McClain/ McLean

Tullyaran is a townland. Townlands are unique to Ireland. It has more than 60,000 and they are traditional Gaelic land divisions which pre-date the Norman invasion in the 12th century. A townland is the smallest administrative area of land in Ireland. They can vary in size from 1 acre up to 5000 acres, though most are between 50 and 500 acres. Tullyaran is 288 acres. The whole country is divided into an invisible network of townlands. Many are rural, and there is not necessarily any town in a townland. They were used as the basis of leases in the estate system, and subsequently to assess valuations and tithes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In rural areas there were no street names or house numbers (that is still the case in some parts) and your townland was sufficient to identify you or get a letter delivered. The postman, and anyone else who mattered, knew exactly where in the townland everyone lived. They survive today as important markers of local identity. (A townland is not the same as a US township).

You can use Griffiths Valuation to see where Tullyaran is. In 1860 there were about 31 households in it. None named McClean or Hutchinson unfortunately. It’s north of Dungannon. The modern Pomeroy Rd and Tullyaran Rd both run through it.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

It might be worth checking the tithe applotment records for Donaghmore parish in PRONI (the public record office) to see if your family were listed then (c 1825).

I looked at the Muster Rolls for the barony of Dungannon c 1630 (ie the area around Tullyaran) but there were no McClean or Hutchinson households listed, suggesting your ancestors arrived after that time.

There are no records of where in Scotland the families are likely to have come from save to say that it was probably below a line drawn between Glasgow and Dundee. Some of the original settlers came off the estates of the original undertakers (big landowners) but there were many waves of late migration, especially at the end of the 1600s when there was a famine in Scotland. So they might have come from anywhere in the lowlands.

I'm not sure where my father got this information but I am starting to think it is incorrect. I can't find any record of a William or Archilbald McLean or McClain that match the birth or death dates in Tyrone County for them. I went to the PRONI site but it looks as though I have to take a trip to Ireland someday to look through microfilm.

Thanks for your help. The info regarding the townland and history was very insightful.