This week I’ve been working on organizing, verifying, and inputting information from my McSwegan folder. It seems appropriate that I highlight this surname this week.
McSwegan is a “marry in”. Thomas McSwegan married my 3rd Great Aunt, Catherine Kelly. Catherine was the daughter of Martin Kelly and Catherine Dolan.
The McSwegan’s hale from County Tyrone, Ireland. I found many variations of the spelling in records. There was the obvious McSwegan and McSweegan. I also found Maxwigin, McGuigan, McSygan, and McSuigan.
The line starts with Charles McSwegan, b. ca. 1820 in Ireland. Charles married Mary Gallagher ca. 1845. Charles may have died before the family came to America in the early 1860s. I find no record of him in the census or city directories.
I was surprised to find entries for Mary (Gallagher) McSwegan in early city directory for San Francisco. It was not common for women to be listed prior to 1900 in San Francisco city directories. No business is listed by here name in any of the entries. It makes me wonder if she might have had money, since there doesn’t seem to be anything else to elevate her status in the 1860s and 1870s.
Charles and Mary had at least 11 children. I was able to figure out the names of seven of them. They were Daniel, Thomas, Joseph, Hugh, Elizabeth, Charles Jr., and Edward.
As far as I can tell, only Thomas and Daniel married and had children. Though the others lived to adulthood, they didn’t seem to have marriage on their mind.
Daniel and his wife did not have any children. She had children by her first husband and none of them carried the McSwegan surname. Thomas had children by both his first and second wives (Catherine was his second wife). It appears that none of the male progeny had male children. Unless there was another offspring of Charles and Mary (Gallagher) McSwegan who married, had children, and those children carried the name forward, it looks like the McSwegan surname has died out–out least for this family.
A couple of interesting notes about this family:
Daniel graduated from the Medical College of the Pacific in 1878. He was a doctor who worked in Colorado, California, and near Tombstone in Arizona.
Charles Jr. owned his own business-a plumbing shop.
Hugh was a policeman in San Francisco.
Thomas was a plasterer. He took a nasty fall from a scaffold in 1887 which he eventually died from.
Elizabeth never married. She was a dressmaker for several years. In the later years, it appears that she was taking care of her brothers.
This is the descendants list for the McSwegan line:
Descendant List of Charles MCSWEGAN – 21 May 2011
——————————————————————————-
1-Charles MCSWEGAN (-bef 1870)
+Mary GALLAGHER (abt 1820-)
. .2-Daniel G. MCSWEGAN (Feb 1847-2 Dec 1921)
. . +Aladell ??? (Jan 1864-bef 1910)
. .2-Thomas MCSWEGAN (abt 1845-3 Jul 1895)
. . +Catharine F. “Kate” KELLY (8 Apr 1852-31 Oct 1921)
. . . 3-Hugh P. MCSWEGAN (31 Jul 1876-8 Feb 1961)
. . . 3-Nellie MCSWEGAN (Jan 1879-bef Dec 1949)
. . . 3-Catherine MCSWEGAN (Nov 1880-31 Dec 1962)
. . . +Benjamin Franklin “B.F.” BADDELEY (8 Feb 1872-16 Mar 1950)
. . . . .4-Harry W. BADDELEY (7 May 1910-29 Nov 1964)
. . . . .4-B.F. BADDELEY Jr.
. . . 3-Joseph T. MCSWEGAN (May 1884-24 Dec 1949)
. . . 3-??? MCSWEGAN (abt 1887-6 Jun 1888)
. . . 3-Alice F. MCSWEGAN (Jul 1889-)
. . . 3-Ellen MCSWEGAN (abt 1892-)
. . . +M.W. “William” NEWMAN (abt 1875-)
. . . . .4-Charlotte C. NEWMAN (16 Dec 1902-1 Nov 1962)
. . . . . +Leo A. VAUGHAN (9 Sep 1901-Mar 1976)
. . . . . . 5-Charlotte Helen VAUGHAN
. . . 3-Arthur A. MCSWEGAN (15 Apr 1894-12 Apr 1967)
. . . +Mary Jane “Mae” BURKE (3 Jun 1884-9 Dec 1967)
. . . . .4-Betty Ann MCSWEGAN
. . . . . +Calvin F. QUEEN
. . . . . . 5-Linda Sue QUEEN
. . . 3-Charles MCSWEGAN (bef 1895-bef 1900)
. . +Margaret ??? (abt 1840-6 Dec 1871)
. . . 3-Charles MCSWEGAN (abt 1868-16 Oct 1912)
. . . 3-Lizzie MCSWEGAN (abt 1869-)
. .2-Joseph MCSWEGAN (abt 1850-21 Aug 1886)
. .2-Hugh MCSWEGAN (abt 1850-24 Jan 1898)
. .2-Elizabeth MCSWEGAN (abt 1855-)
. .2-Charles MCSWEGAN Jr. (abt 1856-23 Feb 1919)
. .2-Edward MCSWEGAN (Mar 1864-25 May 1913)
. .2-??? MCSWEGAN (-)
. .2-??? MCSWEGAN (-)
. .2-??? MCSWEGAN (-)
. .2-??? MCSWEGAN (-)
Note: There was another McSweegan/McSwegan family living in San Francisco at the same time as this family. The oldest member’s name was James McSwegan. James and his wife, Eliza, first appear in records around 1870. I’ve yet to connect them to my McSwegan’s. It seems likely that there is a connection since they were the only McSwegan families in San Francisco before 1900.