Help wanted please re ancestors moving from Scotland to Ireland

Helen,

The main migration of Scots to Ireland was in the 1600s when something like 200,000 arrived. Monaghan wasn’t one of the counties included in the formal Plantation of Ireland and so newcomers who went there mostly acquired land by buying it from the natives.

“The Scottish Migration to Ulster in the reign of James I” by M. Perceval-Maxwell gives a very detailed background about the Scots migration.  He mentions Sir Robert McClelland of Bomby as being one of the Chief Undertakers but his lands appear to have been in Co. Donegal (Boylagh & Banagh). He is also mentioned as introducing settlers to Co Down (page 328) but I don’t see mention of lands in Monaghan. Sir Robert died in 1638.

But I guess that what you are trying to find out is if any records exist for those Scots migrants. The short answer is no.  Whilst we know a little about the bigger landowners, no records were kept in Scotland or in Ireland of the average labourer or tradesman who moved over. Not all stayed of course. Times were fairly hard and some went back to Scotland in the 1630s and there was also a big exodus after the 1641 uprising, though many later returned. Famine in Scotland in the 1690s later led to a big influx.

You have evidently got back to about 1800.  That’s quite common and in Ireland we call it the 1800 barrier. It’s extremely difficult to get back much further, save if your family were very wealthy or notorious. Most Irish research comes to a stop around 1800, as there are simply no comprehensive records to consult. There’s a gap of 150 years or more to the first Scots settlers but no records exist for most of them.  Only very rarely did the churches keeping any records in the 1600s and the authorities weren’t keeping any records of who arrived either.