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I am trying to find a William McEvilla and his wife Mary Foy who were married in Co. Mayo in the early 1800s.  They emmigrated to Canada where they had several children whose baptismal records from Notre Dame church in Montreal are the source for William and Mary's origins.  They also had a child, William who was born before the family emmigrated. Ideally I would like to find a marriage record , or perhaps a birth record for their son.  The spelling of the surname is the most common in the canadian records, but it also appears in records as McEvila, McEvilley, McEvilly, according to the whim of the census taker or priest making the entry.

Chris Graham

Thursday 12th Sep 2013, 07:27PM

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  • Hi Chris,

    rootsireland.ie has the record of the marriage of William McEvilly in Mayo 1823.Wife's name is Mary.

    There is also a record of a John McEvily born 1830 in Mayo but the parents aren't William and Mary.

    There is a record of a birth of William Frank McEvilly with parents William and Mary born 1905 in Mayo.

    rootsireland.ie is a pay site so you need to purchase the records in order to get the parish and the parents' names.

    On ancestry.com Elaine Murray's public member tree has William McEvilly's birth as Waterford but I couldn't find the record on rootsireland.

    However, I did another search on rootsireland.ie for William McEvilly with no year range specified and all counties checked and got 9 matches - 7 Mayo (M) & 2 Galway (G):

    MacEvilly 1841 M MacEvily 1868 M MacEvilly 1868 M X2 McEvelly 1873 M McEvilly 1883 G McEvilly 1887 M McEvilly William Martin Galway 1900 McEvilly William Frank 1905 M

    Elaine's tree also has Mary Foy as born 1812 Waterford which I found on rootsireland - it comes up as Mary Fea.

    Mike Dunne's tree has William's birth as 1810 in Clare Island Mayo but it's not on rootsireland. Mike has William living in Lancashire in 1881!

    There is no source supplied for the birth information but you might want to post to the Westport parish to see if anyone can verify the Clare Island info.

    The Tithe Applotments (1823-27) which are free to search has 10 McEvillys in Mayo but none in Clare Island or Westport but you may want to check it out.

    Col

    ColCaff, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Friday 13th Sep 2013, 12:01AM
  • Thanks Col,  I will follow up on these leads.  Do you think I'm correct in assuming McEvilla is a corruption of McEvilla?  Chris

    Chris Graham

    Tuesday 17th Sep 2013, 01:06AM
  • Yes I do Chris. There were transcription inaccuracies, litercy limitations, family feuds etc which lead to spelling variations.

    Col

    ColCaff, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Tuesday 17th Sep 2013, 03:51AM

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