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Hello All,

My name is Paul Brumlow, and I am on a quest to find information on my ancestor that came to America from Ireland. I have hit a brick wall that seems to be impossible to overcome. My ancestor was names James Brumlough (last name spelling coming from an 1880 census in Tennessee, and a ship manifest from The Thornton in 1854). My ancestor said he came from Ireland as a young man (probably around 21 years old which would make his DOB~1833) and left a brother in Ireland that was a priest. The name of the brother and my ancestor's parents have been lost to history. My ancestor's daughter passed down that he spoke Irish as a first language. 

He had many children in the states, and from the 1854 ship manifest to 1870 I have no records, though I know he was in America at this time. 

I believe the 1854 manifest to be accurate. I went to Ireland in 2022 and asked for help from a genealogist who encouraged me that due to the rarity, spelling, and sound of the name, the fact my ancestor said he was from Ireland, and the fact it was said he spoke Irish, must mean my ancestor was Irish. Also, I have no reason to believe he lied about being from Ireland, even the genealogist in Dublin stated that at the time, you would 99.9% of the time lie and say you WERE NOT from Ireland if it meant you could avoid persecution. 

I have no idea from what county or town James was from, though I assume it was Dublin, since I have found no records of him owning any land in Ireland. 

I have theories and possible leads, but I am still struggling to find more information on James, his brother, or my family in Ireland.

My goal is to find his the county in Ireland he was born in, and to find more information on my family roots in Ireland. Any and all help is appreciated, and I hope I can find more clues or even whole pieces of the puzzle in my search.

 

As well, if DNA helps at all, my 23andMe results showed 94.6% English/Irish ancestry with County Mayo and County Dublin as the top hits in Ireland. My Y-chromosome haplogroup is I-M223 which from my research has shown a high population in Northern Ireland.

Paul Brumlow

Wednesday 28th Jun 2023, 08:43PM

Message Board Replies

  • Hi,

    Do you know the name of James's wife? his children's names? his death date?

    I saw two U.S. federal censuses for a James Brumlough, but both said he was born in Tennessee. That could just be an error. Or is it the wrong James?

    About people 99 percent of the time lying about the fact that they were from Ireland... I have done genealogy for many years and have not yet found a person who did that.  Interesting that it was a genealogist who told you this!

    Patricia

    Wednesday 28th Jun 2023, 11:37PM
  • I do have the family info of the wife and children. The census records that indicate TN are my James, but he and his children said on unofficial documentation that he was from Ireland. Also in different records the same James has Georgia as a birthplace and "at sea" as a birthplace. I believe he was trying to hide the fact he was Irish in official documentation. 

    His wife's name was Nancy Ingram, His children were John, Mary, Icalene, Ersie, Ninna, George, and Theresa.

    Paul Brumlow

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 12:29AM
  • Paul,

    Your family in the US is well documented on the Family Search website - as you probably know. The site shows another daughter, Effie Brumlow (1874-1900). When I put the name Brumlough in the paid site RootsIreland, it said that this name was not in their database. However, the Family Search site suggested this name could also be spelled Bromlow. With that name, I found a number of birth, marriage, and death records on the RootsIreland site from the early 1700's and on. There are too many to list here. There were other spelling variations - Brumloe, Brumlo, Brumlow, Broomlow, Bromlow. What they all seem to have in common is that they were from the Donnybrook parish in Dublin, and were members of the Church of Ireland. I did not find a birth record for your James though. 

     

    Regards,

    Carolyn

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 04:24AM
  • Margot

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 09:20AM
  • Can you send this please...........
    a ship manifest from The Thornton in 1854

    if from a paid site this is my email address....... I cannot find it.  I would e interested to see it. I have searched all the sites I know and cannot find him only in that 1880 census.
    marg2ade@yahoo.co.uk

    Margot

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 09:34AM
  • Margot,

    The ship manifest was found both on Ancestry and at the free site Dunbrody Famine Ship Irish Emigration Database - Records of Irish immigrants in US (dunbrody.com) under Brumlough. The 1880 census does say Georgia, but the death records of the children state both TN and "At sea" and I believe one says Ireland. He was buried, according to family history, in Soddy Presbyterian Cemetery in an unmarked grave given to him by the Clift family who were fond of him and his work in Soddy. I am starting to think his brother who was a priest may not have been a Catholic priest but a Church of Ireland priest, if in fact they had priests (I'm not familiar with the structure of the Church of Ireland). 

    Carolyn,

    I think the name Brumlough must have come from the census taker hearing him say his last name and then writing it down the way they thought it sounded. From both the ship manifest and the 1880 census it seems he must have had an "Irish" sounding accent (since he spoke Irish as a first language) and they wrote it the best of their ability. At least that's what I think must have happened. I think this is where my brick wall lies is in the spelling of the last name. 

     

    I was told by the genealogist in Ireland that the traditional way Irish immigrants named their children was to name the first-born son after the paternal grandfather, and the second-born son after the maternal grandfather. In that case, the first-born son was named John, which would mean the paternal grandfather or James' father's name was John. Their second son was named after his wife's father, George Ingram. I'm not sure what the rules of this system would be with daughters, but the first-born daughter was named Mary, and the second-born daughter was named Icalene. 

     

    I truly believe that he must have been Irish himself, since he told his children he was from Ireland and that information was passed down through the years. Unfortunately that is the only solid piece of evidence that has survived by word of mouth. 

    Paul Brumlow

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 01:39PM
  • Paul,

    There is an excellent article on this site called Irish Naming Conventions and Baptism Traditions from November 1, 2022 in the News section that you might enjoy. Yes, there was a pattern for daughters too...although not always followed as closely as sons....oldest daughter named after wife's mother, and second daughter named after husband's mother. From my own experience with all my great grandparents emigrating from Ireland, not all of them followed this pattern naming their US born children....just something to note. 

    Regards,

    Carolyn

    Thursday 29th Jun 2023, 03:09PM
  • I saw this yesterday..........1684, it doesn't say where in Ireland..........Brumlow.
    I transcribed the details to the heading and left the original document number.
    The only birth of Brumlow I found was this one a Pat (Patrick) see attached.
    This Parish is on the south side of the River Liffey.
    St. Audoen's Church, Dublin Map - Church - Dublin, Ireland - Mapcarta

    Hope this helps.

    Margot

    Friday 30th Jun 2023, 08:09AM

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