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McGoughs, McGeoughs, and McGeoghs in Ireland in the 1820–30s and 1850–60s: By County, Parish, and Townland by Hugh McGough

The table below lists McGoughs, McGeoughs, McGeoghs (and a few other forms of the surname) in Ireland who are listed in the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith's Valuation. I started this project with a search of the records of county Monaghan, and have expanded it to include all the counties of Ireland. In the table below, the names are alphabetized by county, then by parish, then by townland, then by surname, and then by first name.

Map of the Civil Parishes of County Monaghan

Here is a map of the civil parishes within the Diocese of Clogher that comprise county Monaghan, one of the traditional nine counties of Ulster. From north to south, the boundary of county Monaghan runs along the western borders of the civil parishes of Errigal Trough, Tedavnet, Clones, and Drummully. The parishes with color represent parishes with McGoughs. The green star at the upper right is the townland of Tullymagough in the parish of Dromore in county Tyrone.

The boundaries of the civil parishes of Monaghan are different from the boundaries of the Catholic parishes of Monaghan. Twenty-two townlands that form the southwest tip of the civil parish of Clontibret, for example, are in the Catholic parish of Muckno. Thirty-three townlands at the southwest tip of the civil parish of Donaghmoyne are in the Catholic parish of Inniskeen. The civil parish of Ballybay does not exist as a separate Catholic parish and forms the southern half of the Catholic parish of Tullycorbet. The townlands of Corbrack and Agheralane on the south central border of the civil parish of Ballybay are in the Catholic parish of Aughnamullen East. The townland of Corwillin on the north boundary of the civil parish of Aughnamullen is in the Catholic parish of Tullycorbet. The civil parish of Aghnamullen is divided into the Catholic parishes of Aughnamullen East and Aughnamullen West. "The civil parish was divided into eastern and western districts by the reorganized Catholic church at the end of the 18th century, along the old road between Carrickmacross and Clones." Landscapes of South Ulster: A Parish Atlas of the Diocese of Clogher, by Patrick J. Duffy (The Institute of Irish Studies of the Queen's University of Belfast 1993) at page 88.

For a short explanation of how the boundaries of some civil and ecclesiastical parishes came to vary from each other, go to the word Parish on the Geographical Index: Glossary Of Terms on the website of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Householders Index (HI)

Theo McMahon of the Monaghan Research Centre suggested I start this project by examining the Householders Index. I spent four days in September of 1998 in the National Library in Dublin. I used the first part of my time to examine the Householder Index (HI) volumes for all the counties of Ireland. These indices list the surnames covered by the Tithe Applotment Books (T) and Griffith's Valuation (G). The books that make up the Householders Index (HI) are typed, bound into one or two volumes for each county, well indexed, and easy to use. The Householders Index lists only surnames. First names must be obtained from the Tithe Applotment Books (T) or Griffith's Valuation (G).

After combing through the Householders Index (HI) for McGoughs throughout Ireland, I spent the remainder of my four days in the National Library examining the Tithe Applotment Books (T) for the civil parishes of county Monaghan, beginning with Aghnamullen. The Householders Index (HI) shows more McGoughs in the civil parish of Aghnamullen than in any other parish in Ireland in the years covered by the Tithe Applotment Books (T) and Griffith's Valuation (G). In the civil parish of Aghnamullen, the Tithe Applotment Book (T) was done in 1829, and Griffith's Valuation (G) twenty-five years later, in 1854. The microfilms of the Tithe Applotment Books (T) are not easy to use. The original records are handwritten and sometimes faded or damaged. Deciphering the spelling of the name of a townland was sometimes difficult.

A good representation of the often archaic spellings of the townlands found in the Tithe Applotment Books is in the entries from the Tithe Applotment Books for Aghnamullen Parish published by Ann Harney, nee Nancy McGeough, as part of her excellent McGeough website. I have tried to translate the spellings of townlands to a modern version, an effort which sometimes required not only an educated guess, but also a leap of faith.

