McGing Family Genealogy

July 21, 2024

Been busy

No breakthrough or such, still slogging on making the tree better documented and trying to use DNA to figure out brick walls. I'm considering using the Banyan tool to test whether my theory tree can be tweaked to be a bit more factual by better DNA analysis. For the cost, that's a winter project when I have fewer distractions.

More importantly, we have a McGing in the 2024 Paris Olympics! Yes, Ciara McGing, indeed a distant cousin of mine whom I've never met, will represent Ireland in August 2024. I am beyond tickled that she's done this, and to see the surname shared worldwide is amazing as well. I'm writing this before she competes and, of course, want her to be a medal winner, but know that just being there is a life accomplishment. Winning would be extra. Regardless of the outcome, we are very proud of her.

February 13, 2024

Happy New Year

It's been a bit for me updating this, but the tree and the research were ongoing anyway. Big things done include figuring out how my mom and dad are related, and finding even more examples of endogamy than I would have thought. I've found DNA relations who are related to me in 4 or 5 different ways, and on both my dad's and mom's sides. Tourmakeady folks married their neighbors!

I found out one of my uncles by marriage was also my 4th cousin. I've used DNA to make connections with previously unconnected groups of people who ended up being related. My tree on Ancestry is getting bigger. I helped my wife's half-sister's half-brother figure out who his mom was. I've never stopped researching or fixing mistakes. I've unlinked some folks from the tree, but no one throws away good research — some other families may find what I did valuable.

My Uncle Mike passed, but not before we got some good results on my Collins side by finding some close Y-DNA matches for him, which is a big deal as my Collins side is a bit of a dead end. Some McGing "cousins" (one in Australia, one now in Canada) did Ancestry DNA, and it's interesting to see who we share in common. I'm trying to help a family friend's husband figure out his bio dad. And there is so much to do and not enough time to do it.

The tree I keep here is up to date and being updated and corrected on an ongoing basis. Don't let the lack of updates here fool you, but I will post about big changes or findings.

May 27, 2023

Yet More Branches (Tentatively) Linked into Master Tree

I've been making reversible changes to the master tree as I look for the ways my mom's people and my dad's people are linked. Mom and dad are 3rd or 4th cousins, as were my dad's parents. Not surprising, Mayo in that time was a "marry a neighbor" kind of place. But as I work up the trees of people who are matches but kind of dead end, with lack of paperwork or knowledge, I've been playing "what if" by linking previously unlinked persons with the same surnames into family groups because someone in that outsider line is a DNA cousin and should be in an insider family line. But which one? Hard to say as the endogamy of the area makes it hard to figure out paternal and maternal DNA matches.

March 6, 2023

More Branches Linked into Master Tree

The point of having a tree, of doing DNA testing, is to hopefully find others doing their family trees who have a pretty solid background — and finding their family story helps you grow your family tree. And that happy coincidence just happened to me. A family with DNA testing and a pretty solid tree claims a McGing 3x grandmother. And I didn't have this line, so I looked. At first, I made a linkage tying a bunch of small branches together that support the linkage to me but via my maternal side. But not via McGing. And these folks have DNA connections to common cousins that the tree isn't supporting. I'm missing something. So more research, more analysis, and I think I find the path back to the McGing ancestor. So I try that and, wow, all of a sudden, those common cousins actually work by DNA and records, and the fact these folks are related to both my mom and dad actually works out with various other DNA connections. I think that this is a good solid step to documenting my Mayo family.

March 5, 2023

Big Y DNA Haplogroup Change

FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) had put me and this other testee into our own Y DNA haplogroup. But now he is alone in that group because my brother and I now have our own unique haplogroup. It's R-FT80808. Yeah, it's genetics nerd stuff but any future folks who match are going to be relatively "close" relations. The fact is this other guy and I share a common ancestor 500 years ago, so it's not useless information.

December 1, 2022

Big Y DNA Matches - Confirmed Haplogroup is R-FGC52727

FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) has put me and this other testee into our own Y DNA haplogroup. Before, we were in a higher order haplogroup with a number of other people, but based on how much we match each other and don't match the others, a new haplogroup was the result. Yeah, it's genetics nerd stuff but any future folks who match are going to be relatively "close" relations.

November 22, 2022

Big Y DNA Matches

FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) is one of the few companies doing Y DNA testing. Y DNA is passed on father to son and changes slowly. There are a series of tests, differentiated on how many markers they test for. The Big Y test looks at 700 markers and identifies new haplogroups (names of unique DNA sequences that are shared by people).

Anyway, I just got an email from someone who is not named McGing or McGinn but is from County Tyrone in Ulster, and who has deep roots there. He tested at FTDNA and did a Big Y and we match very closely. Closest match ever with this test. The other folks with matches also had roots in Ulster but right now, Tyrone is looking like a place I should look into. If this man and I share a common male ancestor, and we do, and I know nothing pre-1800 for my McGings and he knows his Tyrone folks were there, there is a linkage. Maybe the story about coming to Mayo from "the North" is true. Now I have a place to focus on. Big win!

