Welcome to Mylrea Family History

If the name MYLREA is in your family tree, then this repository probably has something for you.

Its main content is a library of stories based on information from a variety of sources - Parish Records, Census Collections, Wills, Deeds, newspaper articles and of course, other websites, of which Frances Coakley's A Manx Note Book and Brian Lawson's BMD (located on Ian Radcliffe's site) have been invaluable. The combination of these resources weave the rich tapestry that was the lives of our Mylrea forebears.

The other significant content on this site is the Index of Mylrea Wills and the Index of Mylrea Deeds, lists of the various legal documents with which the Mylreas had some involvement, mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries on the Isle of Man - wills, marriage contracts, mortgages and sales - the majority with their transcriptions as well.

The website is now 12 years old. What I have discovered about the Mylreas is that they seemed to fly below the radar, getting on with life. Apart from the Deemster clan, most were farmers and concentrated in the north although some started to venture south in the 1700s. Apart from minor skirmishes with the Church (eg. not learning their catechism, laughing during service), and an occasional illegitimate child, they were not regulars in Court settings either.The Douglas Mylreas are a race apart however, definitely Mylrea but more closely linked in a DNA sense to the Irish McElreas than the Ballaugh Mylreas. The narratives in the MYLREA STORIES section give a more detailed outline of their activities.

This site will never be static. As new material becomes available, I'll add it to the existing resources so check the UPDATES section periodically to see if there's anything of interest. You will probably have to use the REFRESH facility - I often find old versions popping up even though I've just uploaded new material.

Updates

May 2024 REVISION

THOMAS MYLREA, Farmer & Preacher 1788-1860)

I've given this document a heavy edit, and added new material

May 2024 REVISION

Links in many of the early Braddan wills & documents on this site no longer work so I have replaced them with text. When Nigel Crowe died, so too did his wonderful manxroots website. I have been working my way through these items to remove the links which currently go to a tab which is labelled with Eastern script - maybe Chinese? The information is availale in hard copy form in Crowe's Survey of Douglas 2001 Vol 1