Tithe Applotment Books (T) and Griffith's Valuation (G)

Two sets of records that offer the best substitute for a census of Ireland in the 19th century are the basis of the table below. These records are the Tithe Applotment Books (T) and Griffith's Valuation (G). Both valuations show the townland in which the property was located, and the table below shows the McGoughs listed by townland. The website of the National Archives of Ireland tells us:

"The Tithe Applotment Books are a vital source for genealogical research for the pre-Famine period, given the loss of the 1821–51 Census records. They were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland (the main Protestant church and the church established by the State until its dis-establishment in 1871).

"There is a manuscript book for almost every civil (Church of Ireland) parish in the country giving the names of occupiers of each townland, the amount of land held and the sums to be paid in tithes. Because the tithes were levied on agricultural land, urban areas are not included. Unfortunately, the books provide only the names of heads of family, not other family members.

"The books have been digitally imaged, and a database giving surname, forename, county, parish and townland created. All of these fields can be searched, and there is also a browse facility, which allows users to survey entire parishes and townlands.

"The population of Ireland was recorded in 1841 as 8.2 million. It would have been somewhat less than this during the 1820s and 1830s, when the Tithe Applotment Books were compiled."

"The primary valuation of Ireland or Griffith's Valuation - carried out between 1848 and 1864 to determine liability to pay the Poor rate (for the support of the poor and destitute within each Poor Law Union) - provides detailed information on where people lived in mid-nineteenth century Ireland and the property they possessed.  Griffith's Valuation is fully searchable online, free of charge on the Ask About Ireland website." 

See also the articles on Tithe Records and How To Use Griffith's Valuation on the website of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). The PRONI article on Census Substitutes is also helpful.

The Tithe Applotment Books (T) are limited to agricultural land and do not include lessees of church land. Some parishes were not include in the Tithe Applotment Books (T).

CD-ROMs

After I had spent many hours poring over microfilms in 1998, I discovered that some of the information was available on a CD #188, Family Tree Maker's Family Archives: Index to Griffith's Valuation of Ireland, 1848–1864. The CD-ROM is searchable only by surname, then first name, but lists the county, parish and townland of each person. The spellings are more modern than those in HI and the index is more complete. I found the relatively modest price ($59.99) was a good investment that saved me much time. I used the information from this CD-ROM to fill gaps in my table. The disk would be more useful, however, if it could be searched by county, parish and townland.

Later, I purchased CD #262, Family Tree Maker's Family Archives: International Land Records: Tithe Applotment Books, 1823—1828. This helped me to fill in gaps in my table from the counties of Ireland now in the United Kingdom: Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. (I found no McGoughs listed in Fermanagh.) If I had reserved in the table below a numbered line for a surname based on information from HI (originally marked in the table HI-T), I entered the first matching entry from the Tithe Applotment Books in that line. If I had reserved no line for a name, I used the designation "CD" instead of a number. All names marked "CD" are from CD #262.

Neither of these CDs contains data from G or T about the names of the landlord, acreage leased, rent charged, and buildings on the premises, that can be found in the original records.

After I had made several revisions of this table, Ancestry.com, in celebration of St. Patrick's day in 2011, published updated versions of the Tithe Applotment Books. In March of 2011, I filled in gaps in the table from Ancestry.com's data. In the table below, these additions are marked AC in the first column. The AC index to Griffith's Valuation lists the name of landlords in addition to the information in the table below. Landlord's not listed as living in the townland are marked LLonly.

Symbols

I use the following symbols throughout the rest of these materials:

1831 Census of Ireland

The records of the 1831 census of Ireland were destroyed in a fire after the 1922 explosion at the Four Courts. Some of the records of county Derry (77,047 names), however, were found, are at the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin, and have been published by World Family Tree on Genealogy.com, along with a small number of names from the parish of Killeshandra in county Cavan in the 1841 census. The information is available on a CD-ROM: Ireland, 1831 and 1841 Census Index. Only the portion of these censuses from county Derry includes any form of the McGough name. I have included those names in the table below with the designation "census 1831."

Table Contains Limited Data

The details found in T and G about the names of landlords, amount of acreage, rental rate, and the like, are not in this table, but can be found as to the parishes named in McGoughs, McGeoughs, and McGeoghs in the Civil Parish of Aghnamullen, where the townlands are arranged in geographic clusters; and I have created similar pages for the parishes of Ballybay and Clontibret. Cross references within G often indicate that the same person leased two or more sites from the same landlord in the same townland and that there was a house on only one of the pieces of land. I have not always listed all identical names that are entered separately in a townland in G or T, because it is probable that two or more listings of the same name (with no indication of Junior and Senior) are for the same person.

