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The Neighbors in Ireland, by Michael F. McGraw and Clare Tuohy

The Neighbors in Ireland opens a window that covers the Famine period in selected townlands of Moyaliff and Holycross parishes of Co. Tipperary. Most of the townlands studied are adjacent and their relatively small size allows the area to be truly described as a neighborhood. The Irish homesteads of the main families of Long, Fanning, Tuohy and McGrath were identified and described in detail.  

The Field, House, Tenure and Cancelled Books, researched by one of the authors (Tuohy), contained a wealth of new source material. The analysis of that material provided a unique view into the lives of these ancestors during the Great Famine and as they were emerging from the famine. The information contained in the House Books was unique and priceless. They contained an inventory of every structure, on each farm, in every townland along with the dimensions of each structure, the materials of construction and their state of maintenance. It is possible to use the Griffith Valuation maps, with the information in the House Books, to develop a mental picture of these buildings. That is about as close as one is going to get to having a photograph of the ancestral homestead from that time period. 

This document was the result of a trans-Atlantic collaboration between Clare Tuohy, a Dublin, Ireland based researcher, who is descended from William Tuohy of Grange, Holycross parish, and myself, based in Austin, TX, who is descended from Michael McGrath of Moyaliff in Moyaliff parish.

10/30/11

Web Hosting

This site was down for a little over 24 hours during Oct 27-28. That was the final agonizing day of an eleven-day ordeal, transferring the site from one web hosting company to another. The detailed saga can be read here. The names have not been changed because there were no innocents to protect. If you have never transferred a web site, then you will have been warned. If you have transferred a web site, then you should be able to relate. If you are about to transfer a web site, then BEWARE.

The paper The Long and McGrath Families - Neighbors on Both Sides of the Ocean was updated. A related paper about Thomas Long's lease back in Ireland was added: Thomas Long Land Lease.

A number of letters from Ireland have come into my possession. Doug Currie was kind enough to send me letters his mother, Agnes McGraw Currie, had received over the years from Mary Alice Hennity and her mother Martha Rooney Cunningham. I scanned them into a PDF document and added some background material. The link to the letters is on the The McGraw Family of Truxton page.

Two new papers have been added. The Rooney's of County Down and The Long and McGrath Families - Neighbors on Both Sides of the Ocean.

The Rooney paper is an updated version of an earlier paper. This paper resolves several family mysteries and traces the Rooneys back to the family homestead in Tullyframe, Co. Kilkeel, Co. Down.  A mystery child was also discovered whose existence had not been found in any of the family stories.

The Long & McGrath paper builds more connections between the families from the Holycross-Moyaliff area of Co. Tipperary and Central New York.

The paper, The Ryan Family in Ireland and America has been added to the Lewis County page. The author, Father Thomas E. Buckley, S. J., has graciously agreed to share his work with visitors to this site. In this paper Father Buckley presents the results of research into his Gleason and Ryan ancestors from the Moyaliff area of Co. Tipperary. He covers their years at Maple Ridge, in Lewis Co., and their eventual relocation to the West coast.

The number of individuals from the Upperchurch area that settled in the Central New York region has grown to 62 individuals representing 27 families.

The First Arrivals - Table showing the order of the arrivals

The Upperchurch Families - More detailed information on the individuals and their families.

The Ghosts of Glown - An extra Philip and Margaret Ryan family from the Upperchurch area were shown not to have existed at all.

The McGrath, Ryans and Gleasons of Maple Ridge have finally been straightened out. A migration of over a dozen persons went from Pompey, Onondaga Co. NY to Maple Ridge, Lewis Co between the end of 1858 and Aug. 1860.

McGraths, Ryans and Gleasons in Lewis Co. (PDF)  UPDATED

After 10 months of searching and writing, the story of the of the search for my ggg-grandfather, Michael McGrath is "complete." Along the way I was able to link together the families of Maple Ridge, Lewis Co, NY and those in Onondaga Co., NY.

The story comes in two parts. The Short Story describes the search, the Maple Ridge Migration and the new Upperchurch families that were found.

The McGrath Family from Moyaliff Parish, County Tipperary. is the longer version and goes into more detail on Michael McGrath's family and the search for Michael himself.

Tipperary Surname Distribution maps added

10/31/06

Organization and structure of the site finalized and implemented. Site launched. See Welcome page

The Phelans of Central New York added.

The Roger Ryan Family of Cuyler, New York added