St. Patrick’s Day is approaching.  My side of the family has 100% of its origins in Germany, at least in the last 150 years or so. For Irish roots, I have to turn to my husband’s family. Gary’s 2x great-grandfather on his paternal side was Moses McGaughey. Moses arrived in Philadelphia, PA, in 1825 aboard the Ship Emeline with a wife and a 3-day-old baby son. I have been fortunate that there is, at least, some family lore to guide me with research, although not a lot. Moses and his wife, Sarah Hogg (pronounced Hoag) McGaughey were originally from County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the passenger list for the Emeline confirms that the McGaheys (as it is spelled in here) were from the parish of Loughgilly in County Armagh. It is lucky to have a hometown in Ireland for this family. Not all ship’s passenger lists are so specific.

The McGaugheys were Scotch Irish. Of this my father-in-law, Roy Hartley, was adamant. The other bit of information that was handed down was that Moses and Sarah came to the United States to work on her Uncle William Hogg’s farm in Oxford, PA. I have found documentation of Moses, Sarah and their family in Philadelphia, but I have never been able to locate them in Ireland. This is due to the paucity of records for their home county. Moses McGaughey was born 12 July 1801 and Sarah Hogg was born 22 February 1802; they were married 10 August 1823. None of the Irish records that I have located to date cover this time period and that has created a brick wall for finding their parents. Adding to the complication, McGaughey can be spelled a variety of ways: Megaughy, McGahy, McGahey, M’gaughey, McCaughey and so on. It is not clear how much time Moses and Sarah spent on William Hogg’s farm. He was not counted as a head of household in the 1830 census, although he made his application for citizenship in Philadelphia that year. Citizenship was granted in 1832.

Moses McGaughey Naturalization

At any rate, Moses was living in Philadelphia by 1840, when he was enumerated there in the 1840 census. Perhaps the country life didn’t suit him, or perhaps he and Sarah had an informal indenture and paid off a debt of passage to her uncle.

Soon after my husband and I were first married, my father-in-law, Roy Hartley, told us that he had acquired the McGaughey family Bible. He wanted to know if we would like to have it. I had already shown an interest in the Hartley family tree, so, naturally, I said yes. Roy told us that he had been contacted by his Aunt Ida about the Bible. He made a trip to visit her, and she went down into her basement to retrieve it (not a great storage location, I might add). Elderly Aunt Ida emerged from the cellar struggling with a cardboard carton. Roy said he was expecting something small, but he had a big surprise in store. He passed the box over to us. When we opened it we found a large, and rapidly deteriorating, leather-bound volume, measuring 18 by 11-1/2 inches. Specifically, the book was Brown’s Self-Interpreting Bible, published by T. Kinnersly in New York in 1833. I was delighted to find that there were two pages of family records in the center of the Bible, but what were we supposed to do with this enormous book that was in such appalling condition? It even still felt damp from life in Aunt Ida’s basement and it smelled of mildew. We were living in the tiniest two room apartment in Center City Philadelphia at the time. We didn’t have any place to store this family heirloom and we certainly couldn’t display it!

McGaughey Family Records

My husband was working for the National Park Service at Independence Hall at the time. In fact, our tiny apartment was the former servant’s quarters for one of the historic brick structures within the park. Because of his association with the National Historical Park, my husband decided to consult Dave Dutcher, the park historian about restoring the Bible. He recommended that we take it to Anthony Haverstick in Lancaster, PA. This was the bookbinder who was doing restoration for Independence Hall. Soon after that, we took a drive to Lancaster and met with Mr. Haverstick. When we made the appointment, he told us that it would probably not be worth the money to repair the Bible; however, when he saw it, he changed his mind. While it was not an extremely valuable book, it was older than most family Bibles that he encountered and he worked up an estimate for us. It was pricey, but we agreed to have the work done. I still have the original estimate and laughed when I see that he wrote “firm” next to the price of $290.

Inside Cover of McGaughey Bible

I think it was several months before the work was completed. We made the trip to Lancaster again and when we saw the work that Anthony Haverstick had done, we were amazed. The Bible was restored, but still looked antique. Today, I am still impressed with the skill with which this family artifact was reconditioned. The gold leaf was even restored.

Driving home to Philadelphia, Gary and I marveled over the fine quality of Haverstick’s work; but one other thought came to mind for us and has over and over through the years. This Bible had been in the family for 150 years or so. How was it that WE had to be the ones to spend nearly $300 to have it restored. In the early 1980’s that was a veritable fortune for us. The luck of the Irish? Well, I am not Irish as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. I think all the luck belongs to Moses and Sarah McGaughey to have had their family Bible fall into the hands of the singular ancestor who had connections to one of the top bookbinders in the country!

It has been a blessing for my McGaughey family research to have the Bible. It is the only record for the birth dates of Moses and Sarah and their date of marriage. Additionally, because this is Reverend John Brown’s Bible, I know that this family was Presbyterian and it confirms the ties to Scotland.

By the way, Anthony “Tony” Haverstick, is still restoring books. You can find his contact information here.