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possible Donegal ancestors

Donegal

I have been unable to trace any of my mother's Irish family back to a specific place in Ireland. My DNA show that I have migrations from Donegal and I was hoping to see if there are/were people with the same surnames in the Donegal area.

Here are the names and the years they would have left Ireland.

James Feeney about 1840

Catherine McCauly/McCauley; about 1840 (her father would have been Daniel)

Thomas Hawley; probably late 1840s

Bridget Daly; probably late 1840s

Ellen McCaffrey and sister Bridget;probably late 1840s

Dennis McKeever; before 1850

It appears that they would have all been young adults at the time, around 20 years old give or take a few years. Dennis was likely the oldest being born around 1820.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thank you.

Barbara K

bakornbluth@gm…

2 replies

Barbara:

Welocme to Ireland Reaching Out!

Of the sunrames you listed, McCauley and McCaffrey were the most prevalent in Donegal. This site developed by one of our volunteers https://www.swilson.info/sdist.php ; shows where surnames were found by county based on Griffiths Valuation data from the mid-19th century. FYI finding church records in Co. Donegal pre-1850 is very difficult. Other counties are more likely to have earlier records. The key for tracking down where your ancestors were from is to see if you can locate parental info in their new country so you can have a better chance of finding a baptismal record if one exists.

Not sure which company you tested with but I would contact your top matches to see if you can make a connection with a common ancestor.

Let me know if you have questions.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Dear Roger,

Thank you for the information. I wish I knew more. I understand that the records in Ireland were not very complete at the time. Unfortunately, the paper work here in the US was not very thorough either. 

I will see if I can locate Ellen and Catherine's death certificates to see if I can learn more.

Thank you again,   

Barbara

bakornbluth@gm…

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