Surnames Included in Table

A few names other than McGough, McGeough or McGeogh, are included in the table: Mageough (after line 103 and line 481), McGeo (lines 436–7), McGeough Bond (line 31), McGeoghy, McGeugh (after line #508), McGoagh (five entries after line 508 in the parish of Donaghmore, county Tyrone), McGogh (line 332), McGough Bond (line 109), McGoughy, McGu (line 434), and Magough (after line 103). These names were included because they are probably versions of McGough/McGeough. One major factor is that the odd spellings have never been established as surnames in continued in use.

I'm told that the Gaelic pronunciation of gh as an "aspirated slender consonant" is "y". Nonetheless, I did not originally include in my table the six McGoughys found in counties Tyrone. I changed my mind when I was told that Theo McMahon has opined that McGoughy and McGeoghy are forms of McGough. I therefore added four McGoughys in the parish of Donahgmore below line #507, and two in the parish of Pomeroy, above and below line #516. I added a Bernard McGoghey in the townland of Carrowkeel, parish of Errigal Trough, below line #485. A William McGeoghy is listed in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1663 for the townland of Agherakeltan, parish of Tedavnet, county Monaghan, and I have also added that name to my page: Hearth Money Rolls for County Monaghan: McGeogh, McGeough, and McGogh.

The McGoaghs in Tyrone are a special case. They have been included because other Tyrone records spell their name McGough. There are no McGoaghs in G, nor are there any in Family Tree Maker's Family Archives CD-ROM #354, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index 1538–1940. I have not found the surname McGoagh to be in use today. This supports a hypothesis that McGoagh is a mistrancription of McGough. I include the one McGoagh in Armagh from T (line following 49) for the same reasons, and because the Armagh townland of Ballymageogh was, in 1613, spelled Ballymcgoagh. See my web page: Where the Mountains of Mourne Sweep Down to the Sea—Ballymageogh and Slievemageogh in County Down under Historical Spellings of Ballymageogh. I added the McGogheys of Tyrone because the surname was used interchangeably with McGeoghy, a form of McGough.. See the two lines following line 510.

T also shows 15 McGeaghs in Tyrone, some in parishes where G shows McGeoughs. I have not included the McGeaghs in my table, however, even though the townland of Tullymagough in the civil parish of Dromore in county Tyrone was, in 1835, called Tully McGeagh. See Spelling of McGough under McGeagh. The surname McGeagh today has an established separate identity. The name appears both in G and in the Passenger and Immigration Lists, and is in use today. I added John McGohey of the parish of Kilmore, townland of Crenagh, in county Armagh, partly because several McGeoghs and McGeoughs are listed in the same parish at the same time. I included Stephen McGorughy of the townland of Tulleynure, parish of Donaghmore, in county Tyrone, in 1826. There were many other McGoughs in the vicinity, and there is no such Irish surname as McGoruphy.

Walter McGeough Bond and Walter McGough Bond are the same person, holding nearby properties in counties Armagh and Louth respectively; but I have listed the two names with different spellings shown in the records. The McGeough Bond name is usually indexed under Bond. The name will be found in my table under both Bond and McGeough/cGough. The MacGeough Bond Papers, summarized in the PRONI website, indicate that members of the family have spelled the name with either a Mc or a Mac, and both with and without an e. The name of Joshua McGeough is spelled in various records as Mageough, McGeough, McGraugh, McGeaugh, and McGeogh. See my page McGoughs, McGeoughs, and McGeoghs in County Armagh. Walter McGough Bond was one of the largest landlords in county Armagh in Griffith's Valuation (G), where he is usually indexed under Bond, and he often appears in the table, both as a resident and as a landlord (LLonly). For much more on the McGeough/McGough Bonds, see my page: McGoughs, McGeoughs, and McGeoghs in County Armagh.

Surnames Not Included in Table

The surnames McGeoy, McGoey, and McGouey, which originated in county Longford, have the same Gaelic origin as McGeough, McGeogh and McGough, but I have included information about these names on a separate web page: McGeoy/McGoey/McGouey. The name of my great-grandfather appears in the records of his marriage in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, as John McGeoy.