September 21, 2022

Collins Genealogy

With my Uncle Mike doing Y DNA on FTDNA, I'm slowly getting some data on my Collins side people. I created a new page for that effort, which is located here: Collins Genealogy. It's the start of a longer work in progress.

August 27, 2022

Still Plugging Away

The tree here gets updated weekly or so, but the big records work is on Ancestry or in my desktop database, likely split between the two. The tree here is an extract of my desktop database. I have seen some reports of the web page being unavailable and have experienced it being unavailable via my desktop, but I can get there with my phone. I don't know why, but I've opened a trouble ticket with the hosting company.

I've been seeing incremental upgrades in data. The McGing side is good, but I do admit my understanding of living McGings in Ireland and England is just based on what the open internet provides. I've had no breakthroughs regarding Y DNA and McGing but am looking at my Collins side with new Y DNA testing. In short, barring someone new DNA testing (preferably with Ancestry — 23andMe and MyHeritage just don't have the depth needed for genealogy), all I can do is refine my existing work. I often change things as new data comes up; it's not written in stone. However, I can often put new testees into my tree in ways they had no idea about.

My brick wall/white whale is figuring out how my mom and dad are related to each other. I have a LOT of DNA "cousins" who I can map to either my mom's or my dad's family but who are also related to my other parent in a way I cannot figure out. Very frustrating.

February 22, 2022

Family are Cousins

I have a new page: Common Ancestors. It uses a new Gedmatch Tier 1 tool to look for the most recent common ancestor (MCRA). In this case, it's looking for the family that both my mom's people and my dad's people share as a common ancestor. Mom and dad are 3rd-ish cousins, but I've been unable to break that wall. Maybe now I have a plan.

The tool projects the pathways and the families to look at who all share a common ancestor. Using that tool and my dad's and my mom's two sisters' DNA, I've been able to confirm the cousinship and identify other families who are connected via the same family. If I can research, speak with, or build trees for these families, one may give me the family names I need. Check it out.

February 15, 2022

Kind of a Big Change

I'm working on Ancestry, looking at people who match distantly with small trees. Lots of wasted time, but occasionally, you find someone whose tree lines up with yours. That means I've more data than they published and found an overlap with their data and mine. Then I spend hours in RootsIreland and IrishGenealogy looking for any records to support the tree data. I also look in my own files to see if random bits and bobs I've found now have a home.

Doing this has created an interesting thing — family trees of people who are DNA-related but with whom I cannot find a MCRA. I found a cluster of such folks and slowly built out family lines in my tree for people who were not related to me, except that someone contemporary is a DNA match with my mom's side, dad's side, or frustratingly more often, both sides. DNA cousins where the records say "not enough data."

The use of DNA is to help bridge the gaps left by the poor state of Mayo records, and I did that yesterday. I have a known ancestor named Luke Thornton. I've also spent two weeks building out these unconnected family lines when, using Ancestry's new features, I realized that one whole segment ended up on a Stephen Thornton, close in age to the children of Luke Thornton. If I link Stephen in as a son of Luke, these unconnected folks connect, and the predicted level of DNA "cousin" actually lines up with the tree.

Now there are no records for this family, and Stephen could be Luke's nephew, his son, or the grandson of one of Luke's own father's brothers — all of which are not known to me. Zero records. But all of those placements would set up the DNA-predicted relationship, so I decided to link that family in. I realize with no records, it's just a theory, but the DNA works, and what records I do have support it. So I linked in some new Thorntons into the tree and will keep on looking for ways to further verify things. Just wanted to document this.

December 8, 2021

Incremental Changes

Spent long periods of COVID time just cleaning up things, running down rabbit holes, and fixing mistakes. I added more documentation when possible and tried to noodle out things. For example, the Thornton thing I mentioned earlier ended up with me creating a hypothetical brother because I had DNA matches to the Thorntons who were not linked to my direct line but were DNA-connected. When I create a "hypothetical" sibling and make the DNA calculations, things hold together.

While I can't document anything about this sibling, there being one makes perfect sense for the way the DNA works. The existing records eliminate any chance of the link being in the direct line but support there being a familial connection. COVID time let me noodle out a few more such hypothetical siblings whose existence lets an unconnected branch link in and do so in a way that the DNA works. It does feel odd, but because the records for pre-1820 Mayo are virtually non-existent, these unnamed folks existed; we just don't know them. By hypothetically placing these relations, the DNA says it's a working hypothesis. As long as it's documented, I'm okay with that.

