Presbyterian or Protestant Cahills born around or before 1760

Cathy,

The timescale you are looking at is right for Protestant and in particular Presbyterian migration. Most of the emigrants from Ireland  to north America in the 1700s were Presbyterian or Church of Ireland. (It was the 1800s before large numbers of Catholics starting emigrating).

Given the timing, and the Presbyterian connection, your ancestors probably came from Ulster (the northern province of Ireland) which is where the majority of Scots had settled in the 1600s.

That said, I would agree with you that the surname Cahill is almost exclusively a Roman Catholic name in Ireland. In the 1901 census there was just 1 Presbyterian Cahill & 35 Church of Ireland in the whole country. (6000 were RC). Perhaps there was a mixed marriage in the 1700s after which the family adopted Presbyterianism. Or perhaps Cahill is a modified version of a more Scottish surname, though if it is, I can’t suggest what that might be. MacLysaght's “The Surnames of Ireland” makes no mention of any Scottish or English Cahills. His sources all point to Irish origins.

Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. If you don’t know where they lived it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

I went to see the singer Judy Collins in Belfast a few years back.  Though she was obviously here to do a few concerts she told the audience she was doing her family tree too, and that her Collins ancestors were Presbyterians from Co Donegal who had left in the 1700s.  Like your Cahill problem, most Collins in Ireland are RC, so her information was a bit baffling and difficult to research, but you might  take comfort from the fact that you are not the only person with this particular problem.

Elwyn,

Thank you for your insight. All the Cahill lines in America seem to be Catholic as well except my line. I found one reference to a Joseph Cahill who was a member of Rev. Tennant's Old Scots Presbyterian Church in Maryland, USA in the mid 1700's. That congregation is said to have consisted of Scottish Dissenters. Spelling variations I have found are Coryell and Cargill that I thought might be from Ulster. I will take your advice and try the Ulster DNA project. 

Cathy

Cathy,

Cargill is certainly found across Ulster. Mostly Presbyterian and a few Church of Ireland. So that would point to Scottish ancestry. (48 in the 1901 Irish census. All in Ulster). No-one named Coryell in the 1901 census of Ireland.

The term dissenter was widely used in Ireland, as well as north America. It meant Presbyterian (they dissented from the beliefs of the Church of England/Ireland).  Presbyterianism was established in Scotland in the mid 1500s and brought to Ireland by Scots settlers mainly in the 1600s, so the majority of Presbyterians in Ireland are/were of Scots origins.