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Elizabeth Gallacher, very nearly Scottish
My great-grandmother was born in Dundee, Scotland to parents who were born in Scotland, and grandparents who were born in Ulster, Ireland. In the Scotland of her day, that made her Irish – not Scottish.
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The Souls of St. Olcan’s
There are very few parish and civil records from the time before partition – most have been destroyed – so when I visited my grandfather’s birthplace, I documented all the gravestones in his churchyard. 797 souls.
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Did we have a farm in Ireland?
As a kid, I remember thinking that my grandfather’s family owned a farm called ‘Moyaver’ in a place called ‘Armoy’ – – but none of that turns out to be true. Here’s what’s true…
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John Patrick O’Mullan
On January 4, 1907, my grandfather, John Patrick O’Mullan was born to Daniel William Mullan and Elizabeth Gallagher in Moyaver, County Antrim, Ireland. They christened him at St. Olcan’s church – where his father was christened and his family is buried.
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The Shoemaker’s Cottage
My 2nd great-grandfather, Daniel O’Mullan, moved to Moyaver from Mount Hamilton around the time he married Isabella Scally. They lived in a cottage on the Limepark Estate.
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Margaret Teresa Costello
My grandmother, Margaret Teresa Costello, was born to John J. Costello, a blacksmith, and Honora Brown in Newark, NJ on the 3rd of August 1903. Her father would died of kidney failure when she was not yet 3 years old, and she grew up in her mother’s boarding house on Plum St. in Newark.
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What does O’Mullan mean?
O’Mullan derives from the Gaelic surname O’Maoláin, which dates to before the 10th century. ‘Maol” means bald or tonsured. So Maoláin refers to a monk or a disciple, or really anyone who shaves their head as a sign of religious devotion.