Notes:

1.      Two generations of McTeague/Montague boys married two generations of Kelly girls: James (1797) married Sarah Kelly, and  Patrick McTeague (1837) married Kitty Kelly.

2.       We are not sure which spelling of Kelley or Kelly is correct; we are not quite sure of the spelling of Disart versus Dysart versus Desert.

 If your name is McTeague, Montague, Kelly, O'Connor, McMeekan, Mellan, Murray, O’Connor, McGill, O'Sullivan, Crilly, Bradley, Flanagan, McMullin, Scullion, Taylor or Gallagher we may be related!

If you are not sure if we are related there are several ways to check.  DNA matching is an easy one if you have already had your DNA tested through one of the companies that do that.  Our DNA is on Ancestry, My Heritage and on GEDCOM.  To match on GEDCOM you need our number which is: A403529.  It is a free service on GEDCOM so feel free to give it a try.  We have more information on DNA here: https://www.montaguesofderry.com/dna. Take a look!

Our contact information and link to our Facebook page can be found at the bottom of each page of our website. We would love to hear from you! Feel free to share our website, https://www.montaguesofderry.com/home and our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/MontaguesofDerry with all those who share an interest in genealogy.

 Section 1. Oldest Known Generations in Ireland

 Hopefully this is a work in progress, and we will find other relatives!  Particularly living relatives in Ireland and other places like Glasgow Scotland, San Francisco CA USA, San Jose CA USA, Chicago Illinois USA, Beacon NY USA, Passaic NJ USA and Wilkes Barre PA USA where our ancestors immigrated.  There may be others places our ancestors immigrated to and we would love to find out those places.  Ireland was probably just one stop along our immigration journey.  While our relatives in Ireland have told us we have been in Ireland for “hundreds of years”  we have other family members saying  that we came to Ireland from Normandy or Brittany France.  As the chapter on DNA suggests we came from a lot of places before winding up where we sit today.  Here are those family rumors:

1.  Catherine Montague Meighan (SKM2.a) said for years to remember we came from Brittany France.  Catherine was born in 1857 in County Derry Ireland.

2. Madeline M. Montague Handzo (BMM1.f) always said we are Norman not French. The Montague’s were from Harfluer in Normandy.  They came to England in 1066 with William the Conqueror and some settled in Somerset England where we still have family and some ended up in Ireland.  Madeline was born in 1894 in New York City and her father Hugh Fitzpatrick Montague was born in 1864 in County Derry Ireland.

Both of these could be true.  We simply don’t know.  What we do know is there were many stops along our journey! There are many unanswered questions.  Perhaps you can help us answer those.  A summary of all these questions is found is Section 16-Open Questions.

If you knew any of our relatives, please tell us what they were like.  The basic genealogical information really doesn’t give you anything about the person.  We would really like to know what they were like and their human traits.  It certainly would provide a better picture.  Speaking of pictures, if you have any of our relatives please forward to us so we can include it.  Nothing is better than a picture!

 So far, we have found our roots back to two brothers (we think they are brothers) born in the late 1700’s.  We do not know if they had other siblings or who their parents were.  As we know it their family tree looks like:

Please note the identification letters above the blocks for John and James.  Their children will be identified as BMM1 and SKM1 for the first-born child of John and James respectively.   And as each generation is added a period and alternating number and letter will be added.  For example, we know John had 9 children.  Those children will carry the identification number BMM1 through 9 where BMM1 is the first-born child to John and Bridget Mallon McTeague and BMM9 is the 9th and last-born child.  The grandchildren of John and Bridget Mallon McTeague from their first-born child will be identified as BMM1.a through the number of children their first-born child has.  All succeeding generations will carry this identification number.  If you read this number form right to left you will eventually get back to BMM or John and Bridget Mallon McTeague.  Similarly with James and Sarah Kelly McTeague or SKM. 