April 22, 2021

Change of Mind

For a long time, I had it in my head that a group of Thorntons that may be related were not because they were from "The Neale," Mayo. I've been spending a lot of time looking at maps, as geography is almost more important than all other factors in linking family. It's not a strong point of mine. Anyway, it occurred to me that I was perfectly alright with Morrin connections who were across Loch Mask in Ballinrobe boating over to Tourmakeady and family marrying there.

I realized that I had "The Neale" in the wrong place. I thought it was much further north, outside of the usual marrying stomping grounds. Now I'm looking through over 20 years of files for the discussion I had with someone who tried to tell me my Thorntons were related to her Thorntons, something I said couldn't be because they were from "The Neale." I was wrong. They could be related, and that's a missed opportunity. The point is that you must always be open to things and admit when you mess up. It's usually an honest mistake.

April 12, 2021

DNA Makes a Difference

I've been looking at the Ancestry Thru Lines feature a lot. You must not assume it is right, but it makes decent guesses. If you have a tree and a person has done as well, it can identify shared DNA and provide things to review and consider. What it is good at is identifying a person's line.

For example, it identified a possible match with a person with a small but detailed tree. I recognized some names and found I had built out a standalone tree of a whole group of folks where I had a Bridget McGing (about 1800) married to a John McNeely. I couldn't figure out where Bridget came into things, and I had no known DNA matches on that standalone line. Until Thru Lines said to look at this person's tree. I did. When I did my own research, I could indeed document the DNA tester's family line up and into the line I had already researched. Good solid records research led to my dead-ended Bridget McGing.

Now, I don't know if Bridget was an actual sibling in that family unit or if she really belonged to one of the other three family units I have of the same time frame, and I never will know. There are no Mayo records of 1800 to document things. While the linking of Bridget into that family unit is simply an educated guess and not "provable," the DNA test insists that we are related. I am comfortable with the tree, and this linkage is one way to fit that data together so it works. With some luck, I'll get some folks on this line doing DNA and find a couple more matches to cement things. It brought a bunch of people into the McGing Tree, again supporting my conjecture that all McGings are cousins.

March 13, 2021

St. Patrick's Day Update

In recent times, I was contacted by someone looking for her birth father. We've narrowed it down to someone in the paternal ancestral line for my grandfather, but that's a big group. Does anyone have a cop in Jersey City, NJ, in the 1950s as a relation? If so, contact me.

In doing research, I found some new Ancestry DNA matches that helped flesh out the tree. One such match gave me what I needed to link a previously unlinked line of many people into the "real" McGing tree. The DNA connection with my dad only worked if this line was in the line of Myles McGing. Although there are no records to make that link via paper, the DNA provided enough to make the linkage, albeit with a lot of warnings that this isn't supported by paper (and never will be). It brought a bunch of people into the McGing Tree, again supporting my conjecture that all McGings are cousins.

February 15, 2021

Interesting Things Regarding Name Spelling

More Irish Families by Edward MacLysaght says on page 111: "MacGinn, McGinn and its composite form Maginn are approximately equally numerous and are now found respectively in Counties Tyrone and Down. MacGinn, or MacGinne, is listed in the 'census' of 1659 as a principal Irish name in the barony of Oneilland, Co. Armagh, i.e., the territory which lies between Tyrone and Down. The name is Mag Fhinn in Irish. This is anglicized MacGing, or Ging without the prefix, in the three Connacht counties of Mayo, Leitrim, and Galway. In Mayo, according to Woulfe, the variant Mac Fhinn, which becomes MacKing, is also found, but if extant, this is very rare. I have found no evidence to determine whether MacGing of Connacht is a branch of the Ulster sept."

So, I took all the Petty Session Court Registers (1818-1919) results for McGing from Ancestry and put them in a spreadsheet. Just started looking at them sorted via time, county, or location. I'm seeing a LOT of McKings. So I went to John Grenham's website and found very few McKings, most in Northern Ireland. Now I'm wondering if maybe we have some "used to be" McGings in there? It's all just a guess and something to explore, and I'm not at all sure, but this is how you turn over rocks looking for nuggets.

December 31, 2020

OMG, Let's Hope 2021 is Better in All Ways

Despite tons of COVID downtime, somehow adding things here fell to the wayside. The family tree here is up to date. No breakthroughs, need more folks to take DNA tests. My wife got inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution, and that took a lot of time. She has five 5th-great-grandfathers who were in the Revolutionary War, but we could only document to their satisfaction just one such ancestor. But it got done. Wish Irish genealogy could go back that far...

May 24, 2020

Keeping the Family Tree Updated

I've been keeping the family tree here updated. Also, the tree at Ancestry may be a bit different. It's hard keeping both in sync. I also updated things with Village Names, which has two new maps from the County Mayo Library showing the village names. You get a sense of the land when you track families over geography.

