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Looking for Connections for Michael Finnegan and John Boyle Families

Armagh

Hello - I'm traveling to Ireland in November and hoping to find out more about my great great grandparents in advance. 

Michael Finnegan (b ~1818 Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Ireland / d 10/12/1904 Faribault, MN, USA – Calvary Cemetery) and Mary Goodman (b 1820 Beatmantown (?), Ireland / d 3/24/1895 Faribault, MN, USA – Calvary Cemetery)

and

John Boyle (b 8/2/1819 Armgagh (?), Ireland / d 6/2/1903 Shieldsville, MN USA – St. Patrick Cemetery) and Mary Haney (Heaney?) (b 12/15/1831 Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland / d 3/15/1902 Shieldsville, MN, USA – St. Patrick Cemetery)

I'd be grateful for any background or local connections.

Thanks in advance!

Greg

gregzimprich@g…

4 replies

Hi Greg,

Do you have any documents showing "Beatmantown"?  I don't think this is correct, so if you provided a document someone might be able to decipher it.  Thanks.

glanvil3@aol.com

The 1831 census of Coleraine has no Hany households and only 1 Heaney a Patrick Heaney. 5 people in the household, all Presbyterian. What denomination was your Mary, do you know? If RC, then unfortunately there are no baptism records for Coleraine (or the adjacent parish of Killowen which forms part of the town) before the 1840s. It may be hard to trace her.

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

Elwyn - Thank you for the response. I have only seen Beatmantown referenced in one document and was never able to find it anywhere else. As for religion, I believe they were RC but there is really no solid way for me to know. Any advice on how to track down parish information?

 

Greg

gregzimprich@g…

Greg,

I can’t help with Beatmantown. I don’t see anywhere named anything like that in the Monaghan area. Presumably it was near Carrickmacross if the couple married there but beyond that I can’t offer any suggestions. Carrickmacorss is in the RC parish of Magheross (Maghera-Rois). Unfortunately their baptism & marriage records don’t start till 1858, so if that’s where Michael & Mary were married (and baptised) there are no records to search. No easy way round that.

Same problem in the Coleraine area. There are no relevant records for the period you need. I searched for a marriage between John Boyle & Mary Heaney in Ireland in the 1850s but did not find one. If one came from Armagh and the other from Coleraine (about 100 miles apart), I’d wonder if they met and married in the US.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

 

 

Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘IrelandXO Volunteer

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