Need a little assisance...Please?

Scott,

Unfortunately there are no church records for Raloo for the 1700s (in fact there?s nothing earlier than 1840 for that parish), so researching ancestors for the early 1700s is pretty well impossible, unless you were of a very big landed estate or otherwise in the public eye.

You can search Griffiths Valuation for McElrath families in that parish in the 1860s but proving which, if any, was the family that John was descended from will be nigh on impossible (in my opinion).

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

The idea of a single or correct spelling for a surname or a place name is very much a recent phenomenon and before that, especially in Ireland, there was no consistency. Names were spelled phonetically and each variation was down to the whim of the particular person (often an official) recording the information. You will often see the spelling change as the records go back. This rarely indicates a particular deliberate decision to alter the name nor even a mistake. Not everyone was literate, but even when they were, exact spelling simply wasn?t something they bothered about. In addition to varying the actual spelling, acquiring/dropping O? or Mac prefixes was also very common.

In Irish (gaelic) the spelling and prefixes vary depending firstly on what case is used (eg genitive usually requires the insertion of an extra ?i?), and secondly with a woman?s name, it alters depending on her marital status. However since few records you are likely to need are in Irish that need not be a hindrance but it is a further factor in explaining why no-one in Ireland worried about the ?correct? spelling. There wasn?t one. Expect the spelling to vary.

Elwyn

Hi, scott

I think we're on the same branch here. I'm looking for John McElwrath born (B 1720?) and moved to North Carolina. Is this the same person you're seeking? He married Agnes Nancy McDowell and they both died in Rowan County, NC.

Thanks,

Jan