John Hughes.

Mark:

I'm going to presume that your ancestors were RC. Roots Ireland www.rootsireland.ie has baptismal records for Donagh RC church back to 1836 and marriage records back to 1837.

Roots is a pay site to view transcriptions of church records. Possibly you can work with their indexes to see if any records exist on the Roots data base. I looked for a marriage in Co. Monaghan for a John Hughes to a lady named Catherine from 1845-1865 and got no record.

By the way, I now your John and Catherine were in England by 1861 but the 1861 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Donagh parish showed that Hughes was a very common surname in the parish.

http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/monaghan/donagh.htm

Roger McDonnell

This is a late reply so not sure if this thread is still continuing. In the hope that it is, here is the info I have which isnt much. First, I am a direct descendant of John Hughes and Catherine Cregan/Craggen. He is also my Great Great Grandfather so am now very intrigued as to where the link between us is! However, my info is very limited at present but I have ordered a copy of the marriage certificate which, if the right one, should shed more light on where they came from. None of this is confirmed beyond doubt, it is a work in progress so do not take as anything other than strong connections needing confirmation.

John Hughes born 1828 in Donagh. Birth date taken from census records so +/- a year maybe. Some records mention birth place Denagh - spelling mistake?? Married Catherine Craggen (also varies to Cregan on some records) between July 1854 and September 1854 in Liverpool, England. He worked as a dock labourer/dock gateman. In 1861 he was living at Matthew Street, Liverpool with wife Catherine (spelled Catherne on census), a son George (my Great Grandfather) and also a visitor called pat Hughes aged 52 at that time. Pat Hughes I feel is a father to John perhaps but will take some hard work to sort his connection I think but I am up for that challenge! 1871 census puts him at Boundary Street, east Liverpool, Lancashire, England with the addition of two extra sons - John T Hughes (8) and Patrick Hughes (5). Indications are that John T Hughes emigrated to US and I have leads over there but not the main concern for my own research which is trying to get a generation beyond John Hughes although sideways would be interesting as well. 1881 Census puts him at 7 Priam Street, Kirkdale, Lancashire. 1881 census still has the whole family living in Priam Street. I have his death written in my notes as being possibly West Derby, Lancashire but I think this info has been obtained by links following John T Hughes records in US. More a case of something to follow up but not pin any hopes on without further info. All the above info relates to Catherine as well, her birth date is also 1828 +/- a year. I have tried to follow a trail with her but it gets very hard when spellings change and birth places change or are hard to read, she was definitley born in Ireland though just mixed records of where exactly. I am hoping the marriage certificate I have ordered will be a bit more helpful. For now, the link to Ireland is my mission to solve, I would like to make a visit one day to wander through churches and have a look around the area where my family came from but I live in New Zealand so that will have to wait for a year or two. In desparation I have ordered a DNA test to be done, I have no idea what that will tell me but it could be worthwhile (maybe, perhaps!) In the mean time, please let me know your link to the family - mine shown below. Any other info you have found out and could pool together would be good to know about as well to help the search. Let me know if there is any other info you want and you think I may have but there is not a lot extra to the above going back generations.

Link:

Me - Peter Hughes - Albert Hughes - George Hughes - John Hughes/Catherine Craggen 

Hope this thread isnt a dead one!

Jon Hughes 

Alteration to my post above.

7 Priam Street was the residence in 1881 census not 1871 census as I mentioned. 

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for all that info.

My grandmother was Winifred Hughes her father was Patrick, George's brother.

We have similar information, we have a baptism for John Thomas. I know we all have difficulties with our Irish heritage I have my own name and my mother's maiden name which like Hughes are very common. It's a future plan for myself and my wife to visit Dublin and visit archives. 

Up until a month ago when I started to research where my name came from I never knew that my Great Grandfather had any siblings, I have your Great Grandfather Patrick on my family tree and have wondered what happened to both him and John T. I am pleased we have managed to make contact and hope we can sort out our ancestry, two minds will be better than one. As soon as I get a copy of the marriage certificate I will let you know on this message board and will get a copy to you somehow if it is the right one, there was some small doubt but it should be with me in the next couple of weeks so will keep in touch.

If you have any questions about my branch of the family please ask, I will try and answer anything you want to know. If you are willing, would you be prepared to fill in the gaps with Patrick and his descendants as far as you feel comfortable? All I have is his birth date, christening, occupation, and census records from 1871 and 1881. Is he one of the Patrick Hughes that also went to the USA?  Anything you are prepared to pass on to me would be good to receive.  

The descendants of George Hughes have all stayed in UK and mostly been in and around the Liverpool area until my fathers generation when the family has moved around the country a little but my mother and two sisters live in Cumbria which isnt too far away from Liverpool. I emigrated from UK to NZ in 1989 having fallen for a Kiwi girl and have a NZ born son who is the only male on my side to continue the Hughes name for my father. My father died just before Christmas and he would have been fascinated to know what I have found out so far and I wish I had started researching sooner.

It is great to have some contact with you, please pass on as much as you are willing or able to, I will do the same if you wish. You should get notification of another post whenI have the marriage certificate.

Thanks,

Jon  

Hi Jonathan

Once again thanks for the information. I have a family tree on Ancestry.com do you have an account if so I will grant you access if you wish. In the mean time I will look at my tree to see if I have any info you might appreciate.

I have enclosed a photo of my grandparents Alexander Weston Malone and Winifred Hughes, my grandmother being your grandfather's cousin. The picture was taken on their 50th wedding anniversary. 

Sorry to hear about your father.

I have a large family tree between both sets of grandparents they had 20 children, so there has been a lot of research mainly online.

I will let you take that all in, contact you soon

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks for that.

I have a tree on My Heritage, I dont know if any info can be swapped between them. I have heard of something called a GEDCOM file which has something to do with transfer from one site to another but dont know if that is relevant in this case - I will see if I can find out or perhaps someone on this site could tell us?. Will attach photo to my tree once I have a relevant place for it, any information will be gratefuly received about your family.  

Jon

Jon, you can invite Mark to view your MyHeritage tree.  You will need his email address to invite him. When you are logged into MyHeritage, hover over the Home tab, go down to Invite Members, then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and there is a link there to "invite other people manually".  You can then enter his name and email address there.

regards,

Karen Webster

E-MAIL  malonem195@gmail.com

Thanks karen, will give that a go.

Mark, I cant do anything right now as I am going away for a few days. I will be back on Monday, will get in touch then. 

Jon  

Mark,

This came today, will post it so you can have a look over the weekend if you like - I cant do anything for a few days.

I am reading Johns age in 1854 as 21 when I have all records pointing to him being born 1828. I am still confident he was the same age as Catherine due to each census I have. 

For the Donagh community board. The marriage certificate states John Hughes father as being Patrick Hughes who was a stone cutter. Is there a big history of stone cutting in Donagh early 1800s? Is this a good lead to follow or was it a very common profession? If anybody can pass on some comments they would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Jon