Animated McGonagall

Comments (6) »

1. Tom Mc Rae

   In the year 2013, on the 2nd day of July at 2:53 am

   Hysterically brilliant. I will remember this for a very long time.

2. Paul Jay

   In the year 2013, on the 4th day of July at 9:50 am

   Hi
   I’ve just finished another William McGonagall animation!
   It’s The First Poem about the Tay Bridge.
   

3. Chris Hunt

   In the year 2013, on the 9th day of July at 10:14 pm

   Great stuff Paul, I’ve added a link to it on that poem’s page.

4. Frank McGonigal

   In the year 2013, on the 9th day of October at 3:26 am

   In the animation william says his parents were born in Ireland..this is not true.

   MY RESEARCH FINDINGS

   William McGonagall.. Poet
   Results of my research.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Last November I opened a discussion on the POET William McGonagall.

   Due to the lack of, and dubious info on the Internet, I decided to do a little research on my own,using BMDs and Census info.

   Although the 1841 census says that all the family, except Margaret, were born in Ireland, this is proved to be wrong in future censuses.

   This is a summary of what I’ve found……

   First of all I’m sure that William was born in Edinburgh c.1827.

   Because..

   His father Charles McGonigal was also born in Edinburgh, but married a Margaret Maxwell in Maybole Ayrshire. They returned to Edinburgh later. (Williams death cert proves the above parents.)

   His grandparents were Charles McGonagall and Nancy Baxter, no info on where THEY were born at the moment, but my guess is that they were born in Ireland.

   Williams parents and some of his family,spent some time in Halkirk Caithness. In the 1861 census of Halkirk Caithness..

   Charles McGonagall 70 Pauper.. born Lothian Edinburgh.
   Margaret ” 67 Wife ” Maybole Ayrshire (The Enumerator had Angus shire)
   Margaret Dau. 27 ” Forfarshire Dundee.
   Thomasina Gr.Dau.2 ” Caithness Halkirk. (Thomasina is the Illegitimate Dau. of Margaret.)

   Other info obtained gives Williams parents’ children as ….
   Agnes 43 Married
   Charles 39 ”
   Thomas 37 Teacher.
   William 34…( 1827 Birth :o)
   Jessie 31
   Joseph 21 Soldier.

   This info probably came from a poor law application.

   I would welcome any corrections to the above, as I’m only interested in setting the facts straight.

   Also I was also interested in finding out where these McGonagalls came from in Ireland,because my gr.greats Hugh McGonigal and Sarah Coyle also came from Ireland about the same time, Hugh was a Tailor by profession.

   Frank McGonigal. Ont. Canada. Oct 8 2013

5. Chris Hunt

   In the year 2013, on the 9th day of October at 8:49 am

   Thanks for sharing the results of your researches, Frank. However, I think it’s worth pointing out a factor that Norman Watson raises in Poet McGonagall: that it was in the McGonagalls’ interests to be born in Scotland rather than Ireland when it came to claiming relief under the Poor Law.

   Had they been born in Ireland, the authorities could wash their hands of them and send them “home” instead. So they had a good motive to claim to have been born in Scotland, whether or not it was true. That doesn’t necessarily mean that various members of the clan were lying on their census entries, but it’s a possibility that shouldn’t be ignored just because the census is an official document. I suppose this is one reason why birth certificates were brought in in the first place.

6. Mary McGonigal

   In the year 2014, on the 2nd day of October at 8:11 pm

   I was the person who passed on the information to the author Norman Watson about the 1841 census and the probable link to the Poor Law with regard to the McGonagall family. I have searched parish registers in Scotland pretty extensively and have found nothing to contradict the 1841 record that the family of William McGonagall, including the man himself and with the exception of the youngest child Margaret, were Irish born. William was in his early to mid teens by 1841, and since Margaret was noted as being 9 months old, he had probably already been in Scotland for that length of time at least, or maybe as much as nearly 4 years since that was Joseph’s age, the youngest child to be born in Ireland. In the course of his life William could easily pass himself as born in Scotland if he chose. He had everything to gain from doing so. You could say that he “reinvented” himself.

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