There were two McGuys in county Monaghan in Griffith's Valuation. I have no evidence, other than that Monaghan is the only place where I found the name, that this is a form of McGough, and have not included them in my table. Likewise, the McGauchs have been excluded.

Two other names you will not find in the table are McGue and McGrough. There are no McGues in either G or T. There is one McGu (434) in the parish of Magheracloone, county Monaghan, which I did include. Some members of my family in Wisconsin used the name McGue and McGough interchangeably; and Margaret McGue, a daughter of my great-great-grandparents, appears to have used only McGue during her adult life. In his final naturalization papers filed in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on December 23, 1857, the surname of my great great grandfather John McGough appears and is indexed as McGrough. In his obituary, he is referred to as John McGue. I did not find either McGrough or McGue in Irish records, but both surnames appear on passenger and immigration lists. As a general rule, I have not included other possible variations of McGough, even though I suspect that in some cases other spellings of the surname were entered in some records as a result of a failure of communication between a a Gaelic speaking McG[e]ough and an English speaking keeper of the records. The English-trained ear does not hear some of the Gaelic sounds and, even if those sounds are heard, they do not translate precisely into the English language. For information on the geographic distribution of many of these names in the US, see Distribution of McGoughs in the United States.Edward Mac Lysaght, in his authoritative books, Irish Families: Their Names, Arms and Origins, and More Irish Families, says that the origin of MacGeough is Mag Eochadha or Mag Eochaid. He says Mag is a form of Mac frequently used with with names beginning with a vowel. His material indicates that the names McGaffey, McGahey, McGahie, McGahy, McGaughy, Mageoghegan, McGehegan, McGeogh, McGeoghegan, McGeough, McGoff, McGohy, McGough, McGoughy, McGovern, McGuff, and MacKeogh all stem from Eochaidh, or a variation, Eachaid. This is only to say that the names originate in the same Irish word and is not to say that persons with these names have common blood lines. For a more through discussion, see Origins of the Surname McGough and Spelling of McGough. If the mac is not changed to mag, other possible variations of the name found in the records are: McEay, McEgan, McEhan, McEowen, McEown, McEgowan, McEgowne, McEwan, McOwen.

Examination of Irish records shows that translating McGough from Gaelic sounds to an English word was not evenly accomplished. A version of McGough, for example, was recorded phonetically as McGorke and McGorky in the Hearth Money Rolls for county Monaghan. My intuition is that the Torlogh McGorke recorded in 1663 in the townland of Elvey in the parish of Errigal Trough is the same person rcorded as Torlogh McGeogh in 1665; and the Dunsleve McGorky recorded in 1663 in the townland of Glassmulagh in the parish of Errigal Trough is the same person recorded as Dunsleve McGeough in 1665. If an "r" sound is heard in the gaelic pronunciation of the name and translated into the english spelling, as happened in the cases of McGrough, McGorke and McGorky, discussed above, many more possible variations of spellings of McG[e]eough show up in the records.

For many variations of the name that have appeared in census records, see my page: Inconsistent Census Reporting.

Interchangeability of McGeough, McGeogh, and McGough

In Ireland, McGough, McGeough and McGeogh were sometimes interchangeably used by or assigned to the same person or members of the same family. This is evident from the table below. The difficulty of maintaining separation of the McGoughs, McGeoughs and McGeoghs, has caused some Irish genealogists to throw up their hands in despair and to list all persons using of these three versions of the name as M'Geough in computerized lists of baptismal, marriage and death records. My mistakes, most of which I hope I have corrected, in trying to keep these spellings distinct from each other, help me to appreciate the reasons for these shortcuts. M' stand for Mac, Mc, or the Gaelic Mhic, Mic, or Micc. I have inserted Mc for M' in most cases.

