Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

Finding Catholic Grahams

I am trying to trace an ancestor, Thomas Graham, who was born abt 1800 in Ireland.  He was married to Catherine Loftus b. abt 1808 in Ireland.  I'm uncertain if they were married in Ireland or the U.S.  Their eldest known son, William Graham, was born abt 1836 in NY.  The next eldest child, Thomas Graham was born 31 Oct 1837 in Illinois and the rest of their children were born in Illinois as well.  They and several generations lived in Lake County, IL.  Graham is a common Scottish and Protestant name, but our family is Irish Catholic and always have been at least since they were in the U.S.  I'm at a loss as to where in Ireland they might be from or how common or uncommon the Graham name is among Catholics.  Would welcome any suggestions or pointers.

bigskymj

7 replies

Hi Amanda,

I had a look on www.rootsireland.ie/ for the baptism/birth of Thomas Graham 1800 + - 1 year and got 3 matches: Armagh, Monaghan & Offaly.

There was only 1 match for Catherine Loftus born 1808 + - 3 years - Galway.

I checked for Thomas again 1800 + - 5 years & got 10 matches but none were in Galway.

I assume because there is no marriage record and because they were not both from the same county that they married in USA.

The problem is how to work out which Thomas is the right one.

On ancestry.com the Louis A Yore public member tree has the 1850 U S census with Thomas aged 50; the census was done 1st June I think. It also has his age at death on 1 October 1871 as 71 so unless his birthday was in October, November or December he was born 1800. If it was in those months it would have been 1799. There were no records for 1800 and only 1 in 1799 which was Armagh. As you had mentioned Catholic, I went through the parishes of the 1799 baptism record and found that it was Armagh RC. Similarly, I checked Catherine's record and it was Loughrea RC.

www.rootsireland.ie is a pay site but if you purchase the records you will get parents' names.

Col

 

 

 

ColCaffIrelandXO Volunteer

You can use the 1901 census as a general indicator of where to find RC Grahams. That census shows there were 8493 people named Graham in Ireland. You can then use the "more search options" box to narrow that to those who were RC. There were 1788 (so about 22%). They were spread all over the country. Probably the majority were in the 9 counties of Ulster, followed by Dublin, but many other counties had some too. (I suspect that may not help you find yours, but that?s the position).

 

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/

Ahoghill AntrimIrelandXO Volunteer

(Sorry for the double-post)

IrelandXO member

Hi Amanda;

I am a great-grandson of Andrew Graham- Thomas's third son. I grew up in Lake County and I have done some research (and a lot of collaboration) with other family members researching this family. One of them brought your post to my attention.
 

Here are some things we have learned about Thomas:

-He had another wife prior to Catherine Loftus; her name was Mary, (we do not know her last name). Mary was the mother of William Graham, the oldest son. The children of Thomas and Catherine Loftus were Thomas, Andrew, Owen, James, and Mary. William was born in New York, all the others in Illinois. We do not know if Thomas married Mary in Ireland or in the US, and we do not know when he emigrated.

-Family lore is that Thomas was from what is now Northern Ireland.

-Thomas worked on the Erie Canal in New York State, making enough money to buy land in Lake County from the Federal Government in 1840.

-Either Thomas or his son Thomas was an Elector in Lake County for Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 Presidential election.

-Thomas's children held a Graham family reunion in 1911 in Lake County.

-The farm that Thomas and Catherine owned comprised 160 acres and lay on a plot  of land that became south half  of the Lakehurst Mall and is now called Fountain Square. This is in the southeast corner of Warren Township in the city of Waukegan.

-The farm was left to third son Andrew and his wife Elizabeth Doyle.

- A common trait of descendants of Thomas Graham is the tendency turn gray in early adulthood; usually sometime between the ages of 18 and 25. This affects about one in four descendants.

- The graves of Thomas and Catherine as well as son Andrew and daughter-in-law Elizabeth, are in St. Mary's Cemetary on Sheridan Road in Waukegan.

IrelandXO member

Thanks so much for the reply.  I'm descended from Thomas' and Catherine's son Andrew through his son George and then George's son George as well.  Since my grandmother's father, George Jr died when she was 13 she didn't have as much contact with that side of the family.  Particularly since her mother's family was Protestant, though she was raised Catholic, and they also were a large Waukegan family with deep roots in the area.  I'll have to use the good hints on Thomas and Catherine's orgins from the first responder and go from there.  I'm also on Ancestry.com with the same username, bigskymj.  If you're on ancestry.com please reach out to me there as well.

 

All the best,

Mandy

bigskymj

Col,

Thanks so much for these excellent pointers.  I'll let you know how I fare.

 

Mandy

bigskymj

It isn’t Christianity that is the problem. It is the desire for power and wealth. Just because someone says they are a Christian doesn’t mean that they are.

 

uno online

petersontyler

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.