Martin Loftus (1819-1891) & Ann Finerty (1822-1912) famine migrants to Lewis County, NY

As Roger mentioned, the Loftus surname is very common in Mayo, where I have Loftus relatives.  In fact, the name originated in western County Mayo, although it is now found in other parts of the county, iincluding eastern Mayo, where my grandparents grew up.   There was an English family named Loftus, and a few of them  made it to Ireland, but the Loftus family in Ireland was originally called O’Loughnane (in Irish, Ó Lachtnáin).   Lachtnáin comes from an old word for the color grey, lachtna (in modern Irish, grey is liath), so it probably meant something like “descendant of the grey haired fellow” (the “Ó” part of the name means essentially “descendant”).  Surnames of Gaelic origin are almost always based on the name, nickname, or some characteristic of a real or legendary ancestor.   As the English took control, many Irish names were translated (often poorly) or converted to something easier for English speakers to spell or say.  Sometimes family names were changed to an English name that sounded similar or had prestige, so that may explain the name Loftus in Mayo (there may be a more detailed history of the name written somewhere).

If you'd like to see a map showing the distribution of the name Loftus in Ireland, you can do so at this link:  https://www.irishorigenes.com/loftus

You have to click on the little map image to enlarge it, and you can then download it if you like.  As you'll see, the major concentration is in Mayo, with some in surrounding areas such as Sligo and a few scattered elsewhere in Ireland.

My Loftus relatives live(d) in the parish of Killasser, which is on the Sligo border.  Years ago I visited there with a first cousin of my mother's named PJ Loftus, and I think he has sons still living in the area.  The next parish across the border in Sligo is Kilmactigue, and the parish records there go back to 1845, so you might find some records of the family.  That was the first year of the famine, so they might not yet have moved away.  You can access the online parish records here: https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0136

There's an interactive map which you'll see there which allows you to move to other parishes as well.  The records for Sligo town do not appear to go far enough back for what you want (which is odd, since usually the towns have older records), but some other parishes there do.  in the next parish to the north of Kilmactigue, which is Templeboy, the records appear to go back to 1815, so that might be a good place to look.  In case your Loftus's lived in Mayo and moved during the famine to Sligo town, as Roger mentioned could be the case, you might also check the parish of Swinford in Mayo, which is just south of Killasser.  It has some records back to 1808, though with some gaps.

In case you've done DNA testing, so have I and several relatives with Mayo origins, and I'd be happy to compare results.

Thank you very much for searching further on this information.

The sponsor of the baptism of Patrick Loftus, son of Martin Loftus and Anne Feenarty, is David Loftus.  That is probably Martin's brother. 

So, Ann Finerty is also Anne Feenarty, and maybe another varient spelling is Fenaghty, based on Catherine Fenaghty traveling to the US with Ann's daughter Mary.  There are probably half a dozen other ways to spell that name, like Finneerty.  I have seen the name distribution maps for Loftus, and seen that they are strong in County Mayo, to the west of County Sligo.  Catherine Fenaghty was born about 1830, according to her immigration record.  I did find a baptism record for Catharine Feenaghty, born 1829, in Killglass, County Sligo, with parents Michael Feenaghty and Ketty (Catherine) Melvin.  I am surmising that maybe this is the family of Ann Finerty.  Killglass is walking distance to Ballina, which is in County Mayo.  I also found a death record of Michael Finaghty, born 1802 and died Jan. 3, 1847, age 45.  That must have been a bleak Christmas for the Finaghty family. The geography from Ballina, along the coast to Sligo, is flat land that opens with no barriers to the North Sea.  The cold wind coming off the ocean there is (and was) horrific.  The forests of the NY State's Adirondack Mountains must have seemed cozy, protected, and filled with firewood, for the immigrants from Sligo.  While in Sligo city, I did spend a couple of hours with their municipal genealogist.  Accessing her data bases, she surmised that the Loftus and Finerty families probably intersected and would have had opportunity to meet and marry in the Easky region, in north, central Sligo County, near the coast. 

When I mentioned that the flat, sea level, open landscape, must be windy and cold, she said that she had gone to a funeral once in Easky, and when they were about to leave the church, a very heavy man said she had best hang on to him.  When they stepped out the door, they were both blown across the parking lot and smashed into some cars.

The name Loftus:  I worked for 19 years in Norway, and Lofthus is a Norwegian name.  "Loft" means 2nd story on a house, and "hus" means house.  Lofthus is the surname for the rich guy in town who could afford a 2 story house.  I think English and Irish surname Loftus is a phonetic spelling of the Norwegian surname Lofthus. 

I have had DNA testing in FamilyTree DNA, in Ancestry.com, and both uploaded into GEDmatch.  I have about 7% Norwegian DNA, but no known Norwegian ancestry.  Given the easy sailing proximity of Sligo to Norway, it is most probable that our Loftus families are descendants of Norwegian vikings or of subsequent merchants or settlers.

I might add that the New York State 1855 Census records that there was a Bridget Fenighty, born 1793, living as a widow in High Market, NY, with 2 adult sons in the household: Patrick (age 24) and Martin (age 27). 

What happened to Catherine Fenaghty, after she delivered Mary Loftus to her parents?  She probably married and is in US records with a different surname.  I did go looking for women named Catherine, born about 1830 in Ireland, living in High Market.  There are many, first being Catherine Loftus b1830 married to Thomas Loftus. But there is also Catherine Bang b1830 married to Peter Bang; Catherine Berry b1828 married to Michael Berry; Catherine McCormack b1830 married to John McCormack; Catherine McDermot b1830 married to Peter McDermot; Catherine McGovern b1830 married to Peter McGovern; Catherine Medernach b1830 married to Peter Medarnach.

If people in or from Sligo wonder where some of their relatives disappeared to, they might have been in the forests of New York State, north of Utica, in what is known as the Tughilll Plateau, on the western edges of the Adirondack Mountains, east of Lake Ontario.

For those who might like to email outside of the Irelandxo system, my genealogy email is    RudminasHollandDNA@runbox.com

 

Further on the Loftus lineage.  After learning that High Market, NY was almost named Sligo, NY, I looked for other towns in the US, Canada, Australia named Sligo. Other than Sligo, Ireland, there seems to be  only 3 other places named Sligo:  1) Sligo, Kentucky, 2) Sligo, Missouri, and 3) Sligo, Lousiana

I have been looking for the baptism records of Mary Loftus, born 1846, to Martin Loftus and Ann Finerty (or one of the many ways to spell her surname) probably in County Sligo or County Mayo.  But I cannot find them.  I wonder if she was a famine orphan, just adopted into the Martin Loftus family.  

I did find Martin and Ann Loftus, with son Patrck, in the 1850 US Census.  They are in West Turin, NY, was the name of the High Market region before futher subdivisions.  Copy attached.  Between the census takers misspelling of their name, and the machine transcription of his handwriting, they are in the genealogical data bases as "Softiss".

In the 1855 NY Census, the family is all together, with Mary, and additional new children.

I have decided to transcribe the entire 1855 NY Census for High Market, NY, and enter it into a spread sheet, so that we can sort and search as we wish.  This will take some time.  I will post it here when it is done.  But there are amazing things in it. First, almost everyone is an immigrant. Native-born US persons are rare.  Most immigrants are from Ireland, but France, Germany, and Wales also appear.  Children as young as 6 are in households as "servants", with different surnames than the rest of the family.  Physicians and teachers live as boarders in farm households.  Almost everyone is a "farmer" by occupation.

Thank you for looking.