Kean Family

Britt,

You haven’t said when any of these people were born, nor what denomination they were. However if Andrew served in the 1812 war, then I assume they were all born in the 1700s. Researching in the 1700s in Ireland is notoriously difficult due to a general lack of records. It may not be possible to find out much about them, especially if you do not know exactly where in Armagh they lived.

As to fleeing Scotland because of persecution, and changing their surname, I am not sure how you would verify that. There was a huge migration from Scotland to Ireland in the 1600s. Some came in the early 1600s as part of the Plantation of Ulster, others followed throughout that century due to a variety of factors (mostly economic) and in the 1690s there was a big intake due to famine in Scotland. Probably something like 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland in the 1600s (representing something like 20% of the entire Scottish population). Many settled in Co. Armagh. The vast majority were Presbyterians (ie Protestant). Some of those were Covenanters fleeing persecution in the 1680s. That period was known as the killing times.

The Stewarts were Catholic and most, though not all, of their supporters were also Catholic. So the Kean family denomination may give a clue as to whether they were possibly Stewart supporters.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

Samuel was born in 1722. This is the only information I have on Hannah: she married a "Mr. Simpson" before Samuel and her mother is supposedly Margaret Stewart.

Frankly, I would just like to know more information about Samuel and Hannah's families. I have absolutely nothing behind them. We had always thought Samuel's father was David until a distant family member said Nathaniel.

I only know that my grandfather Kean was Catholic - possibly because his mother was French Catholic. How do I go about finding out the religion of other ancestors?

My dad has done Y-DNA and been put in just about every possible spelling of our last name. He matches no one on any sort of close relation.

A common way of establishing someone’s religious denomination is to look at where they were buried and also where they baptised their children. And for a woman, in which church she married. (Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church so it doesn’t always tell you the groom’s denomination).

Hello

I've corresponded with our Genealogist at the Tower Museum and he suggest you review the Flax Growers List for County Armagh 1796, as a useful and often forgotten source.  It might be beneficial if only to elimante from your research.

https://www.failteromhat.com/flax/armagh.php

He also points out theat www.rootsireland.ie is probably the most useful source for available church registers.

regards

Bernadette Walsh

IrelandXO Volunteer

Thank You.