So, this is my first proper post on this site. It’s going to be quite short, an introduction of sorts.

I’ve been researching the Morrow family of Poyntzpass for the best part of 12 years now. It all started around 2012, when I asked my maternal grandmother where they came from, as a passing-question in our wider discussion about her family, the Murphys of Poyntzpass.

She told me they originally came from ‘up the Markethill Road’ and that the name ‘Morrow’ had a similar origin in Gaelic as Murphy. She said she’d been told this by her first-cousin-once-removed, Mallie Shiels O’Hare; the old-unreconstructed granddaughter of a Confederate soldier. I’ll come back to her in the future.

My research took me to the 1901 and 1911 census of Ireland; which had been made public a year before. This was a mind-blowing discovery for me. My ancestors’ handwriting, at the click of a mouse. I was hooked, how could I get back further?

I knew my father’s family were Presbyterians, on both his father’s and mother’s sides. Not much progress was made backwards in time for a few years, save finding William Murrow on Griffith’s Valuation, in 2015 (I think). At that time, most of my interest was taken up researching my ancestors in the American Civil War, a subject I’ve taken up again.

In August 2017, I came across the Tithe Applotment Books, and that lit the fire again in the engine of the Morrow train. In 1830, Alexander Morrow was living in the townland of Tullynacross, up the Markethill Road.

From there, I found James Morow baptised in Tyrone’s Ditches Presbyterian Church, in 1795, to Hugh Morow; note the single R. I still haven’t found their exact relationship with our family, but I’ve made a pretty good estimate.

Finally coming across the Civil Records website, I was able to obtain birth, death, and marriage records; to solidify and put dates to a lot of the stuff I already knew. William Morrow, who died in 1864, is currently my furthest-back ancestor on the Morrow side. He was born in either 1798 or 1797, but alas, I don’t know his parent’s names. Although, I hazard a guess he was probably the son of Alexander Morrow, and that he was the William Murrow in Griffith’s Valuation. He was mentioned in Bennet’s Diary as a ‘rough man’ who ‘liked to curse’, and who worked in one of Bennet’s Mills.

I have found Thomas Morrow in Aghaderg, a flax-grower, in 1796, and Hugh Morrow, whose will was probated in Loughbrickland in 1803. Were they my family? I don’t know, but I have a hunch they were probably were related in some way.

I can’t get back any further, unfortunately. I have a hunch that the Morrows originally came from around Gilford and Portadown, working their way south along Glenree to Acton and Poyntzpass. The Morrows of Portadown are recorded in Segoe Parish records as both Murray, Murrah, and Morrow.

Morrow is a variation of the name Murray, or Moray. The name Murray, or Moray, was, often in the Scottish Lowlands, pronounced Murrah, or Morrah; whence we get Morrow. Look at parish records in Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire, and you’ll see kids from the same family being recorded as Morrow and Murray. Listen to any older person in East Ulster pronounce Morrow, and you’ll get ‘Morrah’, betraying the Scottish origins of our family, who came here from Lowland Scotland during the Plantation. The old Scottish county of Morayshire, has also been spelt Morrowshire in a number of older publications and on a few headstones I’ve come across. Just goes to show the continuing connection between the Murray and Morrow names. More on this in another post.

Currently, DNA testing is still throwing up mysteries. AncestryDNA testing has been brilliant, giving me my ethnicities and connecting me with my cousins who’d already tested. YDNA testing with FamilyTreeDNA is throwing up more questions than answers, and this is very interesting. Most of my closest matches are Campbells and MacGregors. I’m still waiting for more precise testing to be done, as these matches only show the ancestors we share a thousand or more years ago. However, I only have one Morrow match at the closest-level currently; although I have many Morrows and Murrays at slightly more distant levels. Although, whilst waiting for my results, my head can’t help but spin with wondering; are we originally Murrays like I’d suspected? Did someone change their name to Morrow from Campbell; were they raised by a mother’s family called Morrow, were they fathered by an unknown man, called Campbell? Or are we really MacGregors, whose name had to be changed after the 1603 banning of their own name. Who knows. I certainly don’t yet, but that’s all part of the wonder, and it’ll make the story a whole lot more interesting when it comes time to write it, when I’ve figured it out!

I’ll leave it there for this one, and I hope you enjoyed the read!

R. J. Morrow