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Welcome, and if We are Related, All the Better!
Research Assistance!
After 60+ years of research, we are are at a point where helping others with their research may help us! We have access to Ancestry, Newspapers, and are very good at analyzing the Census.
If your name is Montague, Nicholson, or Cunningham and you need help with your genealogy, please contact us:
Jack Montague: johnmont@rochester.rr.com
Molly Montague Fisher: Fisher.molly47@gmail.com
Or, fill out the Google Document below! We would love to help! We also welcome any and all information you have about our family!
We welcome you to add information or pictures that you may have. What you find on this site is the result of inquiries over the past 60 years. A special thanks goes to Louise J. Montague for all her efforts in collecting information that has led to this compendium, and to Alice Lamb Davies for her efforts in providing pictures and information on immigrant Joseph Montague and his descendants. We have hopes someday of finding descendants of all five immigrants to the USA.
We also want to thank Paul Crilley who was absolutely pivotal in finding relatives in Ireland. In 1968 we wrote a letter addressed to the Catholic Diocese in Ireland looking for Hugh Montague (1840) and the letter circulated from diocese to parish and eventually to Paul Crilly who took the time to write to us and confirm that he knew Hugh and we did indeed have relatives in Ireland. Amazingly, he was in contact with the Bradley's in Beacon, New York and Annie Bradley in Ireland who knew quite a bit about how we were related. Annie was kind enough to provide information as well. It is a small world!
Lastly, thanks go to our relatives in Scotland and Traci Montague for her efforts in this research. Through the miracle of the internet we found Traci and her sister Jaqui-a great story. Someday, we shall meet! Traci is compiling information on our relatives in Scotland.
If you notice any errors or would like something added or corrected please send a copy of the corrected page to Jack Montague 17 Periwinkle Way Webster, NY 14580 or Molly Fisher at fisher.molly47@gmail.com. Please include your contact information (name, phone number, and email address) in case there are questions as well as to confirm the information. To add your own family and keep up the information, we will be happy to provide the book on a DVD format. Once you have the DVD, you can keep the information up as you like. If you would like to forward that information I will be happy to put into the book for a future issue. Although, we are not sure if there will be a third revision. Frankly, it depends on the amount of new information that we can find. To add your own family simply add the following information:
Important Places and Faces!
1. Your name and date of birth
2. The specific immigrant you are a descendant of
3. Your parents and their date of birth, and their
parents.
4. Date and place of your marriage, if applicable.
5. Your spouse and date of birth.
6. Children's name, date of birth, place of birth.
7. Where you live and if you want people to get in
touch with you, your email, phone number etc.
8. Your siblings, date of birth and current location.
History of this Site
The information you see has been gathered since 1968! It all began with a letter written by Jack Montague and many hours of research by our mother, Louise Montague. It was decided that after we published the hard copy of the 2nd edition of the Montague/McTeague Family history in 2016 we would try to take the information and create a website. The website was created in 2017. We did this for 2 reasons:
the cost of publication is steep and we quickly ran out of copies of the book due to high demand!
the information changes so quickly because of new research and growing families we found the book became outdated within months.
Site Organization
You will notice the site is divided up to reflect portions of the book. This organization will slowly go away as the site grows and we add more information. We always encourage you to contact us if you have new information ! We especially loves pictures!
Explanation of Numbering Scheme Throughout our Site
Please note the letters and numbers associated with the names of our ancestors. This numbering scheme identifies a specific person in a specific generation. If you read these numbers from right to left you will eventually get back to James and Sarah Kelly McTeague-SKM. They are the oldest generation we know of in Ireland. Their son Hugh is the second born child-SKM2. And Hugh’s son Hugh is his 10th born child-SKM2.j. The good news is the branches of this family are long and many and the bad news is it is easy to get lost in those branches. Using this numbering scheme will hopefully help you identify where you are in those long branches.
Note: Due to privacy concerns all living relatives born after 1940 have had their exact birth date omitted.
Recent Announcements from Facebook
1831 Tithe Applotment Book and Irish Census
posted March 30, 2023, 10:53 am by Molly Fisher
We are always interested in Irish documentation from the early 1800's and earlier if possible. Irish records dating that far back are hard to come by. Jack Montague found this 1831 Tithe Applotment Record showing Montagues/McTeagues in Disert. We also have 1831 census fragments of them as well (pic 2).