February 13, 2020

Tip of the Hat to Michael Hambly

Michael Hambly is a DNA-related cousin, though exactly how is a mystery being actively explored. He's also an internet pioneer with "Mayo on the Move." He has a site called Ireland Roots, which is worth exploring. He also advised me of a website glitch that I've fixed, making the site more secure.

January 25, 2020

New DNA Connection

Found a very distant "cousin" on my dad's DNA test with a family in Scotland, whose ancestry involves "Gings." I had fleshed out that line of McGings but was stuck in that I couldn't connect that line with anyone in the lines I've linked by DNA or records. But now, with this DNA test saying dad and this lady are 6th cousins, I can make the changes needed to get this line of McGings onto the main tree. And I did!

January 1, 2020

Website Redesign

I just redid the whole website. It's done in CSS and updated HTML and should now work on tablets and phones—or maybe not, in places. It's going to be a work in progress as I tinker with reformatting data and code. If you run into issues, use the Contact Me form.

August 2021

COVID Pause and Tree Updates

It's been 18 months without updates—blame COVID. I've been working on the family tree and realized that sometimes the Ancestry tree is more complete for some lines than the Legacy tree I maintain. Large families are easier to flesh out quickly on Ancestry, but eventually, I sync the two.

DNA hasn't broken many walls recently, but the tree gets more complex as new matches fill in previously stunted branches. Incremental updates have revealed previously unknown spouses and their families being already related to the person I'm researching. It was a small world in Mayo, and many were distantly related before they married.

December 2019

HTML Updates

I'm doing a wholesale update of the underlying HTML of this site and learning as I go. I'm removing outdated content, like transcribed Census pages, since they're widely available online. Converting them to HTML5 is just too much work.

September 2019

Y-DNA Testing Progress

Four male McGings from non-connected lines have done Y-DNA testing. The results, updated at the “Are McGings DNA Cousins” link, trace back to the early 1800s with no known connections between them. All four are in the same Y-DNA group, supporting the idea that we are all related, even if we can't name the common ancestor.

August 2019

Y-DNA Test Shows Connection

A new Y-DNA test on a McGing line I couldn't link via records shows a connection! I'll need to work through how this can help link associated lines. Slowly finding proofs on how McGings must surely all be cousins. Check out this must-read link on Irish naming conventions.

April 2019

Exploring Family Connections

No breakthroughs, but I've been spending time working on my wife’s half-sister’s paternity. The new tools at MyHeritage and Ancestry have helped flesh out some lines, but no walls have been knocked down yet.

February 2019

Incremental Updates

No major breakthroughs but lots of tweaking the data and updating supporting documentation. I've noticed an increase in holiday testers' results being posted to platforms like Ancestry and FTDNA, but no one has pushed back dates or cleared up mysteries yet. Many 4th cousins and more remote matches aren't very useful, and the 2nd cousins all seem to be Joyces—which is a rant of its own.

October 2018

Seeking Website Help and DNA Painter

If anyone knows someone who could help me redo this website in a way that lets me update it easily, let me know. It is really showing its age. There are nooks and crannies that have decent data that are hard to find. I’m just too old for relearning the modern tools of website building when I have other things I want to do. I do own my own website name and host the site on my own. No research breakthroughs, but the new DNA Painter is vital to figure out those links that you don’t know what family line to try and research. The Ancestry rejigger of the ethnicity finally matches what my paper research shows to be true.

September 2018

Incremental Updates

No major breakthroughs. No distant family lines have done DNA tests. Lots of incremental records updating and tweaking some lines by fleshing out family files. I’ve had a few long-term conversations going on with Joyce connections. Clearly, I have Joyce relations, but I just don’t know how they are related.

April 2018

Incremental Work Progressing

Fixing the web pages, updating as I find things, trying to better document and clean up my records and files. I’m hoping that folks who match me on my mom’s side can help me start to figure out that family tree since the family doesn’t know that much. I remain scratching my head over the way folks in my family tree had intermarried, as I hunt at least one and likely two ancestors who are common to both my mom and dad.

March 2018

RootsFinder and DNA Visualization

I’m liking the new RootsFinder tool, especially the DNA visualization tools. It helps that folks have been putting stuff into Gedmatch. The more folks who match on Ancestry or 23andMe who put their data on Gedmatch, the more connections we can find and the better it is to look at specific chromosomes. That’s how we eliminate wrong family paths and save time. I urge everyone to add stuff to Gedmatch. It'll pay off.

On FTDNA, I found a woman in Sweden who is strongly connected to my mom’s sister Mary. This Swedish lady's family roots there go back hundreds of years. But it seems someone from her family must have visited Ireland or England, as some of her DNA is in Mary as a reasonably close cousin (but not her sister Nora). Hoping she answers my emails soon.

