Linda

Thanks for the further details and hello to your mum. I found an email address on your Ancestry.com profile linda4brown@live.com and I sent the tree and some other info to it - inc a synopsis of Rev Matthew's will (because cannot attach it here). Did you get them?

We were in the church 4 or 5 years ago but missed the photo of Matthew. I don't think we knew he existed at the time. Did you know he spent 49 years as minister in a church called Cahans Pres in Ballybay Monaghan. There is a book about the church written by the current minister. It says that Matthew was very proud to have had 23 Presbyterian ministers in his family. Since there have been a couple since that's about 25 ministers!! They probably weren't all called McAuley of course.

If you have any more about the family I would be very pleased to hear it. Have you any idea what your g g grandmother was called - i.e. your g grandfather William's mother. Was it Malcolmson? And do you know the name of the missing sister of James, Matthew, John, Susannah, Isabella and Nancy?

Marion thinks that the McAuleys in Moneyslane were descended from three brothers who came to Co Down in the 17th Century and that all the families of McAuleys in the area are descended from them, I spoke to Jim McAuley who has the farm on the Spit Bog Road you can see from Closkelt churchyard and he put me on to a man from Ballynahinch who is part of Jims's branch. He said Marion was wrong and that the families weren't closely related. Don't know how he knew that and I have to say I think there is almost certainly a connection. There is also another Rev Matthew Macaulay (spelt that way) who was minister of a curch called McKelveys Grove in Monaghan at the same time as when Rev Matthew was at Cahans. This second Matthew was also from Drumgooland so may also have been related - I doubt if the different spelling means much. He is said to have been related to Thomas Macaulay the historian.

Let me know whether you got the email.

My wife is very grateful for the info and that she has discovered another second cousin.

Our phone is 020 8882 3960 if you want a chat about all this.

David Quinn