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Quinn Family - Looking for location of Irish Roots

Hello,

My name is Mike Quinn and I live on Long Island, just outside of New York City.

I have what's a common genealogy issue, namely, I have no idea where my (paternal) line is from in Ireland.

Here's a summary of relevant information (I apologize in advance for its length, but I want to be fairly thorough):

  • The first of my line to come over, Philip Quinn, did so in the late 1830s/early 1840s. He married here in NY (Newburgh) in 1841 to my gg-grandmother - Mary Murphy - obviously an absolutely brutal name when it comes to sifting through records.
  • Some possible R.C. baptismal records from Ireland have been name matched to him via FindMyPast.com, but I simply have no idea if any of those are "my" Philip Quinn. Per the 1850 U.S. census, he was 36 years of age, therefore, if that's accurate, he would've been born around 1813-1814. Likewise, we also have a fewpotential immigration "hits" in terms of ship's registers (traveling from Ireland to the U.S. in the late 1830s).
  • We just tracked down what we believe to be his naturalization record (Sept. 1842) from Newburgh, NY, but it just says Ireland, without a County of origin.
  • Though there are other Quinn's living in around that mid-Hudson area during the 1840s/early 1850s, we haven't definitively been able to show any connection. So, parents, siblings, aunts/unclesand cousins of Philip (in the U.S.), if any, are unknown.
  • Both Philip and Mary appear in the 1850 U.S. census with their children, my g-grandfather and his twoyounger sisters - all living together in the Cold Spring, NY (Putnam County) area (technically the lived right over the Cold Spring border in Nelsonville, NY), across the Hudson River from Newburgh, NY. By the 1860 census, Philip and Mary are both gone, and presumed to be deceased. No records or evidence of burial in that area, but that was often the case in that region with poor Irish Catholic laborers (most worked in the West Point Foundry). Both my g-grandfather and the older of his two sisters wereservants in two separate households in Cincinnati, Ohio by the time of the 1860 census. Their younger sister was living with her aunt/uncle (Nicholas Murphy, brother of Mary Murphy)and cousins in Cold Spring at that same time and for the remainder of her life.
  • Baptismal records from that time in the 1840s/early 1850s, show Godparents as generally connected via the maternal side, but no obvious direct family members with the Quinn surname. I'm waiting for FindMyPast.com to put the images of the parish registers out there (likely to occur over the next year), as we're still just dealing with indexes (without Godparent names for baptismals or Witness names for marriages).
  • Philip's direct male line was down to just my brother and myself, with now his two sons and my son continuing the Quinn line. So, again, without knowing of any siblings/cousins of Philip, whether they remained in Ireland or came to the U.S., or Canada, Australia, etc. is the big unknown and what brings me to this brick wall.
  • I've done extensive DNA testing with multiple companies and have linked up with other Quinn's via FTDNA Y-tests. Currently, several of us are waiting on results of our Y-500 to Y-700 upgrades, which will likely come in by July/August. However, none of us, with potentially one exception of what's likely to be a very distant cousin, have any clue where our Quinn lines came from in Ireland. So, once the DNA testing is completed, I'll have an even better handle on when our various Quinn lines connect back to our common ancestor (I think it's going to be 300+ years for even my closest connection).

My question is that based on our DNA results, would there be any sense as to what historical Quinn lines in Ireland (i.e. regions) would be the best for turning our attention to for reaching out for DNA testing? For example, our line is negative for M-222, which is traditionally the grouping of NW Ireland, Ulster and Scotish Lowlands. One study that I did suggested the area of Gort, as I'm connected with O'Grady's and Connolly's (pre-surnames), going back 700+ years. While that may or may not be accurate, I don't think that can be relied on to any great extent, particularly when dealing with more recent Quinn origins of the last 200 or so years, when my line was coming over to the U.S.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Mike Quinn

IrelandXO member

5 replies

Mike:

Welcome to Ireland Out!

