Finding my Neilands ancestors

My great-great grandmother's maiden surname has been debated for generations.

Some of her descendants have called her Jane Young, or Jane Long, but two people have insisted that these are wrong and that her correct surname was McNeilans or McNeilands. And these two people are the two most trustworthy family historians I know of, Annie Bray Buchanan and David James Watson.

Annie points out that the name Jane Young comes from a single source, a death certificate, where the informant was the husband of the deceased family member. 

The name Jane Long, proved to be the maiden name of William Buchanan's mother-in-law. It is a correct name, but applied to the wrong person.

Over the past 10 years we have become aware of the spelling Knilans and evidence has gradually been growing that this is my ancestor's birth family.

Most recently I was in contact with the Castlederg & District Family History Society, from the area where my G-G-Grandparents lived in the 1810a and 1820s.

Hi Pam, greetings from Canada. Would you know anything of a Jane Neilands or McNeilands (or something that sounds like that) who married Andrew Buchanan? They lived near Castlederg, as three of their sons (Robert, Charles and William) were christened there in 1815-1824. Later they lived at Binnawooda, and emigrated from there in 1847, settling in an area that became Donegal, Perth, Ontario, Canada.

Reply
Pam N
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Bill Buchanan I do know of one Jane of that era. Robert Neilands/Knilans (1750-1829) left a Will naming his children ie Abraham. Daniel, John, James, George, and Jane. Robert lived at Magherakeel, had an interest in farms at Lisnacloon and Creduff. His parents were a John Neilands (I think) and Helen Kyle of Creduff. I noticed the McNeilands branch was in Strabane. (see Tithe ) and there is a deed at Irish Deeds that has been transcribed for a John Neilands there. I think we started at Strabane Muster Rolls

https://www.cotyroneireland.com/tithe/tithe_camus.html

Index to the Tithe Applotment Book, Camus-Juxta-Mourne Parish (including part of the Town of Strabane) Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland 1827

COTYRONEIRELAND.COM

Index to the Tithe Applotment Book, Camus-Juxta-Mourne Parish (including part of the Town of Strabane) Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland 1827

Index to the Tithe Applotment Book, Camus-Juxta-Mourne Parish (including part of the Town of Strabane) Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland 1827

Reply
Pam N
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this 1740 deed says that John McNeelance was previous owner of orchard etc, with the Abercorns still https://irishdeedsindex.net/transcriptions/index.php

Transcriptions  Registry of Deeds Index Project

IRISHDEEDSINDEX.NET

Transcriptions  Registry of Deeds Index Project

Transcriptions  Registry of Deeds Index Project

Reply
Kathie J B
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Go to the files and start checking through the Termonamongan and Derg Parish files.

There was an incredible collective amount of work done on them with lots of transcribed information.

In the FamilySearch Family Tree I finally made a decision that I have been pondering a long time. I added this couple as the parents of my 2GGM Jane McNeilands, based on the following:

They lived in the parish where Jane's son Charles Buchanan got married.

They had a daughter named Jane in the right time period.

The names Neilands and Knilans are spelling variations of the same name.

The Mc and O' prefixes may be added or dropped by the same family.

This is stretching things further than I like, but still seems probable.

Robert Knilans    Male       1755–1829          •    GWWQ-212
Margaret             Female    1775–Deceased   •    G75S-4GG

I hope I am right.

- Bill 

Getting caught up after a time

 Sarah,

Thank you. The photos continue to be a family treasure. I have told our story many times. Even distant acquaintances have heard about the "total stranger" in Scotland who offered to send me a box of photos of my family. And would not let me pay for the shipping. And sent me a link to the scanned copies in case the British or Canadian postal system lost the box.
Bless you for your kindness and generosity.
I hope things are going well for you.

- Bill

Read, 03:53 p.m.

Hello again, Bill! I'm glad the photos are with the family they belong to. It was fun doing a bit of detective work to find the owners. I too have been sharing the story of the photos and of your grandmother Louisa's adventure, going to another country to marry a man she had never met.

We have just had the family from Canada over for two weeks. Young Wilfred is now 3 years old and has a younger sister. They met their cousin for the first time and were here to celebrate his first birthday last Friday. My son's wife is Chinese and my daughter's husband is Jordanian so we have three mixed race grandchildren.

Wilfred left a reminder of his visit after he had gone. On Monday when we had gone out for the day with our daughter and grandson my daughter's car locked itself with the keys and the baby inside after she had shut his door and before she got round to the driver's door. She panicked and called emergency services as she has no spare key and the baby was crying inside. A police van with three police officers and a fire engine with 6 crew members and flashing blue lights came to the rescue. Between the 9 of them they eventually managed to force the door open a crack and fish out the keys. However, the car then wouldn't start and it turned out that the lights had been left on and flattened the battery. Katie always has the lights on automatic so she couldn't understand how that had happened until we remembered that Wilfred had been playing around in the driver's seat a couple of days earlier, and no doubt had turned the lights on. It will go down as a good family story! I wonder what old Wilf would have had to say about his namesake.

Hope all is well with you.

Sarah