Looking for the elusive McCabes

Hi Thom,

Thank you very much for your message.

Unfortunately it may be difficult to find this baptism record given the early date. Catholic records for Magheracloone do not begin until 1836:

http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=Monaghan&parish=Magheracloone&churchid=293

Church of Ireland records generally tend to have an earlier start date so if the family were Protestant you may be able to find something there. Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42

Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.

It may be an idea to contact Monaghan Genealogy to see if they can be of any assistance however a fee may apply. Here is their email: theomcmahon@eircom.net

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,    

Genealogy Support

Hi ..My husband is Edward Smyth from Scalkill. However there are many in the area. He is related to McCabes. Again many around..maybe we can work together. I live in NY. I do not know however if any went to Canada.
Dawn Smyth

Hello Thom! Was your family perhaps from the Lindsey/Ops area of Ontario, Canada? I have letters from the late 1800's from Ireland to Kansas. And a Catherine McCabe is mentioned in them. I was able to find a marriage record of a Hugh McCabe and Mary Jane Ferris dated 1852 in Ops. It mentions his parents as the deceased Felix McCabe and Catherine Conners. (My GG Grandfather is an O'Connor) Haven't made the connection how the O'Connors and McCabes are connected. I know its a shot in the dark, but you never know. Take care, Michele

Dawn, we believe Felix McCabe married Margaret Smith/Smyth(e) in Ireland. I am trying to nail down any info on them in that area. I would be happy to work with anything you might have to help in this.  I am in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada so everything I am doing is via email.  You can contact me at polkaroo@hotmail.com instead of this site.

Thom

Michele, my McCabes were in the Arthur region of Ontario and they donated land for the building of St Cyprians church and cemetery in that area.  The church is now gone but the cemetery still remains with some of the original McCabes headstones.

I know some of the family of Felix McCabe m. Mary or Margaret  Smith or Smythe moved to the US and I believe one of them was in Kansas.  This is not my direct line as Felix was the brother to my GGGgrandfather's father who remains nameless.

You can contact me directly at polkaroo@hotmail.com should you want to follow up on this.

Thom

I am related to Smyths of Scalkill and McCabes from Corlea. Would be very interested in contacting anyone in this thread to share information.

To update the original post:  we have now found that Patrick was the son of Felix and Margaret not his nephew.  We have also learned that Patrick married a Jane Cullivan whom he had known in Ireland.  The land in Ontario for St. Cypriens was donated by another Patrick McCabe who married a Jane Flanagan.  This has caused some confusion in a lot of my research.

We also have confirmed that Felix and Margaret (Mary) had 7 children:

Edward b. ca 1810

Margaret b. ca 1812

Patrick b. ca 1813-1815

Henry b. ca 1815

Charles b. ca 1822

Eleanor b. ca 1823

Ann b. ca 1826

This family left Ireland somewhere around 1829.

We now believe James, an elder brother to Felix, came with them.  James came with his wife Bridget (no last name known). Their headstone is found in St. Cypriens. James died in 1847, Bridget died in 1855 at age 91.