I’ve been researching my own ancestors for many years now. One ancestor who has always particularly fascinated me is Mary Calhoon, who was born near Cookstown, Northern Ireland and immigrated to the US as a teenager in the 1880s. As an Irish Protestant with a Scottish name, Mary was undoubtedly a descendant of a Scottish man named Colquhoun who settled in the northern Irish province of Ulster sometime in the 1600s. My search for Mary’s ancestors has led me to explore the Calhoun family, particularly those in Ireland, more broadly.
I’m certainly not the first person to do this, and there are plenty of other books, articles, blogs, and websites out there on the topic of the Calhoun family. So why should I add another one? Two reasons. The first is that the story of this family is complicated, and I’m hoping that putting together posts on specific topics will help me clarify my thoughts and put my own research on as solid a footing as I can. Although I’m doing it for myself, perhaps this exercise might prove useful to others also.
The second is that others out there might be in possession of a missing piece that could help solve a puzzle. The most important thing that could come out of this blog is a reader’s contribution of evidence that I have not found, and I certainly hope that happens. If you have evidence or source material that bears upon something I say––whether it proves me right or wrong––by all means let me know.
Throughout the course of this blog, I will try to explain why I think the way I do, and to back up my statements with evidence from source documents. Not all sources are created equal, and I believe it is important to assess not only what a source is saying, but how likely it is to be correct. Was it written around the time an event occurred? Was the source’s author likely to have had first-hand knowledge of the events? Is it derivative of other sources? Did the author have any motive to embellish or fabricate? These are all important questions that lead to a better understanding of our Calhoun ancestors and their lives.
As with any family that has been around as long as the Calhouns have, there is a lot of unsubstantiated family lore that is rarely questioned in any serious way. It is my hope that this blog will do just that. Some of this family lore may end up being supported by evidence, some may be refuted, and some may not be addressed by evidence at all, in which case there is no reason to think it is either correct or incorrect.
I believe that most of us who develop a passion for genealogy and family history do so because we want to discover and understand our ancestors. Whether my own ancestors were rich or poor, famous or obscure, they were the real-life forebears who made me who I am, and I feel I would be doing a disservice to them if I did not make every effort to get their names and their stories correct. I’m guessing that most of you feel the same way and would like to set the record straight. So let the search begin, and let’s see where it leads.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Brian Anton. I’m an amateur genealogist and have been researching my own roots since the 1990s. While I’m not a professional, I do like to get the story right, and I hope my efforts help others as well. The Calhouns are just some of my ancestors, but due to the depth of their history and the rich sources of information about them that have survived the centuries, they have been especially interesting to me. While I’d like to think I have learned something about genealogy, I’m completely out of my depth when it comes to publishing on the web, so bear with me!
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Special thanks to Paul Calhoun for critical reading of this post and helpful edits.
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© 2023 Brian Anton. All rights reserved.
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Genealogy of the Calhoun Family 
Great work Brian
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Thanks very much, George.
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Thank you for doing this.
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I hope you and others find something of use in it.
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Thanks Brian. I will try and subscribe to your Blog. Andrew Colquhon Y-dna Verified E-M35
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Thanks, Andrew! With the next couple of posts, I plan to get into the topic of the Y-DNA genetics of this family.
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Look forward to it Brian. With all the Testing Tiffany is doing there will be a lot more to pool on soon. She is singing up a tester just about every week.
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