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Buchanan in Castlederg Church of Ireland

TyroneUrney (Tyrone)

Three of my great grandfather's brothers were christened here.
Robert Buchanan20 Apr 1815
Charles Buchanan26 May 1817
William Buchanan28 Mar 1824
The christenings of their other children have not been found.
James Buchanan 1823
Andrew Buchanan born10 Aug 1826
John Buchanan born10 Aug 1829
Samuel Buchanan born28 Mar 1832
Jane Buchanan born27 Feb 1836

In 1847, during the height of the great famine, Andrew and Jane Buchanan, and their familiesset sail for Canada. At his time some of them were living in Binnawooda townland in Ardstraw Parish.After 10 days at sea, the ship was nearly destroyed in a severe storm and had to return for repairs.

On a second attempt, a plague of "immigrant fever" broke out, and several people died, including William's father Andrew and a baby daughter. After quarantine in Kingston, the family came west to Esquesing, Ontario, where the men found work in the grain harvest. The women and children spent the winter in North Easthope, where they had Irish friends, while the men trekked north into uncharted wilderness to build shanties and clear land for the families. They were pioneer settlers in an unsurveyed district of huge trees.

Later, some of the men found winter employment working in the big gold mines on the Comstock Lode of Nevada, returning to Elma, Perth County, Ontario to work on their farms during the summer. The journey from Donegal, Ontario to Gold Hill, Nevada took 11 days by train and by horseback.

It was undoubtedly a tough life, but they approached life with courage and enthusiasm.

billb1847@hotm…

2 replies

Hi Bill

Thanks again for this - I have just replied to your other posting inviting you to add this to our XO Chronicles. You can learn more about it HERE and it might be another avenue to consider so that your ancestor's details can be seen by others. 

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

IrelandXO member

My husband Joe is from this same line of Buchanans. There seems to be a brick wall from the emigration of these Buchanans back. We do not know who Andrew Buchanan's father was. His wife Jane's last name was said to be Long but also McNeilance ( McNeilands).

Joe descends from William Buchanan who was born in Learmore in 1824 and his baptism is recorded at Urney. He married Annie Thompson of Collow, also born 1824. Annie and William were Married in West Langfield parish and their wedding recorrd indicates that he was, at that time, in Binnawooda Townland.  They left for Canada shortly after their marriage though we do not know the name of the ship(s) they were on and exactly what year they left. They prided themselves on being able to pay their own passage. I believe it was William and Annies' infant daughter who died enroute. 

William's father Andrew is said to have died at Kingston and is likely buried in a mass grave at Skeleton Park with no records. His ancestry remains elusive. Had he lived longer perhaps more would have been known about him. Though Jane lived a good long while stories passed down through the family do not have information about Andrew's or Jane's family. The whole family immigrated to Canada with the parents and all their grown children moving to a new home in the wilderness, so the ties back to Ireland would only have been to the parents siblings and parents. The family was literate but I am not aware of any surviving letters. The family descendents now number in the thousands and a DNA group exists to try and connect them with other Buchanans from Tyrone.

 

some folks have tried to link Andrew to John Buchanan of Stratherdick? and his wife Mary Elizabeth Orr but I think John Buchanan is born one generation too early for that. There is a passing note in the Buchanans of Strathroy genealogy to an Andrew born to John and Mary whose family went to America...

IrelandXO member

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