were Hugh Owens and Ellen McCracken/McCrocken. As to Hughs army service,it was in his poor law application,I'll send you a copy later.I hired someone to check the records at Kew,it wasn't too expensive,and in your case it would be well worth the cost.I didn't get much more on Hugh because he got sick and left too soon. Send me your grandfathers details and I'll see if I can advise you or find anything. By the way I've had my Y DNA done and it proves coclusively that I'm a McGonigal from the Donegal area from "way back when",even Y DNA related to Nial of the Nine hostages !!!. The web site for Y DNA info on this is.. http://www.familytreedna.com/ Try your names and see if there's a project going. Regards Frank ~~~~~~~~ ----- Original Message ----- From: "AC" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 4:22 AM Subject: Re: [DUNB] Sent to Ireland > Hi Frank > > I've noted the names, so will have a look for Mary when I visit Mitchell. > I'm visiting for bits here and there to fill gaps, so will not be a > problem. > Thankfully this visit will not involve trawling through rolls of census'. > > My gg grandfather also stated he was from Derry in one of the census, > although I have my doubts as his family given names all seem to indicate > Donegal, and with a name like Gallac(g)her, in Ireland I am probably > unlikely to find out, although with Manus and Sophia as part of the > traditional family names back in the 1860-1880's I remain hopeful - did I > say that :-D. > > Lucky you to have Hugh's army service, my g grandfather, who was in the > army > in 1901 and again during WWI died in 1918, a bit of a mystery there that I > would love to know more about. How did you get enough information to > obtain > his record? > > I have the name of his regiment, service number, date and place of death, > next of kin, but as far as I can gather these records require you to go to > Kew and just search through boxes of files, so although I have a cousin in > London I wouldn't ask him to go unless I could direct him to a > straightforward search - assuming he wouldn't mind, I forget everyone > isn't > as excited as I am about old dusty records. > > Best Wishes > Ava Connelly > > >