The same situation occurred with my dad on MyHeritage. A family with hundreds of years in Norway has a reasonably close connection to dad. These connections are not from the Vikings but from the last 150 years or so. Additionally, I’ve just found that my mom’s family has a DNA connection to my great-great-grandparents on my dad’s side, the Morrins/Flanagans. No paper records, but multiple connections via DNA to documented (and tested) cousins are hard to beat.

Lastly, the McGing who took the Y-DNA test and helped prove we have a common ancestor (see elsewhere on this page) did an autosomal test, confirming us as 3rd cousins. This person’s mom and dad were both McGings—his mom from a known line and his dad from a not-yet-connected line. The autosomal test confirms the known linkage, and the Y-DNA confirms the undocumented line through his dad. Big smiles all around.

December 2016

End of the Year Reflections

As we head to the end of this year, it’s been overall pretty good. My wife has made tremendous strides, including nibbling at a Lithuanian brick wall that has been decades unmovable. I’m still scanning materials for posterity. Y-DNA testing needs a few more McGing males, but so far, it seems we are likely all related. I put my GEDCOM data on this site (see below) because Rootsweb seems to be diminishing. Should they fail completely, this site would go dark as I’m hosted on Rootsweb. If that happens, I’ll find a replacement hosting site. I own the domain name.

November 2016

Preserving Records

I’ve been doing much more scanning and have found more materials filed away that need scanning to keep them preserved. DNA continues to be the prime way of linking family connections that records fail to do. Still hoping to find a link to someone who knows more than me about the family.

September 2016

Document Repository

I’ve finished scanning and now have a huge repository of scanned documents and records. If you’re a McGing or related family researcher and are interested, let me know. I doubt I’ll put these online for many reasons. No good news on breaking down any walls, although my wife can now trace her lineage back to the 1500s and is eligible for the D.A.R. Too bad Irish records earlier than 1800 are practically non-existent.

June 2016

Letters and Recollections

I’ve been scanning old letters and ensuring these details are not lost by including them in the records. To that end, details.html is full of my Aunt May’s recollections and worth reading if you are a Donoghue, Lally, Whalen, or McGing.

May 2016

Scottish Gings and DNA Connections

It’s a safe bet that Scottish Gings, particularly those with a Stirling, Scotland connection, are actually McGings with roots in County Mayo who moved to work and stayed. I found Scottish records showing early McGings later becoming Gings, with evidence of County Mayo birth or marriage followed by later residence in Scotland. Proof that the name shifted with the move to Scotland!

Even more exciting: a branch of the family moved to the U.S. and became McGinn, and another branch moved to England. DNA tests reveal all three branches share a common McGing grandfather, likely from the mid-1700s. On paper, I can’t link these families, but DNA says we are connected. My theory that all McGings are cousins may not be 100% true, but it’s likely more true than not. Now, we can test McGinns and Gings to see if they link up as well. This might help families learn where they came from—great data and very exciting!

March 2016

Breaking Through Brick Walls

As a family centered in County Mayo going back to at least 1800, my brick walls are going to be high and thick as the written record is simply not there for so many ancestors. I bring this up because we get a lot of emails from potential cousins via DNA whose family history contains familiar names (but not clear ancestor lines), and so far, I’ve simply had to say that unless they have better documentation (including family lore), there really isn’t much I can do.

Now, if you look at what Paul MacCotter has said (look up Surnames from the table below), it doesn’t seem that we came from the North, as was the supposition. But it’s still an open issue to better confirm or deny. Still looking for McGings or McGing relations of either sex to consider autosomal DNA testing (Ancestry.com or FTDNA tests) because at least one has linked to my dad. And for males surnamed McGinn or McGing from Mayo stock, consider spending the money for a Y-DNA-37 or better test at FTDNA.com.

January 2016

Year in Review

Oh boy, it's been literally a year since I found time to update this despite retiring. The site is still active. In the intervening times, we've had more data put online by commercial organizations, better tech such as DNA testing, smart websites like MyHistory.com, and social networking. I've been improving the records in my files with electronic copies of many Irish births, and I have an offline repository of a LOT of documents related to McGings and my mom's family.

One of my long-held beliefs was that all individuals using the McGing surname are related, but that is hard to prove given the Irish records of the times. I've a theory that there was indeed a family using that surname around 1780 or so that is the family that the modern McGings descend from. It's also my theory that the Mayo McGings were originally McGinns from Antrim who left due to sectarian strife. In modern times, McGing is essentially a Mayo-exclusive surname, which supports that theory.

In December 2015, a McGing male older than me but not as old as my dad took a Y-DNA 67 test. I've also taken that test. We are from families that claimed no common relation to each other from both family lore and via standard genealogy records examination. The DNA results say that we are indeed related. Based on this information and the best records we can find, it is likely that this common ancestor existed around 1780–1820. This fits the data, strengthened by the uniqueness of the surname and its localization in Mayo. While I need more older male McGings to take a DNA autosomal and a Y-DNA test to address the relationship via paternity, these early results strongly support that we are indeed cousins. I’d love McGings of both sexes to take autosomal DNA tests, which will help build up the data on the genealogy.

