The first of the families of Mulligans described in this story is that of John Mulligan and his wife Martha King from the townland of Corragovvy, County Cavan, Ireland. Their daughter Jane Mulligan who was born in 1789, married John Gally. Together with their family they settled in America. Jane's elder brother, Stewart Mulligan, born around 1785, married Susanna Pickens. Two of their sons, William and James, settled in Australia where the name became Milligan. The lives of other Mulligan and Pickens families of County Cavan are followed, some to Canada and Australia.