Important to note that Donna Sadoski's family is living at 53 Ballyronan St. (Robert McTeague). Here is excerpt from our chapter, page 6:
"James located at house 19 we think is James (1797); also living with James are 3 females one of which is certainly his wife Sally Kelly and the other two are most probably his daughters that we did not know about earlier. Of great interest are Thomas and Bernard living very close to James. This presents a possibility that these are James’s brothers, or, at least first cousins. "
Learn more here: https://www.montaguesofderry.com/ireland/irish-census-1800-s
1831 Tithe Applotment
1831 Irish Census Fragment
NEW DNA!
posted Feb. 24, 2024, 11:33 am by Molly Fisher
Exciting DNA News here! I (Molly Montague Fisher) finally got my DNA test done! We now have three DNA results! I am 99% Irish, and 1% Finnish! Our DNA section has been updated and the good news is that my DNA says I come from Ulster and Donegal. Our research concurs! The Nicholsons come from Donegal and the McTeagues come for Ulster!
We now have two Gedmatch numbers:
Jack Montague: A403529
Molly Montague Fisher: WE3782584
Our Ancestry family tree number is 7330861 Learn more here: https://www.montaguesofderry.com/dna
Gallowglasses
posted Feb 12, 2023, 11:33 am by Molly Fisher
GALLOWGLASSES were a class of elite mercenary warriors who were principally members of the Norse-Gaelic clans of Ireland between the mid 13th century and late 16th century.
The gallowglasses were attractive as heavily armoured, trained infantry to be relied upon as a strong defense for holding a position, unlike most Irish foot soldiers, who were less well armoured than the typical Irish noble who fought as cavalry.
According to James McTeague born 1922 we were Gallowglasses. Below is the letter he wrote to us in 1968. Dear John:
I must apologize for the delay in replying to your letter dated 10 March 1968. I would like to return warmest wishes and greetings to you. I would confirm, that as far as I can ascertain, you are a cousin of mine. The original spelling of the name is McTeague. There are various anglicized versions as follows-McTighe, Tighe, Montagu or Montague, but the original name was McTeague.The original clan of McTeague were Gallowglasses. These were professional soldiers who were employed by the Celtic clans both in Ireland and Scotland. These Gallowglass families lived for generation after generation by selling their services as soldiers to the clan chiefs both in Scotland and Ireland.When Ulster was finally conquered by the English forces in 1603, it was planted four years later in 1607 and the bulk of the Irish families like the O’Neills, O’Donnells, McSweeneys, Kellys, McTeagues were disposed of their lands.The lands were parceled out to people of “English and Scottish decent but apart from land being given to individuals, it was also given to the wealthy Merchant Guilds in London. Thus, for instance, the Drapers Guild of London got the tract of country around Draperstown (hence the name). A condition of the plantation was that no new landowner should allow any of the native stock to remain on his land. However, the Merchant Guilds of London, being purely business men, adverted to the fact that they would not get enough Protestant tenants to occupy the lands and, secondly, that the native land holders might be prepared to pay very steep rent to remain in their homes. Hence, the area around Draperstown, consisting of the upper valley of the Moyola River, was never, in fact, planted and remained in the possession of the native stock down to the present day. Immediately after the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, when Ulster was very disturbed as Protestants, Presbyterians and Catholics took part in the rebellion, there was a fair movement of population. Also, after the end of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, that is subsequent to 1816, there was a very severe depression of the agricultural industry in both Ireland and England and, as far as I know, sometime in the 1820’s James McTeague came from Fermanagh into Dysart, that is into the land around Draperstown, where the bulk of the population had remained as native stock.
Read more of the letter here: https://www.montaguesofderry.com/ireland
Montagues of Scotland
posted August 20, 2022, 11:33 pm by Molly Fisher
Hugh and Ellen Toal Montague of Scotland had nine children. Shown here are five of their children. Rosie is the oldest sitting in the chair. We are estimating her to be about 10+ years old.
Ellen, born 1910, would be about 8 years old and is sitting on the bench, the three boys who are standing are Eddie, John, and Francis. Eddie is the youngest. Thank you, Traci Montague and Frank Toal, for sharing this picture! Learn more here:
https://www.montaguesofderry.com/immigration/scotland-relatives
McTeagues!
posted Novemeber 11, 2021, 10:43 AM by Molly Fisher
Super excited to share this photo taken in 1932-1933 that has 4 McTeagues in it. James McTeague born May 4, 1868 is shown holding the large shovel, his three sons Patrick (Paddy), Jim, and Anthony are also shown!
James is the son of Patrick (1837) and Catherine Kelly; he married Rosie McKeown on May 29, 1913 in St. Columba's Straw. They had five children:
1. Patrick born May 14, 1914 and had 8 children
2. Mary McGill born Feb. 24, 1916 and had 10
children and lives in Belfast.
3. James born April 10, 1918 married Bridget
McGillian and had eight children.
4. Kitty O’Sullivan born Nov. 16, 1920 and had ten
children and lives in Cork.
5. Anthony born July 31, 1923, lived in Draperstown
and died Dec. 18, 2007.
Whatever method of communication you choose, we would love to hear from you!