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Hi,                                                                                                                                      Feb 26, 2016

My great-great-great-grandparents were James and Margaret Campbell.  They were born, lived and died in Donegal between 1775 and 1850.  My hope is to find when and where they were born, married, died and were buried.  James and Margaret had six children.  I also hope to find out their wedding dates and when they emigrated from Ireland for America.  The attached PDF document, James Campbell Sr. Family, describes all the information I have on the group. 

I found the James Campbell name in the Tithe Applotment Book often, pointing to many parishes in Donegal.  My research has determined that they lived in the Parish of Inishkeel and either in Townland Mully or Stanagapuge,   I know they were Catholic and the surnames of the children's spouses, i.e., O'Donnell, Boyle, Coll, Gallagher, and McNelis.  All these family names are found in the Parish of Inishkeel or adjacent parishes..  Many thanks, looking forward to hearing back.

Bill McCafferty

Bill McCafferty

Wednesday 6th Jul 2016, 06:12PM

Message Board Replies

  • Bill,

    Your task won’t be easy. There are no RC parish records for Inishkeel earlier than 1866 so you won’t find baptism or marriage records prior to that period. Statutory birth, death and marriage registration started in 1864 but again that is too late for most of the records you need.

    Some information on Inishkeel on this site:

    http://donegalgenealogy.com/inishkeelproj.htm

    You might be able to verify your links with Inishkeel by DNA testing with any descendants still there.

    I see a James Campbell farming in Mully in the tithes in 1833 and another one in Stanagapuge.

    http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

    Anecdotally, the Campbells of Donegal are supposed to have come from Kinytre and western Scotland in the 1400s or thereabouts. Invited there by local chiefs as mercenaries (gallowglass) and given land in return for their fighting services. Don’t know how true that is.

    Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Wednesday 6th Jul 2016, 06:36PM

  • I think is some cases the surname Campbell in Donegal can be of an Irish origin, McCathmaoil which has a number of different anglicised versions like McCall.

    I think the Campbells that came from Scotland as mercenaries fell under the group known as Redshanks, the Gallowglasses came earlier and had a Norse backgorund mixed in with Scottish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshank_(soldier)

    Wednesday 6th Jul 2016, 08:05PM

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