McClain

Do you have any idea of where in Co Down the family lived? Do you know what denomination they were? We’ll need that to narrow the search. The surname is very common in Co Down. There’s about 10 Hughs and 10 Samuels on this link:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Erosdavies/SURNAMES/Mc/McClean%2B.htm

PS Don’t assume your family only spelled their surname McLain in Ireland. There were many different spellings and they varied according to the whim of the person recording the information. An exact correct spelling wasn’t something that our ancestors cared about. Especially as few were all that literate anyway.

Hi,

Thank you so much for helping me. The record i attatched is my 4th great grandpa Hugh McClain/ McClean. According to this it says they were presbyterian. They were from Newtownards in County Down.

Hugh

McCLEAN.Newtownardsof Drumhirk then Ballyhinney ; husband of Eliza Short ; father of Andrew Brown McClean b. 22 Mar & bpt. 31 Mar 1835 & Eliza b. 19 Aug & bpt. 17 Sep 1836 & John bpt. 28 Nov 1840 & Frances b. 24 Oct & bpt. 28 Oct 1844 & Samuel b. 7 Jun & bpt. 1 Jul 1849 at 1st Newtownards Presbyterian ChurchPR

There's no attachment to your post.

I looked in Griffiths Valuation for 1863 but don’t see any McLean family in Ballyhenny then. There was an Isabella Mclean in Drumhirk. She was probably a widow and lived in a labourers cottage (24b) on the Mulholland farm.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

There are 8 Presbyterian churches in the Newtownards area. Newtownards 1st Presbyterian records are still held by the Minister. The others have been copied and are in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. You would need to get a  researcher to go through them for you, for the children’s baptisms.