Re: Hugh/John McElwee - Ireland/Pennsyvania
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In reply to:
Re: Hugh/John McElwee - Ireland/Pennsyvania
Tim McElwee 1/27/05
Tim,
I have doing this McElwee research for about 3 years now and of have learned anything from it is that the name patterns until about 1900 goes pretty much like this depending on how close the familys were
1 st son = fathers father
2 nd son = mothers father
3 rd son = father
4 th son = fathers oldest brother
5 th son = fathers second oldest brother or mothers brother
1 st daugther= mothers mother
2 nd daugther= fathers mother
3 rd daugther= mother
4 th daugther= mothers oldest sister
5 th daugther= mothers second oldest sister or fathers oldest sister
or some times they would mix names from the above grouping
my fathers name was Thomas Woodrow McElwee he was the third son his fathers names was Thomas Jordan McElwee. Woodrow came from his fathers wifes father and this is in 1912
but the family in from the 1700-till 1880 followed this pattern also names came from famous people of the times or from locations that they lived in I am named after my gggggrand father. Brothers often named their chidren in the above patern it took a year to break down work that other people had done on McElwees because they blended familys
Makes it look like the Fathers had 2 familys going on in 2 different locations thats when I do research I dont release to any one unless I can prove it. I make suggestions that it may be who they are and who there family were also the census are full of mistakes. Death certs also have mistakes my dads deat cert has his dad as Jerome McElwee Isearched
for 6 months until someone in the family found a family bible with his name as Jordon (look at that spelling )on his grave its JordanHe dropped the Thomas when he got older and in the census they butcher or last name I have seen it spelled so many different ways at last count I was up to 10 different spellings so when doing my research I look for places they lived dates etc. When I started i only knew my dads name I now have over 100 McElwees in my tree.
So keep looking and I will keep looking.
Michael Dale McElwee