Margaret Mary Cregg

Joanne:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

We only have access to birth information through 1919. Do you have any information on her year of birth?

Roger McDonnell

Hi Roger, thank you for your welcome and reply. Unfortunately I have no more information other than my grandmothers name. My mum was adopted at a very young age and was only given her birth mother's name a few months ago, my mum is 75. I was hoping that someone may recognise the ladies name and may be able to help, thank you once again, Joanne

I may be able to offer a small amount of help.  I looked for Margaret at the Family Search site, and - while I did not find your Margaret - almost all of the Margaret Cregg's in Ireland who had records at Family Search seemed to be from the Catholic parishes of Ballinameen, Boyle, and Killucan, all of which adjoin one another in northern Roscommon (although some records did not mention a parish).  According to MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland, In Ireland the surname Cregg is a form of the Scottish surname Craig, found for the most part only in Roscommon, so it may be that the Cregg's in those parishes are all descended from a common Craig ancestor who settled there.

The parish registers for those parishes which are available online go pretty far back, even into the late 1700's in some cases.  You can access the records for Boyle here, and there is a map at that link which allows you to move on to the records for the other parishes as well:  https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0548

As Roger noted, though, records for people born in the last 100 years are often not available, for privacy reasons.  Still, if you have the ability to do so, you might try contacting the parish priests in those parishes, who might be willing to help you, especially if you can explain that your grandmother is deceased.  You might even learn that there are still Cregg's living in the area.

Most modern Scottish immigrants to Ireland were Presbyterians, of course, but I noticed from the records that there were marriages between Cregg's and spouses with what appeared to be more typically Catholic surnames (though surnames are not always a good guide) and some baptisms in Catholic churches were listed, so the original Craig/Cregg ancestor(s) might have come before the Reformation (as did some of my own ancestors), or become Catholic later due to intermarriage.  If you know or deduce that your ancestors were Protestant, though, you could try to contact the ministers of any remaining Presbyterian or Church of Ireland churches in that area.

Although the parish records available online stop before the likely date of your Margaret's birth, they could still be useful, if you have the time and interest in perusing them.  Most baptismal records indicate the townland in which the family lived, so you might be able to spot one or more townlands where many Cregg's lived, and might find where Margaret's relatives lived, perhaps in townlands located near where those three parishes adjoin.  In that vein, I noticed that there is actually a townland called Cregga, which I thiink is in the Catholic parish of Killucan.  It's hard to tell for sure, because the civil and Catholic parishes there have different names (the civil parish being Killrustan) , and their boundaries are not identical.  Cregga is just a few miles from the town of Ballinameen, and not too much further from the town of Boyle.  In Irish, the townland name is creag, meaning a "rock" or "crag", and that is also the origin (in Scotland) of the surname Craig/Cregg.  Probably a coinicidence, especially if there's a rocky crag in the area, but I thought I would mention it anyway.  You can see more about the townland of Cregga here, and you can use that same site to look at other townlands (and parishes):  https://www.townlands.ie/roscommon/roscommon/kiltrustan/cregga/cregga/

Dear Kevin, thank you so much for all your help today. I really appreciate your response and time. My grandmother may of come from Boyle, it is a name I have heard before. My mum and I are very keen to come and visit your beautiful country but at the moment this is of course is not possible. In the meantime we will continue to try online researching and will follow the links you have posted. Once again many, many thanks.

Would you beleive that Joanne's grandmother actually lived on Cregga !  A townland mentioned above.  Her name used was Maysie Cregg.  This Cregg arm seems to have detached itself from other Cregg branches in Boyle area/Kilaraght where many of them hailed from.  I am Tom Cregg, son of Maysie's brther also Tom and grandson of Bernard Cregg of Cregga located between Elphin and Strokestown, Roscommon.  My son is now last Cregg male from that Cregg branch and i, as others look forward to meeting Joanne before long.

Info:  Bernard Cregg had a brother called Tim, buried in Kitrustan churchyard as is Bernard.  Thought that Beranrd may not have been his first name but his used name so yet to fix the upline link to other Cregg relatives.

Pat Cregg has been very helpful for all Creggs in doing the endless hours of heritage work on the Cregg family all the way back to the 1600's in the Sligo/Roscommon region.

Tom Cregg

Strokestown, Roscommon

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your reply with regards to Maisie ( aka Mary Margaret) I am completely overwhelmed with happiness to receive your message. My mum, sister and I look forward to meeting you and all other family members as soon as possible! We are feeling totally blessed to have found you all after all these years. Take care and stay safe. Best wishes, Joanne x