McAleers of Gortacladdy, Cookstown, Tyrone

Hi John,

Thanks for your message. I hope that someone recognises the family and makes a connection with you.

There are some McAleer?s recorded in the 1911 census records from Cookstown-I wonder if these are connected to you:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=1911&surname=McAleer&firstname=&county=Tyrone&townland=&ded=cookstown&age=&sex=&search=Search&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&birthplace=&language=&deafdumb=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

It may be an idea to also place this message in a more local forum in order to increase the likelihood that someone who remembers the family or at least knows of them may see it. Perhaps in a local newsletter? Here is a link to the contact page of the Cookstown parish office

http://www.armagharchdiocese.org/parishes/parish-details/?page=ddb_parish_details&parishID=21

Maybe you could contact them to see if they can oblige?

All the best,

Genealogy Support

Hi Emma

Thanks for your helpful suggestion regarding the Cookstown parish office which I'll follow up.

Greetings from Perth, WA

John

Hi John,

Not sure I can help you with finding McAleer ancestry in Ireland but my grandmother was Mary McAleer (1928-2016) and grew up in Meekatharra. My family's mostly in Canberra and Sydney. I found it very interesting to come across and read your post and wanted to reach out

Hello John,

Gortacladdy townland is in the Parish of Kildress. Births and Marriages for this parish are online.....www.registers.nli.ie...a free website. Here you will find records from approximately 1832/1950.  Sometimes the entries are difficult to read , they are written in Latin. Kildress parish has boundries with Termonmaguirk parish and in that area there are numerous Mc Aleer Families.

There is also the North of Ireland Family History Society, they have a DNA Database, and they aim to get as many people with Northern Irish connections linked up to their ancestry.

Hopefully this maybe of help to you.

Briege

Hi Briege and Mary McAleer's grandchild

Thank you both for your respective replies. I've corresponded for some years with one of  Mary's daughters who's based in Sydney and shared details with her. Mary's niece, Susan is my daughter-in-law.

The website has been useful but, as you say Briege, the entries aren't easy to read. I've done some cursory searching but will need to do more. Perhaps I should expand my search into Termonmaguirk.

My wife and I were lucky enough to meet Seamus McAleer, Chairman of the McAleer & Rushe Group, and his family when we visited Cookstown in 2014. Seamus was the soul of hospitality.Later that year, he engaged Willie O'Kane, a researcher,  to search the Kildress records for children of Thomas and Mary McAleer in an attempt to link the two McAleer families (his and the Australian one), but without success.

Claire Keenan, a researcher in Pennsylvania with cousins in Tyrone and access to the parish records, had earlier that year searched for me, also unsuccessfully.

There has been no lack of effort to confirm the origins of the Australian McAleer family, but they remain as elusive as ever.

G'day from WA

John