Samuel Alexander Wray and family - mid 1800s
Hoping someone will recognise the Wray family of Raymoghy / Raphoe.
Samuel Wray, of Raphoe (1772 - ca. 1840) fought in the Napoloeonic wars, losing his sight at the Battle of the Pyrenees.
After he died, his widow Elizabeth Dun (from Scotland), and their son William (born in 1820 at Sheskin, Raymoghy) emigrated to Pennsylvania.
Their other son, Samuel Alexander Wray, of Manorcunningham, married Rebecca Steen in 1838.
He was a tailor. In 1843 they were living in Slievebuck, Raphoe. In 1846, Sheskin, Raymoghy. By 1850 they were living in Derry, where Samuel was now a policeman - probably in the Londonderry Borough Police.
For unknown reasons, their youngest son William Wray emigrated - apparently on his own, in 1856, 10 years old - to Pennsylvania to live with his grandmother and uncle.
At 17, William enlisted in the US Marines during the Civil War. In the 1870's, he wrote to his brother Samuel Wray, offering to send him a ticket to come over to America.
By that time the father had probably died and Samuel, his wife Sarah Davis, his sister Margaret Jane Wray and their mother had moved to Port Glasgow, Scotland. Samuel didn't take him up on his offer, and William never saw the rest of his family again. He died aged 92 in 1939 in Pennsylvania, where his decendants still live today.
Only one of Samuel Alexander Wray and Rebecca Steen's children remained in Ireland - Catherine Wray, who married a William Hutchison and died in Coleraine in 1919.
The family switched frequently between Presbyterian and Church of Ireland. My ancestor, Margaret Jane Wray married first a William Douglas, then a William John McCarthy in a Catholic church in Derry, and finally remarried in the Church of Scotland.
Here's a link to what I have on Samuel Alexander Wray - you can browse his relatives from there.
https://familytrees.genopro.com/bonjedward/terkelanderik/Wray-SamuelAlexander-ind00188.htm
