Visit with William Roulston

As mentioned before, William Roulston met with Sandy and with me along with John Cunningham in Ballymena, near Belfast, the night before we started home from Ireland.

One of the most important contributers to the meeting was Patrick MacAuley, no Patrick wasn't there in person, but the full weight of his words and research were there with us, because, among the papers I considered of particular interest I took with me was Pat's email regarding possible McCown family lines. In his own words:

1. "I first looked up the deposition by Alice Campion which mentions Redmond McOwen Maguire. I checked the Geinealaige Fearmanach and found Raimon mac Eoghan MacUihdir - see entry GF 225. I see that he was in the Sept descended from Donnach Ceallaigh Maguire, so "mac Owen" would probably only have been a one-generation patronymic. His lineage was Reamin mac Eoghan mac Eamon mac Gilla Duff mac Donnach Ceallaigh mac Tomas Oge, who was Maguire Chief d. 1480.

2. I also looked up the Robert fflack deposition. He mentions an atrocity that occurred in the Barony of Lurg and specifically names 30 Irish rebels, of whom 12 are surnamed Magwyre. Among the remainder are Patrick mc Choen and Cahal mc Choen, both of the Parish of Maheracoolmuney in the Barony of Lurg. In the context of Robert Flack's 1641 deposition, McChoen is being used as a hereditary surname.

My conclusion is that Redmond MacOwen Maguire is not a strong prospect. But the "mc Choen"s are a very good lead, especially since an Edward McCone was in Lurg in the 1660s. The reprisals to the 1641 massacres were very vicious and sweeping, and any McChoens who were suspected would have been killed if they did not flee. When did your ancestors arrive in America?"

Pat's account of the McChoens in the Barony of Lurg especially caught William Roulston's attention and I expect to hear more on this subject in the near future.
Unfortunately, we don't know when our line arrived in America. We may be getting closer to an answer in this regard, because James Charles McKown's line was in Virginia in 1785 and ours was in South Carolina in 1790/92. I ran the FTDNATip test
to find the percentage of probability of our having a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) how many generations ago.

With Sam, the number of generations ago and the percentages are Gen 9 is 60.90%,
Gen 10 is 75.85% and Gen 11 is 85.19%. With Jim it is Gen 9 50.89%, Gen 10 it is
66.30% and at Gen 11 it is 77.18%. Using a factor from Barry McCain and Joseph Donohoe (55% to 85%)would indicate an MRCA for both of those men with me as recently as 10 generations ago and perhaps 11 generatations ago. That in turn would indicate that our MRCA'S would have been 250 to 275 years ago (1760-1735).

I further stipulated that the MRCA could not have been within 8 generations ago.

All of this lines up nicely with the years of birth of our earliest known ancestors.
So, I would expect that if our earliest known ancestors were the first born of their families in America that their fathers would have arrived in America around 1750. Admittedly this is just speculation but it could be useful in trying to answer Pat's question as to when our families left Ireland or arrived in America.

One of the fascinating aspects of genealogical speculation is knowing not only the most likely dates but also the names of our earliest ancestors in America.

Pat also mentioned Edward McCone in the Barony of Lurg, Fermanagh, in 1660. While in either Kinawley or Cavan, we viewed the grave of one John McCone in a cemetery largely populated with McCauleys and McManuses. That could be another clue that McCones of whatever spelling were living closely with those great Maguire related families. That and $2.50 might get you a cup of coffee.

The fair Coane had already mentioned the Barony of Lurg as having some McCone families. Pat has mentioned that he doubts that McCauley's were that far north, but they were certainly near Castle Monea which is pretty far north for the McCauley homeland.