Summary
Conal McCauley is the pilot and settler described in Clementine McCauley’s 1972 account of one Arranmore-to-Beaver Island migration chain. The account says he married Mary Gallagher in Toronto, piloted the family’s chartered vessel, built fishing boats at Conns Point, and worked in fishing, farming, and lumbering after arrival.
The name is kept source-qualified. GNIS separately records an early settler and fisherman named Cornelius “Conn” McCauley at Conns Point; the held sources do not yet prove that Conal, Conn, and Cornelius are one civil identity.
Evidence and limits
The source is a later family account, useful for genealogy and remembered place use but not a passenger list, land patent, pilot license, or boatbuilding register. The five-or-seven-family count and the exact arrival date remain uncertain.
Open questions
- Do land, parish, census, or maritime records identify Conal and Mary separately?
- Is Conal the Cornelius “Conn” McCauley named by GNIS?
- Can the reported boatbuilding site at Conns Point be located in land or archaeological records?
See also
- Mary Gallagher McCauley (Arranmore family account)
- Clementine McCauley (1972 Squaw Island family account)
- Conns Point
- Irish settlement of Beaver Island
Sources
- Clementine McCauley, "How the Irish Came to Settle on Beaver Island," Beaver Beacon, March 1972.Family account identifies Conal as Clementine McCauley's grandfather, says he piloted the family vessel from the Canadian/Arranmore migration chain, married Mary Gallagher in Toronto, built fishing boats at Con's Point, and farmed/fished on Beaver Island.
- "Beaver Tales Correction," Beaver Beacon, September 1972.Correction preserves the family lineage through Mary Gallagher McCauley; it does not independently resolve Conal against the separate GNIS form Cornelius "Conn" McCauley.