Hi im looking for any descendents of James McGuire and Johanna Foley from county Fermanagh. I do not know the parish. He may have been born early 1800s. Their son William was born 1837 - not sure if he was born in prince Edward Island canada or Ireland but their children were born in Canada - Daniel one of them was my grandfather.
Any info about where they are from in fermanagh is greatly appreciated
Thank you
...
Florence,
You haven’t said what denomination your ancestors were but I’ll assume RC. Many of the RC parishes in Co. Fermanagh don’t have records as far back as the 1830s and so it’s quite likely that no record exists of the McGuire=Foley marriage, or of their own baptisms. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that McGuire/Maguire is the most common surname in Fermanagh. I searched the Irish baptism and marriage records on Ancestry but without success.
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 for no fee.
The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project and can offer FTDNA testing kits at a reduced price. http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).
Thank you for your prompt
A follow up - would you have better luck going through the foley branch of family - and yes they were roman catholic.
Using Foley is the reverse problem. The name is pretty well unknown in Fermanagh. (Could they have met and married somewhere else?). In Griffiths Valuation c 1860 there’s no Foley households in Fermanagh at all. In the 1901 census of the county there’s 1 single Foley, and she was Protestant.
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Fermanagh/Enniskillen_Urban/Strand_Street/1364790/
Hmm Doubtful if there was a Protestant involved- it was a big no-no here on PEI into mid/late nineties (tho that nay be why they left:).
A big thanks for this - i will do some more digging here see what i can find!
Foley as a surname in Ireland is reasonably common, just not in Fermanagh and it's mostly a Catholic surname. In the 1901 Irish census there are 9176 Foleys throughout the island and all but 256 of those were RC. Hardly any Foleys in Ulster though which is why I speculate they might have met somewhere else.
You can use this site to see where the name was most common in the mid 1800s:
I always think the easiest thing to try first for situations like this is punch the information you have into a tool set to search family trees - to see what other people already know and have shared. I went to Ancestry.com and put in your info for William (did him so could put in parent and child info) and immediately saw a list of 36 Ancestry trees that showed a William McGuire that seemed to match your description.
Did Wm die in PEI during Dec 1897?
Your Grandpa Dan born 21 Dec 1863 in PEI?
That’s what they show.
I do have to wonder how sure you are that James was was from Co Fermanagh. Yes, McGuire was a northern name early on but by mid-1800s it was scattered around the south as well. E.g. in Co Wexford there were three parishes that had both McGuire and Foley households. One of them had a James McGuire and a Jo- Foley get married in 1827. Good luck.
thanks bernard - you got there ahead of me:) I found info on James and Johanna here - they are buried here on PEI (tho I cannot find their headstone in the cemetery they are supposedly in). And according to the info i have James was baptised in Carlow 1801, married Johanna in Killegney wexford 1827
I was told they were from fermanagh by my first cousins who apparently did the family research ... so where do we go from here - do some searching in carlow maybe??
thanks
Florence
You're at a tough part, Florence.. showing that a particular James McGuire in Ireland was your James McGuire in PEI. I was often lucky: My Irish ancestors that settled in Quebec and married in Quebec would have detailed marriage records that made reference to the county in Ireland that their parents were from! So it's too bad James was already married when he arrived. I looked for evidence that he, or his wife, came over with an unmarried sibling that then married in Canada -- didn't see any such evidence (anyway, I don't know if PEI marriage records typically cited that information).
Yeah, I know there are numerous trees that show the Kilegney, Co Wexford marriage of 1827, but I suspect only because of the name matches and time fit... is that enough to be reasonably confident?? Hmm..
Another avenue that can be tried is seeing what a place like AncestryDNA shows for the 'origins' of your DNA... it might show SE Ireland (Foley DNA); although if you have other ancestors that came from there then it doesn't help much (although you can examine your paternal vs maternal DNA origins separately).
Fyi, I just prepared a FindaGrave memorial for James - and also submitted requests that Johanna's and son Michael's surnames in FaG be changed from McQuire to McGuire.
Bernard
Thanks Bernard- I didn't know you could request that change (and from Ireland?). We discovered the error at pei archives and found out where Michael (son) and Johanna's graveside is but not James - have yet to go there in person so maybe it is there or .....
Thanks for your advice
Florence