Thanks to Paul Robinson for his very useful post. I had not realised that PRONI now has a wills index search on the site and will soon link it to digitised wills. I have searched some of the wills, which before 1900 are on microfilm rather than paper. Even with a will calendar entry it can be very difficult to find the wills because most of them are not in alphabetic order or even sometimes in date order. It took me 3 hours to find the Rev Matthew McAuley' will, for example. I am interested in the Rev John McAuley's will. He is probably Matthew's brother.

These McAuleys are not from Antrim. As I understand it the Antrim McAuleys are pre-plantation and would have come over with the Mac Donnells, the Lords of the Isles, who came to Ireland in the 15th Century. These McAuley's tend to be Catholic since they pre-dated Knox. I have always thought that these McAuleys were islanders with possibly Viking roots - McAuley being derived from MacAuliffe meaning son of Olaf. I'd be happy to be corrected on this.

Many of the McAuleys/Macaulays on your list are from Drumgooland, which is near Moneyslane and Rathfriland in Co Down. These McAulays/Macaulays are protestant planters. There are several families of McAuleys in the area (usually members of Drumgooland Presbyterian Church. Given the fact that Irish records rarely go back beyond 1800 and Drumgooland Pres records only go back to 1860, and furthermore never list the mother's name in the baptism record, it is difficult to establish whether there is a link in the families. Some surviving members say that all the local families are descended from three McAuley/Macaulay/MacAuley (all spellings are used)brothers who arrived in the 17th or 18th centuries. Others deny this and say the families were separate Scottish immigrants.

The Rev Matthew McAuley (my wife's g g uncle) was minister of Cahans Presbyterian church near Ballybay Monaghan from 1829 (aged 20) to 1875. He is said to have been proud that he had had 22 presbyterian ministers in his family. Whether Rev Matthew Macaulay, minister of McKelvey's Grove in Monaghan, was related is unknown, though they were both from Drumgooland. Perhaps the wills will throw some light on this. The Presbyterian Church records claim Matthew Macaulay was related to Lord Macaulay.

Any comments?

I will post anthing else I find. I can list the siblings of Rev Matthew if you are interested.

I am not sure whether "the Lennox" is a place/area (in which case where?) or a clan.