Finding the McCurdy connection

Hope you enjoyed looking at the recent addition to my blog. It was really nice to see some of the McCurdy family. I always thought my mum's full name was very unusual - Margaret McCurdie Brown Batton... named after her Granny on both sides... And the main reason why my Mum NEVER gave any of her children middle names.

I didn't realise just how popular the name was until I started researching it and lo and behold I made contact with Charlotte who lives in Australia and whose Mum is Rena McCurdie..... and it even turns out that we are related ...........back to our great grandparents James and Margaret being brother and sister.

We also had contact from Shane McCurdy who lives in Northern Ireland and has been providing Charlotte and I with information to suggest the following :



In the 1803 Census for the Parish of Ballintoy there are a number of McCurdy families in the Croagh area, of which one, is James McCurdy wife Eliza Forbes, with four children, Cuppage, Charles, Alexander and Jane … from certain records, church gravestone inscription at Billy Churchyard (one of the main burial places for families from this area, we have a grave for a James MCurdy of Croaghbeg who died in 1838 … we believe that this is one and the same James;

Inscription reads – Erected to the memory of James McCurdy late of Croaghbeg who departed this life 7th April 1838 aged 83 years

from the State registrations of deaths, for Croagh area, which commenced in 1864, we have the inferred birth years for Charles [1795 – 1872] and Alexander [1799 – 1891] - Charles never married, and Alexander was my ancestor. It is therefore fair to say that Cuppage must have been born in the early 1790’s and Jane may have been born about 1801 … therefore James and Eliza were still of an age to have children, an may have had more children after the time of the census in 1803 … could one of these children have been a son, named James …? Interestingly Jane married a James Hill of Croagh; Cuppage married a Margaret McCaigue, but was already dead by 1864. We have the families of Cuppage, Alexander and Jane reasonably well complete, down to the present day … and at this time, speculatively I include the James McCurdy/Robert McCurdy family of Dalmellington, as part of this broader McCurdy genealogy … as in the previous generation of this Croagh family we also have a Robert McCurdy … son of a Robert McCurdy … so it is possible that these Robert’s were father and brother of this first named James.

I know that this is very tenuous, and speculative, but in the 20+ years since first Rena and I were in contact, we have not been able to find anything more conclusive or persuasive.

I should be happy to exchange these further details with you if that should be of interest.

In 1989 John Mackirdy of Rothesay and Willie McKirdy of Kelson were instrumental in organisaing an international gathering of the MCCurdy family on Bute . Daddy and I were in attendance at this … and it was a wonderful opportunity to meet many McCurdys from all over the world, and who spelt their name in various ways … among those attending was Rena King, and unbeknownst to her, Scott McCurdy and his father John (Jock) from Canada … who were second cousins’s of Rena’s and therefore also related (and perhaps known) to you.

Anyway it does indeed show how small a world we live in at times ! Delighted to have made contact and looking forward to getting to know you both a little more!

Kind regards for the present, and hoping to hear from you again soon.

Sincerely

Shane McCurdy
27 Orange Lane
Magheralin
Co. Armagh BT67 0RG
Northern Ireland