The McPhillips

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What does this tell us?  A cluster of McPhillips lived in Aughabog (Aghabog) during this period of time, but none named Patrick.  No McPhillips are listed from Ballybay Civil Parish, which would be less than five miles from the Aughabog Catholic Church.  In addition, three McPhillips can be found in Enniskillen Civil Parish, which is located at the end of the rail line.  Five Patrick McPhillips entries are found.  One of these entries shows ‘Patrick McPhillips’ living in Clones, County Monaghan.  We know Michael McPhillips was born in 1824.  Twenty eight years span the time the Flax Growers List was created and Michael’s birth.  This list may show Michael’s grandparent rather than his parent. Who would that grandparent be?  We do not not know. 

                                           Clones Rent Roll (County Fermanagh) 1821 

The following lists all McPhillips living in County Fermanagh, Clones Civil Parish. This should not be confused with the market town, Clones, found in County Monaghan.  What this tells us is that Patrick McPhillips possibly was not living in Clones Civil Parish, County Fermanagh.  Coincidentally, a ‘Michael McPhillips’ was found living in this parish. 

                                                     Griffith’s Valuation 1847 – 1864 

The following shows all ‘Patrick McPhillips’ entries found in the Griffith’s Valuation for Ireland.  Although McPhillips family history suggests Ballybay as a possible location for Michael’s home, we do not find a McPhillips listed for this Civil Parish.  That may suggest Michael could have temporarily lived in Ballybay sometime during his lifetime, but was not considered home territory.  We do find entries for ‘Michael McPhillips’ in County Fermanagh (1); Aghabog townland (9); and Clones Parish in County Monaghan (3).  Of the 33 McPhillips’ entries for Aghabog there were 9 entries for ‘Patrick McPhillips’.  Patrick was a popular name used by this family. 

Look at the map below to get some idea where these parishes were located.  The area enclosed within the red rectangle is where the largest concentration of McPhillips can be found.  Aghabog (1) Civil Parish is where ‘Irish’ John Smith was born.  Rossnaglogh East, Irish John’s home, can be found in the lower right portion of the area enclosed by the red rectangle.  Peter Smith lived near the border of Drumsnat (10) and Kilmore (36).  Remember, County Monaghan is not that large.  It is 40 miles long and only 20 or so miles wide.  With that in mind, you can see that the enclosed area can be easily traveled within a day.

The Civil Parishes: 1. Aghabog 2. Aghnamullen 3. Ballybay 4. Clones 5. Clontibret 6. Currin 7. Donagh 8. Donaghmoyne

In Search of Michael McPhillips - Ireland 

Although we could spend quite a bit of time analyzing data for Patrick McPhillips, we choose not to do so.  For our purposes though we are only concentrating on the listings for Michael McPhillips.  The following shows Griffith Valuation Surveys and accompanying ordnance maps for ‘Michael McPhillips’ living in Ireland at that time. 

Smith family lore tells us the McPhillips and Smith families lived 14 miles apart.  Perhaps, perhaps not.  What we do know is our great ancestor, Susan McPhillips, was born in Corravilla townland.  The following shows all entries for ‘Michael McPhillips’ listed in the Griffith Valuation Survey from 1847 to 1864. We skip the entries for Counties Antrim and Cavan since family history does not mention these counties.  For Aghabog Civil Parish we find a ‘Michael McPhillips’ living in two different townlands – Latnamard and Tattintlieve.  Interesting enough, these two townlands also contain an entry for ‘Patrick McPhillips’ too. 

The Griffith Valuation Survey was taken between 1847 and 1864 so it is possible we are seeing an entry for our great ancestor.  

Michael McPhillips of Latnamard 

Latnamard townland is located near the northern border of Aghabog Civil Parish.  Here we find a number of McPhillips living in this townland including a Patrick and Michael McPhillips.  Near their homes stood the parish church and graveyard, the only Catholic Church in this parish.  At times you will see several names listed together working the same tenement.  This may indicate family members working together on the same property.  Such cooperation was quite common at this time and was important to the survival of their families.  This location remains a strong contender since McPhillips lore suggests Michael lived in Aghabog Civil Parish.

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