Overwhelmed by spam, we have closed this forum, which was for all those seeking information about their Douglas ancestors, or related material. Please join our Community Forum to follow up on any matters raised here
We have being trying for the longest time to find out the name of my ancestors parents. Our Douglas, was William Douglas of Lurgan (born 1771 died 1860). We have found his grave in Irvinestown (He was a Wesleyan Methodist Pastor, so have found info about him through the methodist archives).
Our family tradition / story carried through the generations (written down in the 1960's or so), was that our family ..." originally came to Ireland with Lord Hamilton about 1611 when sent over by James 1st to take charge of Ulster. Settled at ot near Lurgan on the shores of Lough Neagh (old burial ground was at Lurgan or near it"
We are in touch with two other Douglas families that originate from Lurgan, and based on the names of children ect, that are common amongst our ancestors, we feel sure that our lines are related, but cannot connect.
SO, our William Douglas, married Mary Atkin, daughter of Gore Atkin and Elizabeth Green. From what we can piece together he had at least 2 brothers, John and Hillary. And using the irish naming system, believe that their father was William Douglas as well. Ulster / Lurgan records (and Brownlow records) show Douglas's in the area described by my family.
So any chance that someone out there has more info than we can find? We keep hoping to connect with a line from that time that has somehow retained records from that time ....
I will be uploading arevised database later in the month, so will have more on the Brownlow connection then.
Are you on Facebook? There has been some discussion on one of the Douglas groups about Irish connections. I have just had a quick look, but could not find the tread.
Looked at the Grace Hall Douglas's and have decided that at this point we are not connected there. I am sure that we would have some sort of family story passed down if we were, rather the story we have is that they were farmers etc. Names in the family don't match either (so far the family has used the Irish tradition of naming children, using names of grandparents etc).
So we are back to looking at Douglas's at Lurgan and the surrounds. The Brownwell records have Douglas's on his land, and from working backwards (using wills and finding a gravestone) have confirmed that a Hillary Douglas (b +- 1793) of Kinnego (Lurgan) is a brother of our William Douglas (b 1771).
Some of the possible links with other lines we have found will probably only ever be confirmed with DNA (Waiting for one person to submitt).
BUT ... here's hoping someone out there has family records that can connect more of us. We only know as much as we do thanks to previous generations keeping things and passing them on!!)
Let me know if you see / get anything ese on the "Lurgan Douglas's"
I noticed this referance to Henry Douglas in your directory:
Henry DOUGLAS . Holywood son of Henry Douglas ; aged 30 married Sarah Shaw 7 Feb 1852
This Henry's father was born 1777, Lurgan Ireland. (We are in touch with an ancestor of the father henry). Do you have anything else about this family?
I am just writing up an article on Moses Douglas, a Methodist who 'opened his home to meetings, before the first Methodist church in Lurgan was built'.
He married Catherine Marsden (Masdin) on 24 April 1768 in Seagoe, Armagh, and appear to have raised 11 children in Kinnegoe (various spellings), including William, b1771 and Hilary, b1793.
