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Looking for George Cunningham, husband of Margaret, and father of Hugh (born perhaps 01 August 1828 and certainly between 1826-1828), Adam (born perhaps February 1831 and certainly between 18

Donegal

I posted a notice two years ago but there was some incorrect info, and I have some new details. Hugh Cunningham is the grandfather of my grandfather, also Hugh Cunningham. He emigrated from Donegal on the ship "New World" in August 1847. His brother Adam followed in 1852. We do not know what happened to Andrew; he may have been the oldest son. There are only three George Cunninghams in Griffith's valuation of 1857 for Donegal. Of these, the one in Carrickfin was ruled out by one of your volunteers because of his religion; our Cunninghams were Protestants. In the Tithe Appointment Books, the only one that appears is in 1833 in Erdegole townland in Inishkeel parish, two miles southwest of Ardara. There is also a death record for a George Cunningham near Ardara who was born in 1803 and died 1870. I paid PRONI to do a search but they came up with absolutely nothing. Is this George the one? It fits pretty well but we don't know what part of Donegal our Cunninghams came from. My doubt comes from the fact that in 1833, George was farming next to Daniel Cunningham, and we have no history of any Daniels on our Cunningham side. Any ideas?

cunningham

3 replies

Jeff:

Hello again!

I found some info on the 1870 death of George Cunningham. He was 67 and from Urbal townland. He was a widower and the informant was another George Cunningham from Urbal. Likely George the informant was a son of the older George. I checked the 1901 census for Urbal and there was a Robert Cunningham family and they were Church of Ireland.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Donegal/Galway/Urbal/1…

I located the marriage record for Robert Cunningham and Mary Ann Maxwell. See second record. You will note that the father of Robert was George.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_re…

The subscription site Roots Ireland only has baptismal records for Killaghtee Church of Ireland parish starting in 1868. I searched this listing which shows the status of all Church of Irrland parish registers. If you scroll down to Killaghtee and look at the notes in the right hand margin, it appears that the National Archives of Ireland has a parish register for Killaghtee with baptisms from 1810-1830 and marriages from 1814-1831. I don't believe this register is online and you would have to visit Dublin.

Roger McDonnell

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers…

 

 

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

A chara,

Thanks for all that information and such a quick response.

I don't know why I thought the death record was from Erdegole. We have no Roberts in our family so I'm thinking this rules out Urbal. I would love to come to Dublin to see Killaghtee's parish register - we had a trip planned for May of last year. I'm hoping to come over next year, Covid-permitting. The other side of the family came from Magherafelt and we've had a lot more luck finding their parish church, graveyard, records and family back to the late 18th century.

What did you think of the fact that the only George Cunningham we found in 1833, around the time of the births of my great X 2 grandfather and his brothers, was the one in Edergole?  I found a direct descendant of Hugh's brother Adam in Philadelphia and she has a book on the Cunninghams and has promised to get back to me. Thanks again for all your help.

Slan,

Jeff

 

cunningham

Jeff:

The Tithe listings in my experience are not always complete. Some parishes do not have records. Also, possibly your ancestor was not listed in the Tithes. Let us know if you decide to come to Ireland in 2022.

Roger

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

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