James and John McTeague are the oldest ancestors in we know of.  They came to County Derry from County Fermanagh.  We do have a letter from James McTeague (SKM1.c.3) dated 1968 to John Montague (SKM2.d.3.a) that explains a lot and we welcome more.  James lived on the original farm in Derry.  Here is a transcribed version of that letter written in 1968 in Dysart, Draperstown, Co. Derry:

Dear John:

I must apologize for the delay in replying to your letter dated 10 March 1968.  I would like to return warmest wishes and greetings to you.

I would confirm, that as far as I can ascertain, you are a cousin of mine.

The original spelling of the name is McTeague.  There are various anglicized versions as follows-McTighe, Tighe, Montagu or Montague, but the original name was McTeague.

The original clan of McTeague were Gallowglasses.  These were professional soldiers who were employed by the Celtic clans both in Ireland and Scotland.   These Gallowglass families lived for generation after generation by selling their services as soldiers to the clan chiefs both in Scotland and Ireland.

When Ulster was finally conquered by the English forces in 1603, it was planted four years later in 1607 and the bulk of the Irish families like the O’Neills, O’Donnells, McSweeneys, Kellys, McTeagues were disposed of their lands.

The lands were parceled out to people of “English and Scottish decent but apart from land being given to individuals, it was also given to the wealthy Merchant Guilds in London. Thus, for instance, the Drapers Guild of London got the tract of country around Draperstown (hence the name). 

A condition of the plantation was that no new landowner should allow any of the native stock to remain on his land.  However, the Merchant Guilds of London, being purely business men, adverted to the fact that they would not get enough Protestant tenants to occupy the lands and, secondly, that the native land holders might be prepared to pay very steep rent to remain in their homes. Hence, the area around Draperstown, consisting of the upper valley of the Moyola River, was never, in fact, planted and remained in the possession of the native stock down to the present day.

Immediately after the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, when Ulster was very disturbed as Protestants, Presbyterians and Catholics took part in the rebellion, there was a fair movement of population.  Also, after the end of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, that is subsequent to 1816,   there was a very severe depression of the agricultural industry in both Ireland and England and, as far as I know, sometime in the 1820’s James McTeague came from Fermanagh into Dysart, that is into the land around Draperstown, where the bulk of the population had remained as native stock.

He bought the present farm at Dysart where I now live.  He had 2 sons Patrick, who was my grandfather, and who had inherited the home farm at Dysart and Hugh, that is your grandfather, was a shoe maker by trade and bought a small farm at Cahore. I am enclosing an outline of the family tree as far as I know it.

I do not know about the Red McTeagues and the Black McTeagues,.  The Sperrin Mountains to which you refer enclose the Moyola Valley on the north side and all the McTeagues I have known have been black haired but it is possible that there was also a red haired branch of the McTeagues.

As you know red haired people are common enough in Ireland and indeed, in Spain today, you can occasionally see red haired people even though we are inclined to think of all Spaniards as dark skinned, dark haired and brown eyed people.

I barely remember my grandfather, old Patrick McTeague, who died in 1924 and who was born in 1846, which was the second year of the great famine in Ireland.

My father, James McTeague, who was born in 1868 and died in 1942. 

With regard to my immediate family, I have a brother, Patrick, a sister Mary (married to a man whose name is McGill), a younger brother Anthony, and a younger sister -Katherine or Kitty-married to a man named O’Sullivan in Cork.

If I get any more information which may be of interest to you I will let you have it.

I hope to hear from you soon and hope this letter will be of interest to you. Again, sorry for the long delay.  From your cousin James McTeague, Dysart, Draperstown , Co Derry, N. Ireland.  End of letter.

John McTeague’s civil registration of death is:  estimated birth year 1795, date of registration 1873, death age 78, Registration District Magherafelt, Volume 11, page 450 FHL film number 101586.  If anyone can tell us anything else on this film that would be helpful.