February 2010

Still Active

The site is still active, just slow getting things online. I welcome contacts with interested folks.

February 2007

Slow Progress

Still plugging away, but a lot of my data has yet to be scanned or put online. I welcome contacts with interested folks.

December 2004

Data Analysis

Wow, the easy work of simply gathering up as much data as possible has been pretty much done, and the hard work of analyzing the data is ongoing. And slow. But the data is here for the analyzing, and if you figure out something or have new stuff to add, please let me know.

July 2004

Recovering Research

It's been almost a year, and it's not because I don't care or am not still researching family, but my computer died, my daughter was in her last year of high school and we had the college search thing, and the job got intense. So I have a year's worth of backed-up research to get to, things to digitize, leads to follow up on, and I'll probably never recover. But at least I now have both my HTML editor back up and my FTP program running.

June 2003

Slow Data Collection

More slowness. I did add some 1891 UK Census items. I will be attacking the remaining birth index materials once the indexes are updated online. No breakthroughs or anything—just slow data collection. I also redid the layout of my material (below, at the bottom).

August 2002

Interesting Name Issues

Sr. Helen raises some interesting name issues here. I tweaked the Irish Census data with some additional information Sr. Helen provided. I’ve been revising the 1901 Irish Census data and working on creating 1911 Irish Census pages. The 1901 census is more complete, and when I had Form B available, I listed homeownership facts plus the names of the neighbors.

May 2002

Chicago Voter Rolls

Chicago voter rolls are a good way to get some data, and I have some here. I’ve also added new 1920 US Census data as well.

April 2002

Expanding Records

As April winds down, I’ve added four more 1920 US Census records, this time from Missouri. I received a bunch of UK birth, death, and marriage certificates, so those records have been updated. I reviewed my Ellis Island materials and found more data on the site, which has also been updated here—worth reviewing. I also found a J. McGing who died in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War in 1902 and is probably buried in South Africa. Additional updates include Austin McGinn marrying Mary McGinn, who are really McGings, in the marriage extracts. Lastly, I am investigating "Ging" as a possible variant of the name more seriously.

March 2002

More 1920 Census Data

More 1920 US Census data has been added. Using Ancestry.com, I’ve found several interesting "McGings" in the index for 1920, including some in Louisiana and Georgia who are misidentified as black and mulatto—definitely not related. Mary Chervenak sent a photo of my twin uncles Jim and Austin as boys. Pat Deese updated her materials, and I’ve excerpted new material from her pages—worth checking out.

February 2002

1920 Census and Housekeeping

1920 US Census data is starting to become available, so check out the new census page. I’m seeing familiar families and a few strays. Fixed some items—just general housekeeping so far. I also updated the Glenmask 1883 Census page with some estimated year-of-birth data.

January 2002

Small Updates

Nothing much happened in December, but in January, I added a small UK McGinn death extract.

November 2001

Updating 1881 UK Census

Slow month, but I’ve been working on the 1881 UK Census, which I have on CD-ROM, and fixing up those pages. Now I have the street addresses for where people lived at the time of the census.

October 2001

More 1910 Census Data

More 1910 census data for Gings. I was able to update some of the 1910 census entries after locating copies of the census pages. Nothing earth-shaking, but there are more details now.

September 2001

Finding Philip McGing

Mary Chervenak found Philip McGing listed as a leatherworker in a Westport business directory from about 1840–1842. I added a new page based on some data I found in my files. I spoke with Paul MacCotter, who unequivocally states that if a Ging claims Irish descent, it’s a McGing. Maybe not a Ginn, but an Irish Ging is a McGing.

August 2001

Theories and New Data

I’m increasingly convinced that the McGings came from the North, despite the lack of written records supporting this emigration. Added more headstone photos courtesy of Mary Chervenak. I’ve been busy with the 1900 census and found a treasure trove of Irish Gings (see 1900 census pages). Pat Deese discovered new McGings, including Denis Murphy and Rose McGing (married 9/3/1825). Added more photos from Mary Chervenak’s visit to Westport. Also uploaded GIF copies of the 1818 Marquis of Sligo rent rolls—too much to rekey but full of good data. New data from the 1881 UK census for Scotland has been added.

July 2001

Disappointing Census Data

Found my granduncle James (McGinn). Social Security’s fee increase is frustrating, though I know SSA is considering putting the database online. I’ve abstracted some 1900 census data, but most entries were for servants. I know there are McGings in the US prior to 1900, so why aren’t they showing up in the census index with their families?

