And We Have Lift Off, almost

Dr. William Roulston expects to begin work on my line of McCowns in several weeks. He and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child and that blessed event and it's attendant roller coaster ride will slightly delay work on this project.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing to do, however, because I will be contacting and trying to extract such information as William Roulston and Barry McCain deem desireable as well as necessary. It is perhaps ironic that one such extraction will involve a dentist. He is my best McGuire match to date. The list includes (they all have strong agents): Thomas James McGuire, Joseph D. McGuire, Patrick H. MacAuley,
Bradley H. McGuire, Raymond G. McGuire and Joseph M. McManus.

The specified information needed to date includes: name of earliest known ancestor, his place and years of residence. This information will be used to locate a specific family whose roots are closest to those listed.

We are now progressing from the general to the specific and hope to narrow down the search to particular towns, villages and parishes in County Fermanagh and perhaps County Cavan, southern County Tyrone and part of County Monaghan as well. In this case, while the term parish is used and some ecclesiastical parishes will doubtless yield some information, the term parish is a political subdivision of a county, such as Clanawley, the home of the MacAuleys of Clan Maguire. Barry hints that Enniskillin might well be the center of focus.

This is where the rubber meets the road, time to put up or shut up and get on with it. I can hardly wait and am a bit terrified as well. I hope this is not rememiscent of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Getting this far has been due to the considerable effort and encouragement of readers of this blog some of whom have made valuable suggestions and inputs. While some inputs may not lead directly to history of this family line, they have all been a source of great interest and encouragement to me.

I see that the "official" number of people following this blog is only 3, I have found to my astonishment that there may be upwards of five or six readers and each one of you is either a present or potential help to this endeavor. Thank you!