I'm searching for information about my McMahon and Conaty ancestors.
My great grandfather, John McMahon, was born in 1854, according to family stories, "near a place called Cootehill" in County Cavan. John McMahon joined the RIC. He married Frances Ryan in Gartan Parish, Donegal, in 1882. John and Frances moved to Glasgow Scotland sometime around 1890. John McMahon died in Maryhill, Lanark, Scotland in 1929. A record of his marriage in 1882 lists his father as "Michael McMahon, farmer, alive." A record of John's death in 1929 lists his parents as Michael McMahon and Susan Conaty McMahon, both deceased.
Family stories say that John's mother died when he was young and he was raised by "a maiden aunt" named Annie Gilroy. I believed for a while that John's mother's maiden name was Gilroy, but I recently found his death record indicting that his mother was Susan Conaty. Perhaps Annie Gilroy was a Conaty married to a Gilroy?
I alos found a Scottish census record of John's household in 1891 that listed, along with John's wife and children, a Patrick McMahon, listed as "brother-in law," age 20. I'm told that the term "bother in law" could mean cousin, half-brother or step brother. Since Patrick is 16 years younger than John, I've wondered if Michael might have remarried and had at least one more child. I don't know of any other possible sibings to John McMahon.
I'm assuming that there is no civil record of birth for John, since he was born in 1854. If his mother, Susan Conaty McMahon, died around that time, there may not be a civil record of her death either. I would love to find any information about her family or parents. If anyone has suggestions about where to look for more information, I'd be grateful.
I found a record in Griffith's Valuation for a Michael McMahon at Munnilly, Cootehill - Bridge Street, from 1856 or 1857. I'm feeling fairly sure that this Michael is John's father, but I have no records, only family stories, to link our family to Cootehill. Would there have been more than a few Michael McMahons in the Cootehill area in the 1850s?
Any info on McMahons from the Cootehill area, Susan Conaty or Conaty family in the area, help in sorting out the connection to Ann Gilroy, or information about Ann Gilroy would be appreciated.
Thank you.
MEM
Tuesday 25th Jun 2019, 06:57AMMessage Board Replies
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MEM:
Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!
Cootehill is in the civil parish of Drumgoon and Drumgoon is also the RC parish. I searched on the subscription site Roots Ireland and did not find any baptismal records anywhere in Co. Cavan for a McMahon child with parents Michael McMahon and a mother with the surname of Conaty. There were no Michael McMahon marriage records in Cavan from 1835-1868 on Roots Ireland.
Drumgoon RC records go back to 1828/1829.
I also searched for all of Ireland and did not find a Michael McMahon marriage to a Susan Conaty.
Civil registration of births and deaths started in 1864.
I was not able to find a possible death record for Michael McMahon in the Cootehill registration district.
Let me know what additional info you may have or any questions.
Roger McDonnell
Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Tuesday 25th Jun 2019, 03:32PM -
MEM,
If you can trace John’s RIC records that should show you the county of birth. (The information is invariably recorded because it was RIC policy not to post you to a county where you or your family had connections).
Also have you found him in the 1911 Scottish census? In that particular census many people put their precise place of birth (rather than just Ireland).
The Michael McMahon in Griffiths, plot 13 in Bridge St, Cootehill lived in a house & forge, so was probably a blacksmith, not a farmer. You wouldn’t normally find a farmer living in a town. They usually had a house on their farmland in a rural area. I doubt that Michael is the family you are looking for.
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Tuesday 25th Jun 2019, 05:14PM -
This might be the Catherine who was the informant for Ann Gilroy’s death:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Drung/Doocassan/1047304/
Griffiths Valuation for 1857 has a Matthew Kilroy farming in Doocassan. Gilroy and Kilroy are likely interchangeable. There were also Catherine & Patrick Cunaghy. Cunaghy will be Conaty in 1901.
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Wednesday 26th Jun 2019, 03:33PM -
Many thanks for your responses, everyone.
MEM
Monday 1st Jul 2019, 10:28PM -
Since I last posted here, I've found records that indicate my Conaty, McMahon, and Gilroy families all probably lived in Drung. Duhassan and Drumowna are two places named as residences for them. My great grandfather's RIC record lists County Cavan as his place of birth. His occupation prior to joining the RIC was shop assistant. His RIC record also indicated that he had family members living in County Monaghan. RIC men were not allowed to serve in their home county or any county where they had close family.
Since Cavan shares a border with Monaghan, and since John McMahon, my g-grandfather, had family in Monaghan, I had assumed that my McMahon ancestors were part of the big clan of McMahons from County Monaghan. But my dad did a y-DNA test recently, and we found that our family are a different group of McMahons, descended from Mahon Maguire. Our McMahon ancestors originated in Fermanagh, apparently. My dad's submitted his DNA to a McMahon surname project . All of his DNA matches are quite distant, and none of them list Cavan as a home county for their ancestors. A Mr. McMann, the closest match to my dad's DNA, knows only that his great grandfather was born in Ireland, no county or townland. I've also learned, through the McMahon DNA project, that McMahons from the Co. Maonaghan family as well as McMahons from the Fermanagh sept lived in the same general part of County Cavan.
I'd be grateful for any additional info or ideas about where to look for info concerning the Conaty, Gilroy, or McMahon families from Doocassaan, Duhasson, or Drumowna in Drung.
MEM
Wednesday 20th May 2020, 06:13AM -
Also, I was not able to find any trace of my great grandfather or his family in Scotland's 1911 Census.
MEM
Wednesday 20th May 2020, 06:20AM -
The 2 townlands in Drung appear in Griffiths Valuation and in the censuses as Doocassan and Drumauna. Griffiths for 1857 lists Cunaghy (Conaty) and Kilroy (Gilroy) in Doocassan. None in Drumauna. No McMahons in either.
1901 census for Doocassan:
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Drung/Doocassan/
and for Drumauna
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Drung/Drumauna/
Drung RC parish records start in 1847. They are not available on the nli site (which has most RC registers). There is a copy in PRONI in Belfast and another in the nli in Dublin. And they are on the rootsireland site (subscription).
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Wednesday 20th May 2020, 08:50PM