Tretower Genealogy Research

An interesting new development in our Vaughan Pioneer research occurred yesterday as Phylis Deutsch was looking at an entry at Ancestry.com for the marriage record of John Vaughan to Nancy Callicott.  The record listed John’s place of birth as Ireland.  This made me look at the possibility that our Vaughans could have been Irish.  My mother always claimed that the Vaughans were “Scot-Irish” and others in the Vaughan Pioneer group had similiar stories.  So trying to think outside of the box, I began some research yesterday and today to see if there were any Vaughans who came to the US from Ireland in Colonial times.

I was rather surprised to find that there were some records.  The most interesting one was found on a web page dealing with the Genealogy of a Thomas Green Vaughan.  It seems that this Thomas’ ancestors were a Vaughan family that apparently settled in  Offaly County and Laois County, Ireland, part of English and Scottish settlers that the English brought in as part of the Irish Plantations when they controlled Ireland in the 1600s and 1700s.  This Vaughan family apparently was from Wales (then part of England) and very possibly of the Golden Grove Vaughans.  The founder of this branch was a Hector Vaughan who received land forfeited from Terence Coghlan who had rebelled against the English overlords.  Hector had over 1,000 acres of land and was the High Sheriff of the county.  What is interesting is that he had a descendant named William Vaughan, of about the same age as our William Vaughan.  This William was born in Ireland but is said to have immigrated to Norfolk, Virginia.  Obviously, this is very interesting to me, and I’m trying to find out if anything can be found out about this William Vaugahan.  I was hoping he had a descendant that had had his Y-DNA tested, but I don’t think he has.  This line of Vaughans is of great interest to me and while it might be that our line does not connect at all to them, at least it is a new and refreshing lead.

Eddie Davis