In Ireland, there has been a trend toward insertion of an e into McGough. The Telecom Eireann 04 Directory for 1998/99 list about 70 McGeoughs and only 4 McGoughs in county Monaghan and the surrounding areas where the McGoughs have historically been concentrated. This is in remarkable contrast to the 1659 census of county Monaghan reprinted as Appendix III to The History of the County of Monaghan by Evelyn Philip Shirley (1879). In that census, McGough is listed as the 32nd most common name in Monaghan, with 10 heads of McGough families listed. The only form of the name listed is McGough. In the 1659 census of county Armagh, 4 McGeoughs are listed, and no McGoughs. I found neither McGough, McGeough, nor McGeogh in the 1659 census in any other county. See: A Census of Ireland, circa 1659, edited by Seamus Pender (1939), which is film #924648 in the Family History Centers.

The Phone Book, compiled for all of Northern Ireland by British Telecommunications, in the edition of July 1994, lists 1 McGeogh, 43 McGeoughs, and 3 McGoughs. Two of the McGoughs were in Londonderry and one in Belleek. There were 21 McGaws, 1 MacGeagh, 15 McGeaghs, 1 McGeoch, 74 Megaws, 1 McGaghey, 26 McGaheys, 2 McGahies, 87 McGaugheys, and 24 Megaheys. There were no Magoughs, McGoffs, McGows, McGuffs or McGues. There was 1 McOwen. There were 59 Goughs, 1 Goff, and 3 Goffes.

Denis Carolan Rushe published a copy he made of the Hearth Money Rolls for county Monaghan as Appendix I (pp. 291–338) to his book: History of Monaghan for Two Hundred Years: 1660–1860. These rolls list taxpayers for the years 1663 and 1665. Rushe counts 17 McGeoughs and lists it as the 22nd most common name. He includes in this count 7 names he publishes and indexes as McGeogh, 8 McGeoughs, 1 McGoeugh, and 1 McGogh, but does not include in his count a William McGeoghy of the townland of Agherakeltan, parish of Tedavnet. There are no McGoughs on his list.

In the United States, a few McGoughs have changed their name to McGeough; but in the United States directories, the McGoughs continue greatly to outnumber the McGeoughs, as they do in lists of immigrants to the United States from Ireland. For further discussion of the variations of the name McGough, see Origins of the Surname McGough, Spelling of McGough, and Distribution of McGoughs in the United States.

HI lists the number of names found in G but not in T. The entry in HI of "McGough G8 T" for the parish of Donaghmoyne indicates that there were eight heads of families with the surname McGough in G and at least one, but perhaps more, in T. My count from an examination of the G and T records is G7 T12; that is, I found 7 McGoughs in G and 12 in T. Examination of T added 11 names to the table that would not have been found by a reference only to HI and G. Other HI numbers for Donaghmoyne are "McGeogh G3" and "McGeough G7" with no reference to T. I found neither name in T, and only 2 McGeoghs in G and 10 McGeoughs in G. See lines 341 through 371 in the table below.

Concentrations in Ireland of McGoughs, McGeoughs, and McGeoghs

(These numbers will be revised when my 2011 revision of this page is completed.)

Monaghan and Louth are the two major counties in which the McGough name and its variations appear. The table shows 288 names in Monaghan and 68 in Louth. These numbers are skewed in favor of Monaghan. Although the parish of Killanny lies in both Louth and Monaghan, I have listed all residents of that parish under Monaghan (and noted that fact on line 134). county Monaghan, nonetheless, is unquestionably the county with the greatest concentration of McGoughs. Other counties where there are more than ten names in the table are: Tyrone, 71; Armagh, 69; Mayo 35; and Antrim 22. In Armagh and Tyrone, most of the McGeoughs and McGoughs are in areas close to the borders of county Monaghan. If a county is not listed in the table, no version of the name was found there.

In county Monaghan, I count: 52 McGeoghs, 84 McGeoughs, and 144 McGoughs; 4 John McGeoghs, 10 John McGeoughs, and 8 John McGoughs; 1 Hugh McGeogh, 5 Hugh McGeoughs, and 4 Hugh McGoughs.

The distribution of McGoughs shown by these tables is different than the distribution implied by the Special Report on Surnames in Ireland published in 1909 by Sir Robert E. Matheson, M.D. In tables showing the surnames of persons born in Ireland in 1890, Matheson lists at page 62:

In a table of surnames with varieties and synonyms, at page 52 of part II, Matheson lists McGough as the principal name and McGeough and McGoff as variations. His tables are limited to names that appeared five or more times in the records. No McGoffs appear in his tables.