James McTeague civil registration of death is:  estimated birth year 1797, date of registration 1874, death age 77, Registration District Magherafelt, Volume 11, page 510 FHL film number 101587.  If anyone can tell us anything else on this film that would be helpful.

We also found a third potential brother Matty McTeague (McTague) born 1800 in Magherafelt, County Derry.  Matty died at age 74 in 1874.  Film Number 101587 page 617 volume 1.  Matty also immigrated to the USA aboard the ship Dewitt Clinton arriving in New York on February 25, 1850 when he was 50 years old.  We could not find him in the 1860 or 1870 USA Census.  We do not know how or if Matty is related but the year of his birth and location make it likely he is related in some fashion perhaps even a brother of John and James.

James McTeague civil registration of death is estimated birth year 1797, date of registration 1874, death age 77, Registration District Magherafelt, Townland Disert, Volume 11, page 510 FHL film number 101587.  If anyone can tell us anything else on this film that would be helpful. We also found this on James; wife Sarah Kelly: civil registration of death is estimated birth year 1798, date of registration Jan-Mar 1881, death age 83, Registration District Magherafelt, Townland Disert, Volume 1, page 660 FHL film number 101590.

We also found a third potential brother Matty McTeague (McTague) born 1800 in Magherafelt, County Derry.  Matty died at age 74 in 1874.  Film Number 101587 page 617 volume 1.  Matty also immigrated to the USA aboard the ship Dewitt Clinton arriving in New York on February 25, 1850 when he was 50 years old.  We could not find him in the 1860 or 1870 USA Census.  We do not know how or if Matty is related but the year of his birth and location make it likely he is related in some fashion perhaps even a brother of John and James.

It is interesting that brothers John (BMM) and James (SKM) used the name McTeague as well as James’ children, Patrick (SKM1) and Hugh (SKM2).  John’s child Hugh Patrick (BMM1) used Montague as the last name.  Some of their grandchildren however used the name Montague.  Why the change we do not know.  Also, the names seem to be used interchangeably.  Do you know why the change?  Was there a reason for it?

Shown below is a map of Magherafelt from 1622. It is one of the oldest maps we have:

Fast forward to the religious census of 1766 and Magherafelt had grown substantially to include at least nine McTeig’s:

 The likelihood that some of these nine are related to us is very high. Our James McTeague was born in 1797 so the mid 1700’s is the timeframe we need to zero in on to see if we can find his parents.  We simply do not have much information on this timeframe. Any help is appreciated.

Shown below is the religious census taken March 28 1766 for some parishes in the baronies of Keenaught and Loughinsholin.  The information we have is our ancestors were from Loughinsholin.  The names shown would have been adults at the time of the census in 1766 so it is very likely that some of these were parents/uncles or to be relatives of our oldest 2 brothers John and James born 1795 and 1797 respectively.  We excerpted from the entire list names that we knew were related and were from Loughinsholin.  The complete list appears at appendix xx.  RC stands for Roman Catholic.

There were no Montague’s shown nor were there O’Connor or McKeekan.  There were Bradley’s, McGill’s,Crilley’s and Murray’s.

Section 2. Oldest Known Brothers Marry and Start Families

John (BMM) was born in 1795 and is the brother to James (SKM) born 1797 (we think they were brothers).  Both were born in the Magherafelt District in the Draperstown area.  It appears that they stayed in the Draperstown area their whole lives. We only know of one child from the marriage of John McTeague (BMM) and Bridget Mallon that would be Hugh Patrick Montague (BMM1)   It is reported that John and Bridget had a total of 9 children.  Similarly with James (SKM) and Sarah Kelley we only know of two children though we have sources that say there was only one child Hugh.  There is also some confusion over the birth year of Hugh McTeague (1837 vs. 1840).  We would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on that.  For our purposes here we are leaving Hugh’s birth year as 1840 based on the death certificate we have that says he was 70 years old at his time of death in 1910. 

Read More about our Irish Family!