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Subject: [AYR] McKiernan or McKernan, Ardrossan
Date: 4 Feb 2002 20:29:07 -0700

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: McKiernan McKernan
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/QeC.2ACE/4657

Message Board Post:

Around 1886, Michael McKiernan and his wife Ellen (McGarry) moved from Kinune, Glendun, Co Antrim to Scotland, bringing their children Michael (b 1878), Thomas and Ellen Jane (both b 1883) and Daniel (b 1885).

Two further children were born in Scotland, Mary (b c1888) and Margaret Ann (b 1889). The family settled in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, where Margaret Ann was born, but the only birth record for a Mary that I can find in 1888 relates to Dirleton (Lothians?).

Margaret Ann died in infancy, but all the others are in Ardrossan in the censuses of 1891 and 1901. Mary died in Ardrossan in 1922.

In the 1920s, Daniel (with his Scottish wife Ina McDonald) and his parents returned to Co Antrim and settled in Straid, Knocknacarry, Co Antrim. Daniel was a carpenter; his father Michael seems to have worked in coal-mining in Scotland.

Interesting facts about this family include: Michael (senior) was one of the last Gaelic speakers in Co Antrim, and was recorded reciting a local song in 1931. I have heard that Daniel was a professional footballer with Dundee or Dundee United, but I cannot confirm this. There is an interview with a daughter of Daniel at http://www.antrimhistory.net/interviews/mary.htm.

Now, I would like to trace descendents of the other family members, who may have remained in Scotland, viz. Michael (junior), Thomas and Ellen Jane. I wonder if their descendents are still in the Ardrossan area.

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