Terrence Donnelly and Martha Madden

Dear Deborah:

Many thanks for posting again.  Hopefully this message will be seen by those interested in the Donnelly family.

Please keep us updated with regard to your progress.

Kind regards,

Jane.

Thank you Jane.

Hello,

I hope you can help me with a problem. Mary Donnelly was born in 1839/40 in Tullymore, Parish of Kilmore, ONeilland West, Armagh, to Terence Donnelly and Martha. Mary applied for a pension in later years and her age was acquired from a local census as no birth record survived. She was 2 years old in 1841 and 11 years old in 1851.

I have a copy of this information, but can't remember where I got it. I have searched Ancestry, FamilySearch and the Archives and can't find my Mary anywhere. My document says Ireland Genealogy, but I can't find that either.

I have attached the document that I have. Do you have any idea where I might find this information again?

Thank you and keep well.

Deborah Donnelly

The printout is from a website that’s defunct, and hasn’t been working for some years now. At one time it was called PENSEAR though I think that later changed. It allowed you to search 1841/51 pension data drawn mostly I think from the records held in PRONI. Possibly the website data was absorbed into one of the bigger commercial sites but I can’t say for sure.

The originals are probably in PRONI in Belfast. In the series of records T550/xxx. If searching them, allow a couple of hours as there are a lot of records and they are not in any particular order.

I checked Masterson’s reference book: 1841/1851 Census Abstracts (Northern Ireland) and the entry is not there.  However her book doesn’t have every possible record. I have noticed that before. 

Hello Elwyn,

Thank you for your reply. I was lucky to find that record when I did. It gave me a lot of clues to more family information.

I found my Terence Donnelly on the Griffith's Valuation in Tullymore. Do you know how people qualified for land? Could I assume that the rights were inherited? I found Terence's daughter Mary still farming in at least the same area, if not the same farm, in the 1901 and 1911 census records. I wonder If I could also work backwards for Terence using names from the Applotment records. I have no idea how farm land was acquired and hope you can tell me a bit about that.

I live in Canada and will take another look at PRONI online for more information.

Thank you for your help.

Deborah Donnelly

My grandmother was Constance Irene Donnelly born 1893 in Nottingham and I've traced her line back to Richard Donnelly born in 1745 in Ireland.  He married Anne Lawless and they had Patrick Donnelly in 1771 and John Donnelly in 1775.  I'm wondering if our Donnelly's are related.  All of  my research is posted in Ancestry.com or Family Search.

Lorraine Morrow

Idaho Falls, ID

Hi Lorraine,

I checked your tree on Ancestry, but it is private. I did see a few other trees with the same names and don't see a connection between our families. I have taken the DNA test and we have no connection there either, assuming you have also taken the test.  I have a DNA connection to only one other Donnelly family from Armagh and I can't find any common Donnellys in our trees. My great-grandfather, John Donnelly, was born to Terence Donnelly and Martha Madigan/Madden in 1845 in Tullymore, Kilmore, Armagh. I can't get any further back than Terence and Martha.

Good luck with your research.

Deborah