a family history blog and genealogy database
Our Irish ancestors came from at least the following eight counties: Armagh; Cavan; Clare; Cork; Galway; Limerick; Longford; and Tipperary. For most of our Irish ancestors, I have discovered at least an Irish county, and, in many cases, an Irish townland of origin, as well. But I’ve yet to discover an Irish county, never mind an Irish townland, for James Moran & Margaret Jamieson, and I'm not sure that I ever will.
James and Margaret emigrated from Ireland to Upper Canada quite early (ca. 1818-1821). As one of the earliest settler families of Huntley township, Carleton Co., Ontario, they raised a family of ten known children (three sons and seven daughters). Their eldest known child, daughter Marcella, was born in Canada about 1821. However, they may have had a male child, born about 1820 (whether in Ireland or in Canada, I do not know), who died in infancy.
Their grandson Thomas Edwin Moran (1860-1942) recorded that they came from either King's (Offaly) or Queen's (Laois) County. And while Thomas (‘Tommy’) Moran had never known his paternal grandfather James, who died about 1857, he had certainly grown up with his paternal grandmother, Margaret Jamieson, who died in 1882. Thus, his ‘either King’s or Queen’s County in Ireland’ is not to be readily discounted. Tommy Moran also recorded that Margaret Jamieson had first married an Edmond Conroy. There is a marriage record for an Edmond Conroy and Margt Jamison, who married at Mountmellick, Co. Laois on 21 May 1815. Is this my 3rd-great-grandmother? I suspect it might be; though, given the dearth of supporting records, I doubt I’ll ever know for certain.
I also lack a county of origin for Mary Ahearn, wife of Denis Killeen, though I suspect it was Tipperary.
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