McGovern/Magauran Family Co. Cavan “Red Oineys”

Hi! My name is Danielle and I’m trying to trace my ancestry. I’ve traced my family back to Owen McGovern and Anne McManus of County Cavan, Ireland.
My great great garandfather is their son Peter. He married Sarah Sheridan in Philadelphia, PA. I have some idea who his siblings are, but I’m not too sure because names are starting to repeat themselves and I’m starting to get confused.
I was wondering if anyone on here may have any information that would be helpful? I’ll take anything at this point!
Please feel free to reply here. THANK YOU!!

Hello Danielle, 

I'd love to help you uncover more about your Irish roots! :) 

It's great that you've already been able to trace your ancestors back to County Cavan. Have you been able to find any (birth)dates as well? Once you know when they lived in a certain area, I will be able to point you to the right archives. 

Feel free to share any other information that you were able to find as well. :) 

Hoping to hear from you soon, 

Melin

I believe Peter McGovern was born sometime in 1853, Sarah Sheridan in 1860. From what I understand only Peter and one other sibling immigrated to America, sometime before 1889, because that's when Peter and Sarah married in Philadelphia.
I think it may have been his brother Francis, but I've also found burial records and graveside information for Francis in County Cavan.
Owen and Anne were born sometime between 1820 and 1831, I think I located their marriage record in Kinawly church records in Kilmore diocese, they were married (from what I can understand if the record), January 31st, 1852 or 1853. Peter's marriage license from Philadelphia says he's from Derryvella, Co Cavan, and from what I've looked up on maps, that's a pretty far distance from where Owen and Anne were married. But, I know that streets and towns have expanded over the years, so it could be a possibility. I've looked on ancestry.com, findmypast.com, familysearch.com, the national library of Ireland website, myheritage.com, and quite a few others. The issue is I don't have money to spend on the membership sites, so I'm pretty limited as far as that goes. I contacted IrishFamilyHistory on Facebook, and they suggested I post here. 

Hi Danielle

Derryvella is located in Templeport Parish, and this parish adjoins that of Kinawley Parish. As marriages frequently took place in bride's parish it is fair to assume, until you locate evidence in church registers to confirm, that Anne McManus was native of Kinawley parish and Owen McGovern of townland of Derryvella, Templeport parish. 

Thanks! 

So after much research,I have found evidence that Owen McGovern and Anne McManus were married at Kinawley Parish. I also have evidence that my Great great grandfather, Peter McGovern was baptised there as well.

However, I can't get any further past Owen and Anne's marriage. No idea who her parents were, some idea of who Owen's father might be. distant relatives on ancestry.com have been saying that his father (also named Owen) may have immigrated to Philadelphia sometime in the mid /late 1800's, however I'm not sure it's the correct "downline" so to speak. I know that at least 3 or 4 siblings stayed behind, we have a relative that still lives on the land that my Great great grandfather was born on. The original house is still there, but in shambles.

Also, the witnesses on record for Owen and Anne's marriage are too blurry to decipher. 

Towns that keep popping up in records:
Ballymagaraun
Derryvella (Or derryveela)
Templeport
Bawnboy

Thanks to Brian for his input again, it's always welcome!

Written records back then are notoriously difficult to read so we can sympathise with your there.

The area around the borders of Counties Cavan, Fermanagh, and Leitrim all get very confused especially back that far in time and people would be moving around to find and follow work.

Before 1864 records were kept in the form of church and parish records, all the surviving records have been sorted into county-based genealogical centres so it may be that Roots Ireland will have some information for Cavan that you may try if not already contacted.

IrelandXO also has some information on the Irish naming tradition that could help with Owen having his father's name, something to look at too!

Please keep us up to date with any further progress, hopefully you be able to crack a little more of the puzzle.

Thank you for that information! I haven't contacted any of the centres but I will now that I finished searching the digital marriage records for Kinawley! :-)

I have joined this conversation a little late, Danielle, and it feels like between Martin and Brian you have already got some great leads.

All I wanted to interject was, please come back and let us know how you get on with the research. It would be great to learn what you find.

I will leave you with one extra tip though. The border counties such as Cavan can be harder than most to track records as people can easily choose to register on whichever side of the border they felt best suited them.  There is a society in Blacklion, County Cavan who focus on pulling all these border county archives together. They May well be able to help you get some answers.
They are called the Border Counties History Collective, and you can find them here.

Anyway, I hope that is useful.
G.

Hi Danielle, up against it with the Mc Governs with the reason being that it's such a familiar name across the County. At one point I thought they should change the name to Mc Govern County. I'm searching myself for the Clan and my Grandmother was Mary Josephine McGovern who was born in 1776 and had a brother Felix and a sister Bridget who was born around 1870. Their father was Peter who was a Soldier and I believe born around 1850. I believe Peter married A Rose Kelly. Bridget married James Coyle another Soldier in Belturbet and Mary Josephine married David Nelson in Belfast at the time 1908 they both worked in the Asylum,  Mary Josephine was a Nurse. FELIX  married a lady from Portadown A Margaret Furphy in Belfast and  both lived and died there. Not sure about Bridget but found info on the census in 1901 and 1911 and she was a widow at an early age. I'm struggling myself to put all things together and looking forward to a trip to Belturbet this year to see  if I can connect all. Good luck with your search.