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Hugh Cunningham, born 1826, emigrated to US in 1847, son of George and Elisabeth

Donegal

I am looking for info on Hugh and his family who were from Donegal. They were Protestants, maybe Methodists. The only other info we have is in the heading. I found three George Cunninghams in Griffith's Valuations of 1857, but do not know if George was still alive then or if he was even renting land. The three locations were Urbal, Killaghtee and Edergole, Inishkeel, and Carrickfin, Templecrone. He was the grandfather of my grandfather, a lovely man also named Hugh Cunningham, who used to chant "I come from Donegal where we eat our praties skins and all". Thanks for any ideas.

cunningham

3 replies

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I looked at the Tithe listings for Co. Donegal from the late 1820s and did not see a George Cunningham record. I think it is possible that your George was one of the three listed in the Griffiths. I took a look at the 1901 census records for those townlands and based on the religious denominations of the families, I think that Edegole and Urbal are more likely. There was a Cunningham family in Urbal http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Galway/Urbal/1168345/  but we can only speculate about any connection to your family.

There are no Hugh Cunningham baptismal records with a father George on the subscription site Roots Ireland.

I looked at death records. Currently the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie has images of death records from 1978-1969 and for deaths from 1864-1877 there are index records although at some point in the future images will be added. I looked for George Cunningham records and found two of interest. There was an 1870 index record in the Donegal registration district which is likely for the George in Edergole. There was also an 1892 record for the George who was from Carrickfin. That record showed he was still married but I did not find a related Elisabeth death record after 1892 which to me eliminates Carrickfin.

NameGEORGE CUNNINGHAMDate of Death1870Group Registration IDN/RSR District/Reg AreaDonegalDeceased Age at Death67Returns Year1870Returns Quarter2Returns Volume No7Returns Page No27

Seventh record  https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1892/06036/4718995.pdf

Let me know what questions you have and you may have interest in this article https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/news/irelandxo-insight-how-dna-can-help-you-connect-ireland

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Roger,

First, my apologies for never replying but for some reason I never received your response. I found this just today while 'googling' in my continued search for Hugh's family in Ireland. Anyway, two things, I also don't think the George from Carrickfin is right as he was born in 1810 so he would only have been 16 when Hugh was born. Would they have been getting married that young in the Ireland of that time? However, George from Edergole fits because he would have been born on 1803. As for religion, Methodist is what they were here in the US but family legend says that came from his wife and that the Cunninghams were COI. Lastly, I messed up, don't know why I said his mother was Elisabeth, she was actually Margaret.

OK, thanks again, and hopefully your reply will get to me.

All the best,

Jeff Sandy 

 

cunningham

Hi Jeff!

Sorry you were not notified about my response. Ages on death records were in exact. The informant did not always know how old a person was. Age was not an exact science iin the 19th century.

Since I wrote my comments www.irishgenalogy added death record images for 1871-1877. This does not help you with 1870 but they are getting closer.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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