Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to the 'McIlmoyl(e) Family in North America' genealogy blog. I've started this blog as a way to connect with other McIlmoyl(e) family researchers and gather info on family lines in addition to my own in order to write the story of this family over the past 235 years in North America. The story begins in June of 1774 when John McIlmoyl and his wife Mary Dysart McIlmoyl set out from Ahoghill Parish in County Antrim, Ireland with their children James, Samuel, John, Mary, Hugh, Thomas and infant Jane. Their eldest son, Archibald, was already in North America with a Dysart uncle in Virginia. They were also accompanied by a servant Neil McNeil. They initially settled in Ballstown (Balston), Province of New York only to be caught up within a year or so in the American Revolution. As supporters of the British King, they were labelled as Tories or Loyalists thus becoming enemies of their neighbours who were rebelling against the Crown. From this time until the early 1780s, there are many stories to tell. I have a fair amount of these however there are a couple of seriously missing pieces of the puzzle.

1. After the passage receipt which included his name, nothing more has been found on Samuel. Some researchers have made assumptions that James & Samuel are the same person, however this is very unlikely as they are listed separately on the passage receipt thus each would have been charged for. So, what happened to Samuel? Was he killed in the AR?

2. Likewise, there is little if any documentation on John Jr. after their arrival. Family stories variously say he was killed in the Battle of Saratoga with Burgoyne or killed at the time the family was settling on their new land on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. One researcher several generations back mixed up this John with one of a subsequent generation which created another inaccurate story of what actually happened to John Jr.

3. Some researchers have confused Jane with the name of Leah as the result of an erroneous transcription of Jane's marriage in the church register. The writing was not easy to read and somehow was misread as Leah. This caused some to think her name was Jane Leah which is incorrect. None of this generation had two forenames. I have read the original record and have a copy of it and her name is clearly Jane.

4. The spelling of the name is a story unto itself.....looking at original signatures of most of the first and second generations of this family in North America, there was no 'e' on the end of their surname. At some point, especially with Hugh's descendants, someone probably added a 'flourish' to the end of the name causing it to be spelled with an 'e' by many of the successive generations. For some reason, this was not the case of most of Thomas' descendants, particularly those who came West. Added to this interesting twist, in the mid 1800s, a cousin (many times removed) came from Ireland to Maryland, USA and spelled his surname McElmoyle. Fortunately, this cousin contacted one of our ancestors, John O'Donoghue McIlmoyl, who had prepared a family tree which included both a chart and an anecdotal report and explained how his name came to be spelled differently yet still be a member of the family. This of course means that I am also interested in hearing from descendants of Archibald McElmoyle and his siblings who also came to North America as a part of the story.

5. A critical puzzle piece that's missing is information on Mary Dysart McIlmoyl. Who were her parents? When did she die? Where? There is no mention of her in any of the records I've found in Canada which makes me suspect that she died prior to or during their escape to Canada or perhaps even shortly after their arrival in North America.

I look forward to hearing from cousins who can fill in some of the blanks and will post summaries of some of what I already know in future posts.

8-)
JoanMC