Genealogy Chat

HI all - I'm posting this after much research has drawn a blank. My wife is a McNicholl from North Antrim (Northern Ireland), and via a combination of paper and DNA we have tracked her line back to Coleraine/Errigal/Lisnaseragh and a group of McNicholls that were there at the time of the 1831 census. Sadly, despite much searching there are no conclusive prior records of this group, and in particular our Dennis McNicholl listed in the group.

DNA tends to suggest that there was a NPE at some point many centuries back as the closest Y-DNA matches seem to be Cain/Kane etc. - but we're still keen to try and find where this McNicholl group came from (Scotland being the obvious candidate).

Does anyone have any tips on how to knock down this brick wall? We're not neccessarily fixated on tracing Dennis' parentage specifically - more on how that grouping (there are 24 of them listed as a group) came to be threre?

Cheers,
Bill

That ref has stretched out the page

Not sure what you are asking for as there's no 1831 census

Apologies for the formatting, I'll edit the original to remove it.

There was an 1831 census although very little of it remains - fortunately (and frustratingly) for us, it includes our lot.

Our lot in plain text (the numbers are "house" numbers) is below ...

McNicholl Andw Thos Lisnaseragh 13 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Widw Pat Lisnaseragh 14 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Bernard Lisnaseragh 15 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Danl Lisnaseragh 16 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Manus Lisnaseragh 17 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Pat Lisnaseragh - Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Hu Lisnaseragh - Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Pat Lisnaseragh 19 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Hu Lisnaseragh 19 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Bernd Lisnaseragh 20 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Pat Lisnaseragh 21 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Dennis Lisnaseragh 22 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Bernd Lisnaseragh 23 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Geo Lisnaseragh 24 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Jams Lisnaseragh 25 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Patk Lisnaseragh 30 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Philip Lisnaseragh 32 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Widw Pat Lisnaseragh 33 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Fras Lisnaseragh 35 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Andw Lisnaseragh 36 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Patk Lisnaseragh 38 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Chas Lisnaseragh - Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Bernd Lisnaseragh 41 Coleraine Errigal
McNicholl Patk Lisnaseragh 42 Coleraine Errigal

I'm looking for any ideas on where this little group of McNicholls may have originated ..

Cheers,
Bill

For helpers' ref - each of those entries is the name of the head of household.

Looking at a few of them at random, each household had approx. 6-ish people.
Unfortunately none of the other household members are named, nor are any ages given.

All members of all the households were Roman Catholics.

Thanks ... I'm sure we all know how dificult the search in Irish records is, but I've also tried looking for similar names in earlier Scots records but without success ...although it may well be that there was a change in spelling in the name as they came west. The romantic vision is that they were the MacNicols of the Western Isles but sadly I've been unable to make a proper link ..

Cheers!
Bill

If they were from Scotland it must be further back than ScotlandsPeople's RC baptisms - none earlier than 1819, and that's with the spelling McNicol.

SP shows a couple of Daniel McNicols, but only born in 1829 and 1831, so clearly not them.

Church of Scotland baptisms go back to 1750, but they're not relevant to your McNicholls.
And probably not far enough back in any case.