I am hoping someone may have some constructive/instructive advice on my continued search for the parents of my GGG-Grandfather, John Lynch. What I know is, he was born about 1815 (various records show his birth to be from 1815-1817). Originally, I only knew from his US Civil War enlistment record, that he listed Co. Cork, Ireland as his place of birth. All other, US records simply show his place of birth as Ireland. I have tried to locate Naturalization paperwork that I can definitively tie to him and have been unsuccessful in the courthouses in the area he resided. There have been a few John Lynch's on ship manifests that have potential to be my John but no way to know for sure which one it might be or if any of them are him. Having run into this brick wall at the shores of the US, trying to get evidence of John Lynch on Irish soil and to find out who my 4X Great Grandmparents are has proven daunting.
I have since turned to DNA in the hopes that I might find an Irish match that has a tree that might help find the link. In the last 5 years, that has not happened, however, through the DNA, pouring over and analyzing what trees are available from matches, I have been able to reasonable identify where in Co. Cork I believe John may have been born. It would appear that John was from the Ballyvourney area of Co. Cork, possibly even Macroom area. The names that seem to be associated the most with my matches for that line are, Kelleher, Lucey, Buckley, Cronin, Twomey and to a lesser degree, O'Donoghue, McSweeney, McCarthy.
Naming sequence has not helped identify a particular family unfortunately. John's first child was a boy named Daniel, however, his wife's father's name was Daniel and there is not any way to know if Daniel was also John's father's name, since there is no record. After Daniel the names follow, Olive, Clay, Levi, Clinton and Mary. These are children from his first wife. From his second are all daughters, Sally (believed to be named after the first wife), Matilda, Eliza and Jane.
I have tried to use various Irish websites to look up records, however, the difficulty I find is, IF if I find a potential record, I then run into the problem of how to tie my John to that record. There were many John Lynch's born in Co. Cork and also in Co. Kerry, where a few matches have had information in their trees that suggest possibly the Kenmare or Kilgarvin area of Co. Kerry. That said the big prevalance in trees is the Ballyvourney/Macroom area. Most of my matches trees do not go back to the 1815 time period, they seem to stop right around 1830, so obviously, quite frustrating.
Last of all, I did have a genetic genealogist look over my work and although she would not go out on a limb and say 100% John came from Ballyvourney or Macroom, she did say the evidence strongly suggests this to be the case. To round out my information about John Lynch, he settled in Edwardsville, Illinois, was married twice. First to Sally Ann Lanterman in 1842 and then after her death in 1852, he married Eudoxia Ann Scott in 1853. He enlisted in the Civil War at the start and was discharged in ill health in 1864 outside of Richmond, Virginia. The Company Dr. told him not to return to Illinois due to the cold weather and to stay in the south. He died in March of 1866 in New Orleands, Louisiana, having never made it back home to Edwardsville.
Again, any constructive or instructive advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time reading this.
Kelly
Friday 7th Aug 2020, 05:53PMMessage Board Replies
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Kelly, I have Cronin, McCarthy and Sweeney in my ancestry. My ggf parents are supposed to be Denis McCarthy and Mary Cronin... or Hannah Cronnen/Crounen. They went to Wales where their children Denis, Patrick, Hannah, Ellen and Mary Ann were born from 1859 to 1865. They emigrated to Pittsburgh in about 1872. The only Wales census with a Denis Jr of the right age is 1861 and gives parents as Jeremiah (spelled Jerynnah) and Mary.
There's an 1854 marriage of Denis McCarthy and Mary Cournane in Tralee; witnesses Timothy Collins and Jeremiah Cournane. Otherwise I can find no marriage for them in the records on irishgenealogy.ie.
My Sweeney is Margaret Sweeney, b. 1812 who married Timothy Carroll. They had daughters Mary and Johanna who married brothers Daniel and Denis O'Leary. Daniel is my gggf. The O'Learys are my father's mother's family; the McCarthys are my father's father's family. All ended up in Pittsburgh. The O'Learys settled in Wheeling, WVA, but my ggf and a couple of his brothers went to Pittsburgh.
Are you on ancestry? Look me up-- I'm MegMS; my tree is called Callahan Family Tree.
Meg
MegMS
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Hi Meg,
Thanks so much for your response. Yes, I am on Ancestry. I looked you up and found you but did not see your tree listed. Perhaps it is set to private? It would appear that we are not genetically connected but of course, that far back, it is possible we just miss each other on matching segments. So, I am wondering if by chance you are on GEDmatch? If so, I would love to do a comparison with the tool for people who match one or both kits and see what shared matches we might have. Please feel free to email me at kelly.miller.collins@gmail.com.
Thanks again.
Kelly
Kelly
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Hello Kelly
Some of the names associated with your LYNCH line are part of my research (LUCEY, SWEENEY)
My line – Jeremiah LYNCH married Mary Ann LUCEY 1814 St Finbarr’s Cork, Cork.
Children of this marriage born between 1815-1829 include: Eliza, Margaret, Lucy, Marcus, John, Daniel, Ellen and possibly Oliver. I believe there are three other male children.
I have found baptisms for some of the children at St Finbarr’s, Cork. However, one daughter Ellen was baptised Ballyvourney, Cork, Ireland diocese of Cloyne Microfilm Number: Microfilm 05007 / 07. There is also a baptism for Ellen 1831 St Finbarr’s Microfilm 04778 / 04.
A son John LYNCH was baptised 1 Sep 1824 St. Finbarr's, Cork city | Microfilm 04778 / 04.
Between 1838-1851 some of the children had left Ireland. Some were in England for a short time and then migrated to Australia.
I have done the Ancestry DNA test but am not on gedmatch.
I agree, it is very difficult to tie records back for this period.
Kim
KMC
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Hi Kim,
Thank you so much for your input. Although, 1824 is out of the time for the birth of my John Lynch, I wonder what the possibility would be that you and I might share a Lynch ancestor further back. Unfortunately, first things first. Can't get the answer to that question without knowing who my John's parents are. If you ever decide to upload to GEDmatch and you think of it, please let me know. I would love to do some comparisons just to see if there is the possibility of a link. My email address is, kelly.miller.collins@gmail.com . Thank you again for taking the time to respond.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Kelly