John McCartney

Posted 8 June 2010

This inquiry was sent by Tracy Aiello. If you have any related information, please contact her at tracya@nait.cau.

I have traced back to my great-great-great-great grandfather John McCartney who ended out his life as a journeyman soapmaker in Aberdeen. He died there in 1865. He married a few times, and I did find Elizabeth Lynch as one of his wives. He was born in Ireland but I don't know where and on his death information it lists his father as John and nothing for a mother. On Census reports both he and Elizabeth list their birthplaces as Ireland. I found death information on Elizabeth Lynch.

His son John was my ggg grandfather and he was a cooper, I cannot find any birth or death records for him. On Census reports, he lists himself as being born in Lanarkshire. I found his marriage certificate and it lists his age, so he cannot be confused with his father. He married Elizabeth Mackie. His son, Robert, was my gg grandfather and again, no information on him either except some marriages (quite a few, actually) and his death in the 1920s in Aberdeen. This John and Elizabeth were married in Aberdeen. I have seen in my many searches an Elizabeth Lynch MacKay.....and I thought perhaps this John and the other John could have been the same person, but they were not as they appear on the same Census reports. I cannot find any death information on Elizabeth Mackie either.

I did find lots of references for Catherine McCartney - on some records she lists 'John' her father as a soapmaker or as a cooper!?! This is where I had them confused - but perhaps they both had daughters named Catherine.

There are two McCartney women, Catherine and Elizabeth who had a few illegitimate children (although I do find a Catherine who married a Hugh Urquhart). I found her death certificate and she died from accidental burns in the 1880s in Aberdeen, which I found quite tragic. She's haunting me that's for sure. I can't stop thinking about her! I also believe there were two McCartney families living in the area and perhaps cousins had the same name.

Robert had married Marjory Mann and had a son, William Mann McCartney. Marjorie died shortly after William was born. William Mann McCartnbey married Jessie Grant and had my grandfather, another William Mann McCartney.

I believe I found my John McCartney on a report for a James MacArtney being transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1834 and they were listed as living on Deacon's Close, Calton Downs Glasgow...but I cannot find anything on that at all.

I also found a death record for a Hugh McCartney and his father was listed as John McCartney, soapmaker, but I cannot find any birth information for this Hugh.

I travelled from Canada to Aberdeen in the hopes of unearthing some great family mysteries at the Aberdeen Family History centre, but sadly, could not find anything that I did not already have. But I did get to stand in front of my grandfather's place of birth, and I had a Guiness in the home (which is now a famous Aberdeen pub) of my soapmaker ancestor, John.

John and I share something and I am drawn to him; we are both soapmakers and I did not find out he was one until I started my research.

If anybody has any information on this family of McCartney's, I would love to share with you.

I would like to find out where they were originally from in Ireland and then research the area at the times they lived there, and then take a journey and see it for myself.

Thanks, and if you've followed me this far down the page - good luck to everybody in their ancestral journeys.

Thank you,
Tracy Aiello
tracya@nait.ca