The Scotch-Irish or the Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America by Charles A. Hanna, in two volumes, was originally published in New York in 1902. The entire work has been published on the Internet by Genealogy.com. The work is in a part of their genealogy library entitled: Scotch-Irish Settlers in America, 1500s-1800s Immigration Records. Appendix Z, in volume II, is entitled "Locations of Scottish Families in Ireland." At page 524, the same figures used by Matheson are reported with 11 McGeoughs in all Ireland, 8 in Ulster, and the one county in which the name was principally found as Monaghan. Hanna's listing of the McGeoughs in Monaghan as a Scots family contradicts the more credible conclusion of Father Peadar Livingstone in The Monaghan Story where, at page 576, he says Mc Geough is a surname that had been "in the county down the centuries." See Origins of the Surname McGough.

In Hanna's Location of Scottish Families in Ireland, the names are described, at page 518, as:

"The surnames in Ulster having four entries and upwards in the Birth Indexes of 1890, together with the number and registration counties in which these names are principally found. The first figure after a name gives the number of entries for 1890 in the whole of Ireland, and the second figure for the Province of Ulster. The estimated number of persons of each surname in the population can be ascertained by multiplying the number of entries in the list by the average birth-rate, which, for the year 1890, was 1 to 44.8 persons."

Eleven McGeough births, therefore, equates to 11 X 44.8 persons, or 493. The Scotch-Irish, Volume II, Appendix Z, Locations of Scottish Families in Ireland, Page 518. [No form of McGeough is listed in Appendix X, Families of Scotland.]

The townlands listed in the table below are in the same general areas where McGoughs, McGeoughs and McGeoghs were shown to reside by the Hearth Money Rolls of 1663 and 1665 and the Spinning Wheel Premium Entitlement Lists of 1796. Excerpts from these sources, showing the listings of forms of the McGough name in county Monaghan (with some names from Armagh, Louth and Tyrone), have been published by Ann (McGeough) Harney in her McGeough website. The Hearth Money Rolls are published under early references and the Spinning Wheel Lists under Surname Index to the 1796 Flax Seed Premium Entitlement Lists. The patterns in the table below show that the references to Enniskeen in the Spinning Wheel Lists are not, with the one exception noted by Ann Harney, references to the parish of Enniskeen in county Cavan, but rather to the parish of Inishkeen in county Monaghan. In the past, the name of the parish of Inishkeen was sometimes spelled Enniskeen. In the census of 1659, Inishkeen is spelled Eniskeene.

In the original version of the table, I did not include names from the Spinning Wheel Lists of 1796 because the McGeoughs named cannot be separated by townland and because they had already been published by Ann McGeough Harney on her McGeough website under the name 1796 Flax Seed Premium Entitlement Lists. Later, I added to this table the names from this flax seed premium list—without a reference number in the left column of the table. These references are indicated by the word "flax" in the TG column.

I have also added the few entries I found in the Ireland 1766 Religious Census on Ancestry.com, In the parish of Desertmarting, county Derry (Londonderry) were families named McGoach, McGuagh, McGuchan, McGucian, and McGurk. I have included only the McGuaghs in this table. There was a McGoogy in the townland of Rathdrum, county Wicklow, whom I have not listed.

Table of McGoughs, McGeoughs and McGeoghs in Ireland

In the table below, in the column headed T-G, T indicates that the surname was found in the Tithe Applotment Books. G indicates that the name was found in Griffith's Valuation. HI-T indicates that the surname is listed in the Householders Index (HI) as in the Tithe Applotment Books, but was not found in the civil parish named in HI. HI-G indicates that HI shows that this spelling of the surname appears in the parish indicated, but that I did not find the same spelling of the name when I examined G.

The numbers in the left column of the table are control numbers, primarily for my own use and for ease of reference. As I have added more names or corrected data, the order of my original control numbers has occasionally been changed. Names without control numbers usually have been added later from sources other than T and G. AC in the left column indicates a line added in 2011 from updated sources on Ancestry.com. The entries are alphabetized: first by county, then by parish, then by townland, then by surname, then by first name.

Here is the all-Ireland table: