Shot In The Dark!

Gill Cottage - Gortaran, Clonmany, Co. Donegal

Irish genealogical research can be daunting, especially when you have no idea where to start.  I often receive requests from people who reach out to me armed with very little in the way of information tying their Irish ancestor to a particular location and perhaps only a very vague family anecdote on where they came from in Ireland.  These are the difficult cases which may take years to tap away at until one day you are lucky enough to make a breakthrough, even with DNA analysis.  It is even more difficult when an Irish ancestor left these shores before the mid-1800s.  I can never guarantee that I will find that elusive ancestor's exact connection to Ireland, but I do promise that I will try everything in my power to do so!  That said, sometimes there are very lucky breaks that can literally just land on your lap!

The following family history research story has a local flavour to it, from Clonmany where I live.  It has similar elements of my own family history to it, in the migration to and from Ireland to Scotland and back and also a family tie of sorts...my sister-in-law is married into this family. 

**PINNED BLOG NOTE:
If you are reading this from a third party social media platform, then you are very welcome to my website. If you have some time to explore the various pages I would be delighted!  I will be posting regular blog articles here and consolidating some of the articles I have posted in various other sites in this space also.

​Phone Call Out of the Blue
During the recent Clonmany Festival (now in its 56th year!), I missed a phone call one afternoon out of the blue from a US number.  They luckily left me a voice message stating that their name was David Boyle and they were currently in the Clonmany Parish office looking for information on their grandmother, Jane Gill. The Parish Secretary, Kathleen Doherty had recommended my services and had given him my number.

Meagre Information To Work On
By the time I phoned David back he had met up with another local, Willie Gill and they were trawling around St. Mary's graveyard in the village. David told me that he was "chancing his arm" and that his visit was really a "shot in the dark" at finding out more about his paternal grandmother, Jane Gill.  The only solid information that he could provide me with was that his father, William Boyle had been born in Glasgow in 1933 to parents William Boyle and Jane Gill. He knew no more about them really, other than that his grandmother used to visit Clonmany annually with her children (David's father, William and his siblings).  David had always wondered what exactly their connection was to the place. He didn't know if Jane had been born in Clonmany or in Glasgow for instance.  He also mentioned that his own brother, Andrew Boyle had visited the area in the early 2000s and had a couple of photos of himself outside of the cottage that Willie Gill was born in at Gortaran, Clonmany.  However, his brother Andrew left back in 2005 with little information of how their grandmother was connected to these Gills. 

​I arranged to meet David at Willie's sister Ann Gill's house next door to that very cottage later that afternoon.  I wanted to spend an hour looking through the various databases I had to see if I could find anything on Jane Gill and her connection to Clonmany.

The notes I took while talking to David on that first phone call!

Local Name
For those of you familiar with the surnames connected to Inishowen, you will know that Gill is one of those that has a concentration in the Parish of Clonmany - they are particularly plentiful in the townlands of Gortfad and Gortaran as evidenced in the Parish Registers 1852-1900.  However, following a quick search, I established that there was no record of a Jane Gill born at any time between those two dates.

Scotland
I thought it best to shift my initial search to Scotland to confirm the information that David "did know".  I searched for a Scottish Civil Birth record for his father, William Boyle who he said was "born in Glasgow in 1933" and almost immediately found that he had been born in Anderston, Glasgow to parents William Boyle and Jane Gill in the year given.  From this I searched for his parent's marriage record and this too was connected to the same area of Glasgow.

William Boyle and Jane Gill were married in St. Patrick's RC Church, Anderston, Glasgow on 16 July 1926.  Their Scottish Civil Marriage record stated that their parents names were:
​
William Boyle and Ellen Toal (William's parents) and Neil Gill and Mary Jane Darcy (Jane's parents)

Some More Digging
With a little more research between the Scottish Civil Records and going back to the Clonmany Parish Records with the information I found, I managed to start to compile an outline of the Gill Family Tree from William Boyle's mother, Jane Gill.  The following image is my first draft of that family tree:

---

Little Reveals
The Scottish Civil Marriage Record of Jane's parents (which I located next) - Neil Gill and Mary Jane Darcy revealed yet another generation - the Great x 2 Grandparents of David Boyle who were Patrick Gill and Bridget Doherty (Neil's Parents) and Edward Darcy and Anna Richardson (Mary Jane's Parents).

From this I finally found the Clonmany connection! Neil Gill (Jane Gill's father) was born/baptised in Gortaran, Clonmany on 30 August 1856.  His parents - Patrick Gill and Bridget Doherty were probably married pre-1852 since I could not find a marriage record for them and the Clonmany RC Parish records don't begin until 1st January 1852 and Irish Civil Marriage Registration dates from 1st January 1864 for Roman Catholic marriages.  I did find other children however for this couple (siblings of Neil Gill):

Patrick b.    29 January 1854  
Eleanor b.  14 June 1858

It was a start and all of this was managed in twenty minutes of initial searching.  I had enough to meet David at the cottage to give him my provisional findings which tied his family to the cottage in Gortaran.

L-R: David Boyle, his son Charlie Boyle, Ann Gill and her brother, Willie Gill (August 2025)

Gill Gathering
When I arrived in the townland of Gortaran, I caught up with David Boyle, his teenage son, Charlie and their friend, Josh in their rental car.  Willie Gill and his sister Ann were to be our gracious hosts.  It was a hilarious meeting in Ann's kitchen that day - even if it had never been proved, you could see the family resemblances - both physical and in their sense of humour!  David is definitely cut from the same cloth as his cousin Willie!  

Ann was able to add to my initial findings with some information regarding Jane Gill's siblings, two of whom came to Ireland from Scotland to run the family farm - a brother and a sister - and probably the reason for Jane's annual visits to Clonmany.  This was handy since my first forays into the Scottish records had only revealed four sisters of Jane Gill.  More digging would be required on this!

David also filled in some information on his own immediate family.  His father William was the first in the family to go to university, winning a prestigious prize for being the premier in the field of science in Great Britain at the time.  He became a professor and eventually emigrated to Australia where he married and had four children - David, Graeme, Andrew, and Christine.  David, a musician moved to the USA, initially to New York, but now lives in Texas, where he purchased the former 1920's era Providence Primitive Baptist Church in East Austin and converted into a recording studio called "Churchhouse Studios".  He has worked with Robert Plant, David Byrne, Justin Timberlake and Glen Hansard, to name but a few! Incidentally, David also has McGrory roots in Culdaff and met up with Neil McGrory while he was here in Inishowen.  Seems like they have a lot in common with their very similar backgrouhnds in music and music production! Something to be said for genes!

---

Photos taken at the Gill Cottage in Gortaran, Clonmany at Andrew Boyle's 2005 visit

​Update #1
When the dust had settled a few days later, David reached out to provide me with some additional information he had following discussion with his siblings.  They had found some emails relating to the farm in Gortaran relating to the time his brother Andrew had visited!  At least it confirmed what I had found, plus added some additional information as to Paddy and Annie's lives in Gortaran which made very interesting reading.

Update #2
I've had a little time to do some additional research on this family and have since found all ten of Neil Gill and Mary Jane Darcy's children born in Glasgow between 1884 and 1905 (siblings of David's grandmother, Jane Gill).  Paddy and Annie were the two that came to Gortaran and lived their lives out there and they were child no. 2 and no. 3 in the family line.  They appear on both the 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland as living with their aunts, Mary and Ellen Gill here in Clonmany, so were relatively young when they came.  Once I have completed the research for David and his family (and with their permission) I will post a final update to the story.

Additional Thoughts
It's infinitely amazing to me how the various family stories unfold through research.  It's a little snapshot of living in a particular place with real life tales that tell of hard choices that had to be made and how these people just managed to get on with things. 

I can't imagine it was easy for Neil Gill and his wife, Mary Jane making the decision to send their children from Glasgow to Clonmany.  But equally, it must have been a total culture shock for those children, Annie and Paddy, to have been thrust into.  What it does show however, is that those close family ties were maintained despite the lack of modern communication choices that we enjoy today.  It also makes it apparent that not all emigration was "one way" in the 1800s and early 1900s, and that people did come back to Ireland.

Of course, much of the family history research that I undertake to do does not unfold quite as easily as this case did. However, it helps when you have local assistance in terms of anecdotal information, clear and verifiable source material and yes, the expertise of a professional genealogist to put it all together!

Jennifer McLaughlin-Doherty
www.IrishAncestral.com