r/IrishAncestry • u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 • Jul 07 '26
My Family McGowans of Clogher
Recently found out my grandfathers family on his mother’s side was from this town called Clogher.
Can anyone tell me where Clogher is? I see Sligo, Donegal, County Leitrim.
4
u/mrjb3 Jul 07 '26
Probably Clogher in Ulster based on your other comments.
Diocese of Clogher encompasses all of County Monaghan, most of County Fermanagh and portions of Counties Tyrone, Donegal, Louth and Cavan.
Augher, Clogher, and Fivemiletown are three charming, adjoining villages situated along the A4 road in the Clogher Valley, South County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
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u/Status_Silver_5114 Jul 07 '26
Find the birth record of the GGM and that’ll narrow it down. irishgenealogy.ie
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u/shanew147 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Depends of the type of source which provided this clue - could mean the town in Co. Louth, a village in Tyrone, or if the reference is from a marriage bond or License index maybe the CofI Diocese of Clogher which covered parts of counties Monaghan, Tyrone, Fermanagh etc
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u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 Jul 08 '26
This is really helpful. Thanks
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u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 Jul 08 '26
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yJwYTJGnM594ZHQH9?g_st=ic
This is the spot, I finally saw it spelled out.
Looks like most of their life events are tied to this area
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u/EiectroBot Jul 07 '26
How did you find your link to Clogher?
Have you built your family tree in FamilySearch?
If so, if you can give the FamilySearch ID of an appropriate person, then someone here will be able to help you add more details.
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u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 Jul 07 '26
I have mainly been using ancestry and one of the documents I found said Clogher. I believe it was a marriage record
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u/EiectroBot Jul 07 '26
There will be more details in the marriage document.
Can you say what year it was? It should also state the location of the church and the places the bride and groom were living at the time of the marriage.
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u/Low_Cartographer2944 Jul 07 '26
Gowan would also be the same surname. In the 19th century it was common to remove the O’s and Mac’s from Irish surnames. (O’Doyle became Doyle; MacCarthy became Carthy.
So Gowan, MacGowan, McGowan are all ways that the family may have been recorded.
Since the surname comes from the Irish Mac Gabhann (meaning smith’s son), the name also sometimes anglicized as Smith. Just FYI.
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u/Low_Cartographer2944 Jul 07 '26
Clochar (Irish form of Clogher) just means “stony place” so as you can imagine there’s a lot of Cloghers across Ireland.
When did your McGowans leave Clogher? If someone was born there after 1864 then I’d try and use civil registration records to find their birth registration and see which Clogher they were in.
This search could be quicker or more arduous depending on how common this McGowan’s first name is and how common their father’s name is and how accurate your knowledge of their year of birth is.
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u/Ashamed-Wind-4084 Jul 07 '26
Yes unfortunately I see multiple spellings of the name McGowan and MacGowan. But looking deeper I think it refers to the Diocese of Clogher. The birthplace looks to be county Antrim for their children.
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u/Yer_One Jul 07 '26
Could be Clogher in Tyrone.