Looking for relatives in Westmeath County

Roger,

Thank you for your speedy reply. The info I have says:  Town-Castlepollard      Barony-Fore        Civil Parish-Rathgarve

Poor Law Union-Castletowndelvin

We are doing autosomal DNA but just sent it off so we have to wait 6-8 weeks for results. This is my husband's ancestry and we

will be coming to Ireland this August. His family is not Catholic now and we don't really know if they were in Ireland.  When they

came to the USA, it doesn't appear that they were practicing Catholics.  The story about owning the land came from a history

book I came across while reading through old wills and such. John Connor was born in either 1735 or 1741 in Castlepollard and

he is a DNA match with some other Connor's who have been tested. I have fairly complete records for my husband's side of

the Connor line staight back to John Connor who fought in the American Revolution. John's 1st wife was Margaret McCutchens and they married in1762. She died in 1767 but it is not clear if that was in Ireland or the USA.. John died in 1813

in Scotchtown, New York. Thank you for any assistance you can give.

Roger

I knew that most of the church records were destroyed in fires but a genealogist here said that there were 2nd copies of those records that were forwarded to a country wide repository in some places. Is this true and if so where would I begin to look for those?  Are there still Connor's who live in Castlepollard?  Would there be some kind of records of land or property deeds in a library or county office or were they lost in fires as well? Is there a community graveyard that may have Connor headstones? And lastly, would it be possible to meet someone like a town historian or Connor's who still live locally if we came to Castlepollard or to meet someone in Dublin? I would be happy to bring Family record sheets of the Connor's that I have to leave with a town library or historian.Thank you so much for your efforts and insights.

Mermaid

Mermaid

Just checking that you have joined the parish of Rathgarve, Westmeath on this site.  The parishes on this site are Civil Parishes and as you have the Civil Parish name there might be someone who is a member of that parish that could help you,

Regards,

karen.

I too am a descendant of John Connor, b. 1741.  He is my 4^th great-grandfather.

He emigrated to Ulster County, NY, not Orange County.  At the time of John Connor’s death in 1797, Wallkill was a part of Ulster County, not Orange County.  On 5 April 1798, New York State changed the law, where Orange County gained from Ulster County.  See N.Y. Laws 1798, 21st sess., ch. 93/p. 273), which undoubtedly caused confusion since William Conner, one of the sons of John Conner eventually lived in Orange County.  Because of where William lived, John also must have lived, and this was not true, before 1798. 

There were 4 persons by the name of John Conner/Connor who lived in that same time period in Ulster and Orange Counties.

According to an undated letter written by Mary Elizabeth Conner (1868-1951), a 2nd great granddaughter of John Connor, and my grandmother, he was born in 1741 at Castle Pollard, County of Westmeath, Ireland.  Several internet sites that host family tree information have added the specific date of his birth as 3 MARCH 1741 in Eastel, Castle Pollard, County of Westmeath, Ireland.  I have not been able to verify John Connor’s birth information or what “Eastel” means.  County Westmeath apparently is a conclave of Catholic parishioners, and we know that John and his family, through at least his children were of the Presbyterian faith.  It appears the largest conclave of Presbyterians in Ireland are in Ulster, a northernmost province of Ireland.  Whether John, born in County Westmeath was an outlier, regarding his parents’ faith, or his birth location has been misidentified over the years is unknown, since on some ancestral websites there was at least another John Conner/Connor born there in the early 1700s.

After his original will was written 9 November 1794 and before 13 October 1797, the Probate filing date, which was presented to the Court Surrogate, which was approved 13 November 1797.  This means John Conner likely died within 60 days before 13 October 1797, in Wallkill, Ulster Co., NY.  In this filing Joseph, his first-born son by Hannah Denn, his second wife, is named executor of the estate and John Connor is shown as deceased.

John Connor did fight in the American Revolution.  In The History of Ulster County, New York, edited by Alphonso T. Clearwater, publ. Kingston, New York: W.J. Van Deusen, 1907 starting on page 117 is “A List of a Company of Foot Militia Commanded by Cap’n William Faulkner, Taken the 13th Day of 1772". On page 118 is listed John Connor. That this is a Wallkill group is shown by the fact that on page 117 are listed Neal McLaughlin (future brother-in-law), Archibald Brown (future second husband of wife Hannah) and Jonathon Corey (uncle of Elizabeth Corey, future second wife of son William), is quite significant.  Our John is also listed as John Connor in the publication, “A List of All the Rank and File Men Within the Precinct of Shawangunk, on the East Side of the Wallkil, Belonging to the Company of Militia Whereof Jhannes Hardenberg, Jun'r is Captain, Within the Second Regiment of the County of Ulster.