Magee/McGee, Charles

What denomination was the family?

Well,  if they were in Ireland what they were when they came to Canada they would be Methodist. 

I do have have the Barony of O'Neiland-West Registered Freeholders and there are some of the same names as my Charles and his sons but the writing is 1814 so that wouldn't work for his sons. I'm thinking Charles's brothers and or a Father in there somewhere. The naming pattern that the Irish have followed is very prominate in my Magee Family. There is a William Magee in the Barony paper, the only different name from my family is Pat. Charles named his first born son William.

Thank you for the reply, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Mageesdaughter 

Mageesdaughter,

Methodism did not get started as a separate denomination in Ireland till the 1820s. Prior to that your family would almost certainly have been Church of Ireland (ie Episcopalian).

The Freeholders list is a list of people with sufficient land to qualify for a vote. (So just a small percentage of the population, and mostly farmers). So there may be plenty of other Magees in Armagh at the same time, not listed there.

I looked at the 1901 census for Co. Armagh (the oldest complete census). There were 495 people named Magee/McGee listed. So a fairly common name, even after a century of death and migration.

If you can’t narrow the search to a particular townland or parish, probably the only thing to do would be to get a researcher to work through all the 30 or so Church of Ireland parishes in Armagh to see if they can find the marriage and baptisms. Quite a lot of Church of Ireland records were destroyed in the 1922 fire in Dublin but there’s still about 60% left. You might get lucky. Copies of the surviving records are held in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast.

Elwyn

 Thank you for your response, I did go back and check my records at A.com and when my great grandfather Absolum was in Canada where he was born they were Church of England, but when he came to the US they were Methodists.

I do hope some day I'll be able to find the info without hiring a researcher, I'm not able to.

Thanks again

Mageesdaughter

Dear Mageesdaughter

I hope you are well.

I just found out that Charles Magee is my Great Great Great Grandfather and that his grave faces that of his daughter Mary Gimby, my Great Great Grandmother. Their bodies are interred in Fairfield Burial Grounds, the land for which was originally purchased by the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada, now the United Church of Canada. I do not know of his life in Ireland and i ask if you know when he and the family came to Canada.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Dean Walters