52 Ancestors challenge Week 11 "Luck o' the Irish"

[dragonfly]

Last week I blogged about my Irish ancestor who survived the wreck of The Faithful Steward. That was lucky for him, but the 190 or so people who died in that wreck were all Irish -- not the lucky ones, apparently. In fact, when I look at history, "luck" of the Irish seems almost ironic.

According to ancestryDNA, I am 11% Irish. I have found a few of those Irish lines, but they are far enough back in my makeup that I'm willing to believe 11% to be about right. Other than James Stunkard and George Hazlett (whose mother was a Jane Whitaker, see below), both of whom I've already blogged about, I don't know much about my Irish ancestors. So, this is a round up of them with summaries of what I know:

Isabella Lindsey (1773-1838) She married into my father's straight paternal line in the Shenandoah Valley, VA at a time when the two ethnicities living there were Germans and Scotch-Irish. Based on her name, I'm assuming she was the latter. I haven't traced her ancestry, but I am a DNA match with someone with a Lindsey ancestor living in the right place and time to be her sister or cousin. If I assume a relationship there, that line traces back to Ireland.

Ellen Irwin (1814-1912) Family lore has it that when her sister Margaret (Irwin) Whitaker and Margaret's husband died in Ireland from Great Famine related causes, Ellen took over the care of her two nieces, Margaret and Jane Whitaker. When Ellen emigrated to the U.S. with her brothers, she brought the teen-aged Jane Whitaker along (Jane's sister having also died in Ireland by then). In the U.S. Ellen met and married James Tapper, an Englishman, and they helped found Giard, Iowa. Jane Whitaker married a Hazlett and is my great-great grandmother. One of Ellen's daughters was the first white child born in that county, and the natives used to borrow the child to show around. They and the Tappers had no language in common, so they weren't asking to borrow her. They just came and took her away, often for overnight. They always returned her unharmed. I have a picture of her. My uncle thinks she looks like me. Er, a much younger me.


I don't really see it.

Morgan Crimmons (1815-1889) He's my great-great-great-grandfather and I know nothing about him. He was born in Ireland and died in Illinois, married to a woman named Ellen. That's all I've got.

James Gilmore/Gallimore (1685 - 1758) Born in Colerain, Ireland, died in Windham, New Hampshire. He's my 7X great-grandfather. Again, that's all I know about him.

Comments

[blueswan]

I have two Irish grandmothers (great & a great great) and I know nothing more than that. I'd love to trace them back but i think a place name at least would have been helpful to have passed down. A lot of women named Margaret left Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Some day we will be able to take advantage of ancestryDNA here in the wilderness, and I'll be interested to see the results when we can.

I loved that story about the natives "borrowing" the little girl. And you have a picture of her too! That is so cool.

[dragonfly]

It's kind of frustrating that as soon as I get an ancestor to Ireland, I hit a brick wall. I'm sure there are records there, I just don't know how to get to them.

Can you imagine how Ellen and her husband felt the first time the locals showed up and took their daughter away? Eeeee!

[blueswan]

I feel your frustration. With a place name, I might have a shot at finding the right people with the parish records. Without one? Well, that's a very solid brick wall indeed.

They must have been beside themselves!