Ponsonby Family of Stranorlar, also Toner/Tonner, and Paton/Patton, and Monteith
I've been researching the Ponsonbys of Donegal, specifically from the Stranorlar area, also Donaghmore, for close to 30 years now, well before there was access to the internet!!
My 3x great-grandfather was John Ponsonby, he was born abt. 1784, don't know if he was born in Donegal, but he was there at least by the Griffiths Valuation when there were only the two Ponsonbys in Donegal, John at Cavan Lower, Donaghmore who was incorrectly listed as John Punch; and Thomas his brother at nearby Teevickmoy, Stranorlar, incorrectly listed as Thomas Punch. There were no Punches in the north of Ireland, this would have been a recording error.
My 2x great-grandfather was John "Jr" Ponsonby born "1817" in Donegal (I would think), he and his -brother James Ponsonby went to Scotland together sometime after the 1841 census, and before 1846 when John married Helen/Ellen Doherty in Port Glasgow. It's because they went to Scotland that I was able to find their parents names from their death records, and I've chronicled as much as possible on the descendants of both John Ponsonby who died at Cavan in Stranorlar 12 Sep 1864, age 80 years, and of Thomas Ponsonby who died in the Stranorlar Workhouse on 10 May 1866, age 74 years, name recorded as Thomas "Punch".
I can NOT get back in time, however, in this family. I don't know where they originated, there are the family legends, two strikingly similar, one handed down over the generations to me, and one to a Ponsonby in Glasgow. Some say that they probably were native Irish and took their names from Planation owners. However I find nothing on Ponsonbys owning plantantion in Donegal.
John (Sr.) Ponsonby was married first ot Margaret Toner or Tonner, my 3x great-grandmother and the mother of John (Jr) Ponsonby, and she must have died shortly after John's birth. His -brother James Ponsonby was the son of John but his mother was Mary Paton or Patton, and he was born abt. 1820. He was the male witness at John's marriage in 1846 to Helen Doherty. Thomas (Sr.) Ponsonby was married to Margaret Monteith, which information again comes from the children who died in Scotland.
If anybody can help with this family, and is able to locate any information on why they were there, with a name like Ponsonby, and where they came from, I'd be most grateful. I've managed in most lines of my ancestry to get back further than this, but this is one "brick wall" that I can't seem to break through!!
Thank you, and would love to hear from anyone else interested,
Jane Liebzeit
Winnipeg, Canada (great-granddaughter of Jane Ponsonby b. 1848 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, to Irish immigrants)