Robert McGuire
The McGuire family, or at least Robert McGuire alone, by my grandfather's notes supposedly came to America in about 1845. It has been difficult to find any information about their emigration, but family history has it that Robert came to America from Scotland when he was 13. His birth year is given as 1832. Some of the difficulty comes from the many different spellings of this name, even in the census reports- MacGuire, Maguire, McGuire. His middle name is given as Baxter so I tried searching for that name with the possibility that he was adopted after his immigration- still no luck. There is also some question whether he came FROM Scotland or was one of the many Irish who went to Scotland seeking employment, then emigrated to America. I've been told that McGuire is more of an Irish name and I have been unable to find his birth certificate in Scotland's records, so that's a distinct possibility. Unfortunately Irish recordkeeping was far worse than Scotland's. There's red-hair in the family- could it have come from them? I also do not know if he came alone or with his family. He could have been a street urchin, arrested on some minor crime and shipped to America as punishment; I just do not know as yet. Even one census lists him as being Irish, but the rest say Scotland.
Robert was one of the many to find work in the coal mines, and eventually succumbed to miner's lung. After he was forced to retire with his disability, the family settled in Jonestown, where 2 of his daughters met the man that they would marry, Ashbel Wilson Jones, our great-grandfather.
The McGuires: Where did they come from?
Were they Scotch? Were they Irish? Were they Scotch-Irish? This is a big brickwall in my research. Despite many late night visits to Scotland's People, and every other site I can think of!
Taken from old site page
The McGuire Family supposedly came to America in about 1845. It has been difficult to find any information about their emigration, but family history has it that Robert came to America from Scotland when he was 13. He was born in 1832. Some of the difficulty comes from the many different spellings of this name. There is also some question whether they came FROM Scotland or were Irish who had come to Scotland then to America. There were many Irish who did just that, coming to Scotland to seek employment when opportunities were much worse in Ireland. I've been told that McGuire is more of an Irish name and I have been unable to find his birth certificate in Scotland's records. I also do not know if he came alone or with his family. He could have been a street urchin, arrested on some minor crime and shipped to America as punishment; I just do not know as yet.