June 2001

Ellis Island Updates

Found another McGing on the Ellis Island site, along with some interesting McGin and Ging entries. Updated Social Security material with a new SS-5. Finally got the scanner working, so I’ve scanned images of my family and other McGing-related documents. My long-term goal is to scan all original documentation and either put it on CD or upload it to Rootsweb (they don’t have size limits).

May 2001

County Mayo’s Border Shift and More

Created a page about the Mayo-Galway border shift of 1898. Once I realized my immediate family lived in the part of Mayo that used to be Galway, I had to document it. I tweaked some Ellis Island data and identified a family from Churchfield Upper. Not sure if they’re related, but my family is from Churchfield Lower. Added miscellaneous pages to house uncategorized data, which is here. Sadly, most of my grandfather’s family who left Mayo became McGinn instead of McGing, complicating research.

April 2001

Ellis Island and More

Pat Deese updated her pages, and I’ve updated my extracts from her here. Been tweaking things here and there, but not much to report. Ellis Island records are now available online, so I’ve added an index of the McGings available there. You need to log on and access their system to get more details, but as an index, this is certainly useful! Thanks to Carl, who was up late California time to get access to the system. Details from the Ellis Island site have been posted here.

Found the McGing (McGinn) family who moved to Butte, Montana; search my Ellis Island pages for the word "Butte." Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they are related to me after all. Ran into the very real problem of McGing becoming McGinn once they leave Ireland. I’ve also created a quick index of Ellis Island McGinns, added a death citation for Bryan McGing (age 60, 1883, in Ormskirk), and found a Bridget McGiny from Westport who came from Mayo to the US via Ellis Island in 1916.

March 2001

SSDI Updates

There was a new addition to the SSDI—a Margaret McGing. The web pages now load faster on the new server, but of course, if you’re reading this, you already know that. Pat Deese is at it again, updating information and finding new leads for us.

February 2001

1901 Irish Census and Vital Records

Nicola has had the South Mayo Centre research her family, and while we had much of this data already, they had some additional insights, including a 1901 Irish Census on McGings we didn’t have. Jean McGing from England has also helped by sharing some UK vital records. The latest report from Paul MacCotter supports the contention that Mayo McGings are distinct from the Ulster McGinns. Not everyone agrees, so read up on it and decide for yourself.

January 2001

UK Census Insights

Nicola, a McGing from England, faxed me some information from the UK 1881 Census that I’ve transcribed. Haven’t really analyzed things yet, but there are some deep English roots for some McGings! Need time to compare the census data against GRO extract data, as there are far fewer matches than expected. Found an 1853 birth index entry for England for a Mary McGing. Additionally, I discovered that the WorldConnect site can generate some great reports, and I urge researchers to use this useful tool.

December 2000

Surname History and McGing Connections

I’ve added new material on the history of the surname. It’s well worth reading! A McGinn from Pennsylvania, whose past relations were McGings, contacted me. I knew there had to be McGing McGinns out there! Shane Connolly from Sydney, Australia, please write me again—you didn’t leave an email address, and I want to talk about your grandfather’s name change from McGing to Connolly.

November 2000

Springfield Ohio Census

Updated some census data for Springfield, Ohio, in 1920. English data is slowly being updated as I try to fill in details about English McGings. Any English McGings who know their history are invited to help fill in the gaps. Documenting the McGings of Springfield, Ohio—a family that appears to have died out.

October 2000

Social Security and Census Data

Got some new SS5 data added to the Social Security page. I’m starting to wonder if some McGings became McGean once in the US—my name is often mispronounced that way, so if spelled phonetically...? Added a new Dublin reference with a Ging as a sponsor to an 1828 baptism in Dublin. Also added some 1910 Pennsylvania census data, possibly shedding light on some unknown husbands.

Discovered that the marriage record for Gladys Uslan (1936 marriage in England) was actually for Gladys Nolan. It looks like the handwriting on the index was unclear. I now have her death and marriage certificates to John Maurice (or Maurice John) McGing, thanks to Kenneth Uslan. Additionally, I found a William Ging in Kosciusko County, Indiana, in 1837.

September 2000

Book on Tuam Marriages

I got a copy of the book "Marriages in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tuam, Ireland, 1821–1829" by Helen M. Murphy and James R. Reilly, C.G.R.S. It contains new data that I’ve added here. I’ve been refining data, working with others to correct and identify relationship mistakes. Had some luck with Ohio McGings in the late 1880s and have a few irons in the fire to complete the Social Security data.

August 2000

Miscellaneous Data

It’s been slow, but I’ve been cleaning up and posted a number of miscellaneous data items to the Unassembled pages. Lots of Ging data is included, along with items I can’t categorize yet.

