Gallen Family

This is the only James Gallen birth/baptism record (including surname variants) 1835 + - 5 years from www.rootsireland.ie/:

Name:James GallonDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:07-Aug-1831Address:
Parish/District:KILLANUMMERY ROMAN CATHOLICGender:MaleCountyCo. Leitrim
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Patrick GallonMother:Anne Brenan

Second daughter was often named after father's mother (Irish naming pattern)

Col

P S

There are no Donegal GallEns in the Tithe Applotments but there is 1 Gallon:

Peter Gallon Townland Friars Rush Parish & County Donegal 1825 (free at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/)

The earliest Irish Census with Donegal records is 1851 but none of either name there either

Griffiths Valuation (free at http://www.askaboutireland.ie/) has 3 Gallens in Donegal in 1857: Alexander in Taughboyne, Owen in Clonleigh & George in Stranorlar

rootsireland.ie/ does have 247 Gallen Donegal marriages 1791 to 1919; 105 are from Killygordon R C Parish & another 100 from Killygordon Civil Parish

There are also 230 Gallen Donegal burial records with 178 from Killygordon Civil Parish (From 1864)

Col

Col has done a great job pointing you to the general area where most Gallens lived in Donegal. The civil parish would be Donaghmore and the RC parish is Killygordon.

Here is a link to the 1857 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Donaghmore parish https://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/donegal/donaghmore.htm  You can see that the surveyor showed Gallan as the spelling.

There is a book written about five years ago by Tom Gallen called Donegal Generations https://www.amazon.com/Donegal-Generations-Tom-Gallen/dp/1482723972   His Gallen ancestor came over earlier than your great-grandfather and landed in Philadelphia and eventually moved out to the suburbs, I think where Upper Darby is now. 

Roger McDonnell

Just got back to this page after several years.  I appreciate the notice about Tom Gallen's book.  Being from the Philly area, Tom Gallen and I spoke in the '60s but were unable to make any connections between our families.  And in all this time we have not found any DNA connections to any Gallens.  This is one brick wall we have been unable to overcome.

My daughter is picking up the research and your information will surely be a help to her.