BERN FAMILY OF KILTOGHERT

Hi Phillip,

There is some great information here- I can't believe you made a connection back to Cromwellian Ireland! Thanks once again for sharing this!

Kind regards,

Genealogy Support

Hi Philip,

Great information but I must scupper one myth before it escapes into the wild,

(with grants made to his ancestor Walter by Oliver Cromwell) Walter VAUGH died in June 1777 and left land to his son James who in turn left land to his second son, also James, he in turn left land to his son George VAUGH who married Margaret WILTON. This informatio came from a deed housed in the Registry of Deeds Dublin, Ref: 1845 Vol 2 entry number 67, a transcript of which can be seen on my site here: http://www.vaugh.co.uk/deeds/r05.htm

We have no mention of grants made by Oliver Cromwell to the VAUGH family but there is a James VAUGH/WAUGH mentioned in the 49 Lots so it could be true, I wish it were provable, alas the original documents went up in smoke at the Four Courts fire, along with many family wills which might have given many of us more complete family histories.

I've looked for records of the marriage of Margaret VAUGH and John GANLEY but drew a blank and the same with her later marriage to John BERN/BEIRNE/BURN(S) alas no deeds to be found at the registry in Dublin.

We can all live in hope that other sources come to light and fill in the gaps we all have, keep up the good work Philip.

All the best from the UK
Doug

Hi Doug,

Good point. I should have mentioned the Cromwell connection is a "family story". There is a generation between the Walter of 1777 and one living in Cromwell's time, so quite a bit of detail has been lost. As for Margaret's two marriages, all her DC says is that these took place in Ireland and that she was 17 at the first and 31 at the second. Lots of tantalising gaps. Fun isn't it? Phillip 

Hi Phillip,

Loads of fun ...... It's been keepiing me amused since 1982.

Anyway, back to the task in hand. I'm fairly confident that Walter's family were well established in the area at the time of his death, given the land holdings from this period and after. Any link before this time frame (1730-1777) has eluded me thus far, I'm still on the case and live in eternal hope!

For the Cromwellian period, we can use the dates of the war in Ireland 1649-1653, I have no records for the VAUGH surname, save the one mention in the Fortynine Lots of an Ensign James VAUGH/WAUGH, noted in my earlier post. There are several isolated mentions of the surname VAUGH in Scotland's old parochial records, these date from March 1670 in West Linton, Peebles, fifteen miles south of Edinburgh to almost one hundred years later for June 1764 in Glasgow, so not far in geographic terms. The usual male names, John and William appear within the thirty or so records, but more importantly we also have Robert, Laurence and David for the first and only time. I've cross checked these for the surname WAUGH and not found any duplicate entries. These records then, form the earliest occurrences of the surname VAUGH in official records, so does that make the name Scottish? I think not as it's not found in any great numbers and for that matter it's only these thirty or so entries in this very narrow time frame. I like to think the name was also in use in Ireland for the same period but a lack of extant records precludes us from any assumptions here.

So it is entirely possible that Ensign James VAUGH/WAUGH was linked to the Scottish family who appear in their records from 1670 and that he was somehow linked to my Walter VAUGH of the mid 1700's. I'd like to think they are all my ancestors but either way it keeps my grey matter busy.

As to the Ganley and Bern family links, I really thought I might find a record or two of them in Dublin but alas drew a resounding blank, even with variations of the surnames. As you say tantalising but fun all the same.

Keep up the good work.

Doug
 

It's such an unusual name it should stand out. If not in the Down survey, perhaps under a different name altogether, so impossible to trace. I suppose 'O'Vaugh' is too obvious. Your ancestor had a story about French ancestors I remember.

John Ganley I thought it possible to trace, an army officer who died 1840-49, after the birth of his daughter Jane about 1840 and before the remarriage of his wife in 1850. Best I came up with was the discharge papers of a John Ganley from the British Army who was born in ‘Incle’ parish, town Leitrim in 1798 (some 20 years older than Margaret Vaugh), attestation  17 May 1816, discharged 1837 (about the year of her first marriage) after serving 21 years (a set period of service perhaps as it occurred in other records). He was a private in the 20th Foot. There were no further details in the records, so, a connection couldn’t be made.