Daniel Durning : Short Biography

Daniel Cornelius Durning was born on 25 April 1890  to parents John Durning and Marjorie "Madge" Carr in Meentaghconlan, Knockalla, which is a Townland just north of the small village of Kerrykeel in North Donegal, 

His father John Durning was a farmer of the land, just like his father Daniel Durning before him, who's is recorded in the 1857 Griffith Valuation as having a small house and 15 acres of land in Meentaghconlon in the Parish of Clondavaddog (Fanad) 

Daniels mother Marjorie Carr came from a large family of Carrs located in a townland called Doughmore, a location in Fanad often referred to as "between the water's. 

Daniel was one of a family of six children, of which there were five girls and he being the only boy. The children of the house oldest to youngest were Mary, Ellen, Rose, Margaret, Daniel and Francis, all born between 1880 and 1893. 
 
Daniel like many others at the time emigrating to the United States back in the early 1900's. Daniel and two of his sisters Rose and Fannie show up a Passenger List on the 16 April 1909  leaving on a ship from a Port in Liverpool on route to Pennsylvania which landed at its destination nearly 2 weeks later on the 28 April 1909.  

Daniels sister Fannie Durning travelled back and forth from Pennsylvania to Donegal a few times over the next 20 Years. Fannie met a Tyrone man called William John McGlinchey and they got married in 1929 and had two children in Pennsylvania, however soon after moving back to live in Castlederg in Tyrone in 1932 she died the following year during child birth at a young age of 30. Her sister Rose Durning settled in Pennsylvania working as a Housemaid until she passed away in 1941 age 52.  

Daniels sister Ellen During emigrated soon after in 1914, where she got married and she worked as a housemaid in Pennsylvania. Ellen passed away at the age 92 in 1975. The oldest of the siblings Mary Durning was the only sibling that did not emigrate, and choose to stay at home looking after her parents in Meentaghconlon. Mary Durning lived until 1977 when she died at a grand old age of 95  

Daniel Durning got married to the love of his life, Bridget Elizabeth McElwaine in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Philadelphia on on the 26 June 1914.  

Bridget McElwaine came from a townland in Fanad called Ballylar, which would have been less than an hours travel from where he was born back home in Donegal, and she emigrated to the United States in Sept 1910 which is not long after Daniel had landed himself. Bridget McElwaine and Daniel Durning had nine children, Marjorie, Mary, Ellen, John Joseph, Daniel, Charles, Theresa, and Rosemary Durning, who in turn went on to give them 24 Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren and many more since..  

Daniel Durning died on 28 December 1954 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, at the age of 64. His wife Bridget Elizabeth McElwaine passed away on 11 March 1993 when she was a grand old age of 101 years.  The fond memory of this couple is cherished and often celebrated by all of their family that live in or close to Pennsylvania and also their family back home in Co. Donegal.