The credit for pulling together the information about the "Descendants of Thomas McLaughlin" cannot be in anyway credited to me. At least 20 years ago or more, a McLaughlin researcher set out to find his ancestors. He did just that. I have his 34 page document which is truly a masterpiece. It is to me anyway and should be considered as such for anyone connected to this tree. He made so many sourced connections within this tree that you can even find the Gartland's and Maxwell's that have multiple marriages into this line.
His research lives on. He told me this past summer that he really has not updated his document since 2003. He also told me that as far back as he could really go accurately was to Patrick and Michael McLaughlin. That their father's name was Thomas, is an educated guess. I am convinced and support his best guesses. Let's just say that his document demonstrates his genealogy abilities.
Bridget McLaughlin was probably their sister but that is still a question. She may, in fact, be Patrick and Michael McLaughlin's sister-in-law who went on to marry Michael Mahardy after her first husband, a McLaughlin brother, passed away. Would a Mahardy support that? I'm not sure. I have another researcher who is a Maxwell/McLaughlin who had indicated that Bridget was the sister-in-law. I appreciate both sides of this "coin". Let's not let perfection be the enemy of all the good that has come out of this research. It is AWESOME!
I am sad to say that the historical society in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Ireland, has been disbanded. One of my Flanagan researchers over in Ireland headed there to see what she could find out. She found very minimal information. Ironically, she did find the marriage of Bridget McLaughlin to Michael Mahardy/Mahady in that location. The fact that she did not find any other McLaughlin's attached to her made her question if she found the people connected to my line. I think that she did find Bridget and may not have found my other McLaughlin's because Bridget was only related by marriage.
So what comes next? I have skinnied down the family line into a quick reference type document similar to what I did for the "Descendants of James Maxwell". While I spent hours on the Maxwell document, I have not had to spend as much time on the McLaughlin document simply because it has already been laid out for me by the wonderful previous researcher who created it.
I have skinnied out Bridget McLaughlin's information and the "mystery cousin", Owen McLaughlin. I have retained their family tree and sourced information in the original 34 page document. My focus with the skinnied down document has been to include Thomas and his two sons, Patrick and Michael. I am taking Patrick's line only so far but Michael's line I am taking all the way to the present inasmuch as I have the information. Michael McLaughlin is my great great great great (G4) grandfather. As you can imagine, my interest in developing his line lives very much inside of me.
In the next several posts, I will attempt to place the "Descendants of Thomas McLaughlin" online. I also have the Word Document available for anyone who is connected to the line.
To be continued.......
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