June 2000

Social Security Updates

The Social Security page is almost filled in. I updated a LOT of data, including three persons with McGing mothers (Collins, Desmond, King) and early 1820 marriage data in the Irish Vital Records page. Found new McGings using Rootsweb’s California Birth and Death records, searching both "McGing" and "Mc Ging." Their Meta Search doesn’t include mother’s maiden name, so be sure to search creatively!

May 2000

Social Security and Vital Records

Found a Michael McGing and added him to the Social Security page. His name was spelled Mc Ging. More SS-5 updates on the Social Security page! The Atomz search engine now has more options. Created a page for McGing data from Galway—new data there worth checking out! Added four new SS-5 updates on the Social Security page. Gathering more data on the elusive Cleveland McGings based on other sources.

Additional birth and marriage data from England has been added to the English Vital Records pages from certificates I’ve received. I updated the origins of the surname with information from Andrew Tyrrell. More baptisms for 1828–1834 were updated using family history film 1279209. Found new additions to my Irish Vitals page.

April 2000

Search Engines and Data Updates

I found a new search engine with different capabilities from my existing one, and I like both. I recommend trying them both, as you may get differing results. The "What’s New" button will now track changes over time. I found I had missed 10 or so marriages/baptisms and fixed the page I created with Pat Deese’s material.

Updated English Vital Records data in several ways. With Pat Deese's permission, I extracted McGing-related data from her web pages and consolidated it into one page. Returned to the Family History Centers, reviewing film 1279209, and added (or confirmed) information for 1829–1831. Added McGing births in England and updated materials stored at Rootsweb, including collateral families and proof updates.

March 2000

English Vital Records

Updated English Vital Records with a new reference to the county the districts are in. Added an advanced search function and corrected many typos in the English Vital Records data.

February 2000

UK GRO Indexes and Rare Census Data

Sr. Helen has been busy and provided excerpts from the UK GRO indexes of death and marriage records for McGings. If you are from the UK or had family go there, check this out! My Aunt Ann shared an amazing view of the genesis of the name McGing, and I’ve added it to this page. I also added a link to my cousin Mary’s page.

Added a search option for the web page. Thanks to Mr. Tom Kenny for sending excellent copies of the 1901 census data he had previously provided as an extract. A rare 1883 Glenmask census was supplied by Elaine O’Malley alongside material about the Glenmask McGings and O’Malleys. I completed one full LDS film and clarified the web pages and titles covering that data. Added a new page for data from non-LDS sources and some excerpts about the origins of the name from new sources.

January 2000

New Pages and Updates

Added two new pages: Aughagower Graves Data and Birth Registry Data. Thank you, Sr. Helen! Updated the surname basics page with newly cited information from old books discussing the name’s origins. Found a site with the McGing coat of arms—click the thumbnail above to see it. Discovered a great web page on Irish heraldry and surnames, linked on the Irish Links page.

Updated LDS transcription material with some minor additions. Received a lot of material related to the 1901 census for McGings, creating new pages for it. Those who sent me copies of the actual census deserve my gratitude! Additionally, I received research suggesting that the McGings came from Armagh, which requires further investigation. Distributed the "book" to McGing-related families worldwide, encouraging them to write down their histories. The response has been gratifying.

December 1999

End of the Year Updates

Added a new banner to the page—thanks, Don! Due to holiday and work responsibilities, these are the last changes this year, decade, and century (the millennium starts in 2001). The McGing Family Genealogy "book" has been finalized and made available to serious researchers. Anyone interested should write, as it’s not publicly available.

Updated LDS records with the latest information. Started subsidiary pages to handle information due to table size limits causing display issues. Updated Social Security pages with new data and modified the page layout to make it smaller. Links to previously available content are now reorganized.

November 1999

Grave Markers and Social Security Data

Uploaded scans of grave markers from Aughagower. Added a page showing results from scanning films at the Family Heritage Centers—a long-term project, but worth reviewing. Transcribed Griffith’s valuations for McGinns in Mayo, which are undoubtedly McGings in disguise. Received and transcribed a batch of Social Security forms onto a new web page—huge thanks to Carl for providing the basic data as a spreadsheet, saving hours of work!

Added a link to the Connaught Telegraph for emigrant information (1904–1915)—there’s a Thomas McGing listed. Also linked to a site discussing Mayo in 1852, detailing emigration to England and Scotland due to farming issues.

October 1999

New Pages and Updates

I have created a new page for the information related to Neal McGing. Updated details on a McGing family found in Missouri (see Census Reports) and added data on a McGing family in the 1850 Ohio Federal Census. Started a new McGing mailing list and a page listing Griffith’s valuations for McGings in Mayo. Added new Census Bureau reports and updates on McGing lines in Missouri and New York.

Also included a new County Mayo map, pictures of Ireland, and rearranged items in the Links list. Additionally, added a death certificate for Austin McGing in the Odds and Ends section.