Hello Elwyn, I am Jerry, Judy's younger brother. My wife and I did visit your beautiful country for 19 days in mid-year 2022. My wife and I spent four days in Dublin prior to a 14-day My Ireland Tour, which included N. Ireland.
During our visit we went to St Andrews Catholic Church, Westland Row, next to Trinity College, where my paternal grandmother had her Baptism record from 1895. Our maternal great grandfather Patrick was born in 1860 in Tamnagh, Banagher, Derry, Ireland. His eldest brother was Denis, followed by Mick (Michael), followed then by his sister Mary born in 1851, after the Census, followed by Bridget. No children between Bridget in 1853 to 1859 were born/survived birth. Our great grandfather was then followed by James, John, Edward, Bernard and Thomas.
Mary married a James McLaughlin, which we did not expect, and she was widowed in 1897 with four children Annie, Patrick, Bernard and Michael. They farmed in Tamnagh and were in the 1901 and 1911 Census living next to Mary's mother and her single brothers. We cannot find any information on Bernard. We know Annie and Paddie remained unmarried, and we know Michael married since we have correponded with our third cousin in Scotland.
Our great grandfather Patrick emigrated to Philadelphia, PA in 1888 with his brother Bernard. Bernard married had one son, who died during the 1918 Spanish Flu at 24 years of age. Patrick also lost an adult daughter to the Spanish Flu in 1918; she was a young mother and left two children. Patrick and his wife had four children: their son John died before his 7th birthday. Our grandmother, Patrick's daughter, lived to 74 and her elder brother lived to his late 70's; they have many descendants in the U.S.
Thomas, as you indicated, received the farm in Dreen after his father's death, and he did marry Bridget Lynch. They had children Mary Alice, Michael and Bridget Jane. We recently discovered that Mary Alice married a Mullan (Mullen) and emigrated first to Nova Scotia, then took a train to Philadelphia, PA. She and her husband had a little girl Bridget in August 1922, which they left as an infant in Ireland when emigrating. They had two children in the mid to late 1920's in Philadelphia. Mary Alice's husband died leaving her a widow with two young children in the late 1920s. Her Naturalization Papers, from the early 1930s, indcated she had a daughter Bridget in Ireland. Alice died at 55 years of age in her home in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, PA.. We don't know what happened to Bridget Mullan, the daughter of Mary Alice MCLAUGHLIN Mullan (Mullen).
We have corresponded with another third cousin living in Scotland, who is descended from Thomas McLaughlin and Bridget LYNCH McLaughlin through their daughter Bridget Jane McLaughlin. We don't know what happened to our great granduncle Thomas and his wife Bridget LYNCH McLaughlin nor what happened to their son Michael.
There is a "small world story" to tell: We had an Ancestry DNA match with an individual in the U.S. that is descended from a County Derry family. During correspondence we ultimately discovered that her grandfather, from County Derry, lived in a Philadelphia row home nearly directly across the street from us.
Elwyn, thank you for your invaluable assistance.
Jerry