You family history was well done and logically laid out which helped understand your story. Quinn is not as common as a surname as Murpjy but is very common although Philip helps since it is not as a common a given name as others. There were about 4000 Quinn head of household records in the Griffiths Valuation survey taken in the mid 1850s. Tyrone was the highest with over 600 followed by Armagh, Galway, Down and Mayo but every county has Quinns.

You didn't mention your great-grandfather's name. I would use that name as a placeholder in looking for Philip's baptismal record. He was likely born in the late 1810s and many parishes do not have records back to that era. By the way, the subscription site Roots Ireland has five Philip Quinn baptismal records from 1814-1819.

I have also done Y-DNA testing but only up to Y-111. I have found the test to be somewhat helpful but at this time I'm not interested in more detailed tests like the ones you have selected.

I rely more on the autosomal matches to find distant relatives. I'm on Ancestry, FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritage and Gedmatch. If you have not loaded your data to the volunteer site Gedmatch www.gedmatch.com ; I would recommend doing that to further expand your matching pool.

You can also add Philip's emigration story to our XO Chronicles ite and possibly someone will see a connection https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-database

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Hi Roger,

Thanks very much for the welcome as well as the advice.

I've done just about everything that I can with DNA thus far, short of selected testing of Quinn's in Ireland.  I'm on gedmatch.com, as well as virtually all the major players in the DNA testing pool (FTDNA, Ancestry, 23andMe, MyHeritage, Living DNA, etc.).

To clarify my initial post, my gg-grandfather was Philip Quinn (born abt. 1814 (Ireland)-(died in the 1850s-almost certainly in the mid-Hudson region of New York) - his only son that lived to adulthood (my great-grandfather) was Michael Philip Quinn (b. Nov 1843 in Newburgh, NY).  They were Roman Catholic.

An obit for one of my great-grandfather's sisters from the early 1900s stated that she was orphaned as an infant (she was born Oct. 1848), and provides a middle initial (whether right or wrong) for my gg-grandfather Philip T. Quinn.  If I understand naming conventions correctly, the eldest son was named after the father's father.  If so, then Philip's father could've also been named Michael, and I imagine that he would've been born at any point from the 1770s through the mid-1790s.  The above may be off if my great-grandfather wasn't the oldest son and/or they didn't follow those naming conventions.  With my great-grandparents married in Nov. 1841, it's feasible that they had a child (son) born in 1842/very early 1843, before my great-grandfather was born.

In terms of immigration, below seems to be the most promising record that I've found to date, though it is off a bit on the age (not a deal-breaker, but still something to keep me a bit skeptical):

Name:Philip Quin  Arrival Date:1 Jun 1839  Age:22  Gender:M (Male)  Port of Arrival:New York  Port of Departure:Londonderry  Occupation:Labourer  Destination:United States of America  Ship:Brig Oceanus  Microfilm Serial Number:M237  Microfilm Roll Number:38  List Number:331

 

Regards,

Mike

 

 

IrelandXO member

Mike:

I searched Roots Ireland and found one Philip Quinn baptismal record with a father Michael in Co. Wicklow. See below. I also looked at FindMyPast from 1813-1823 and found five Philip Quinn baptismal records but none had a father Michael.

All the best with your research. Hopefully you will get your break thru.

Roger

Name:Philip QuinnDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:04-Jun-1813Address:
Parish/District:BALLYMORE EUSTACEGender:MaleCountyCo. Wicklow
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Michael QuinnMother:BridgetOccupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Malacheo Byrne Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Maria Reardon 

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

I would be interested in what you find out. My great grandfather was Patrick Quinn, born 1859 (or 1860 or 1863). He came over in 1883 (from who knows where) and married Ellen Hawkins in Cold Spring, Putnam County NY in 1886. They had 8 children. Patrick died in 1918, having moved across the river to New Windsor, Orange Co.  Memvers of the family worked at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring.

Question is, how does an Irishman pick up and move to Cold Spring, NY? Was he an ironworker in Ireland? His wife came from New Jersey, moving with other family members to Cold Spring where presumably they met. I've been trying to find any related Quinns who might have come over at the same time.

mgilmore

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