Hello All,
Thought I'd put a message out on the Leitrim board for posterity - I have been trying to discover the origin location of my great-grandparents Michael Tierney and Anna McDonald.
They both emigrated to New York City about 1880 (independently I believe) and were married about 1887.
A tenuous family story might point towards Michael coming from Roscommon, but matches I received with my paternal Y-DNA test at Family Tree DNA appear to be with McTiernans, some of whom come from the Drumahaire, Leitrim. (Those are the slightly more distant matches - my closest do not know their familys' origin either.)
I've tried flailing around the Griffith's et al, but found nothing tangible yet. Using the IFHF indexes I am not finding any match for my great-grandfather's birth or his parent's marriage.
So, in case any Tierneys (or those with other surname variants) from my family still roam the roads of Leitrim and happen to read these boards, here are the basics on my family:
Great-Grandfather: Michael Tierney, Born 03 Aug 1858 in Ireland, Died 05 Dec 1913 in Manhattan, NY. Emigrated to NY about 1880, was a Hostler before he became a NYC Policeman in 1885. Married Anna McDonald about 1887, had children: Margaret, Annie, John (My Grandfather), Michael Edward, Thomas.
GGF Michael's Parents: John Tierney and Margaret Murphy. (according to his death certificate.)
Margaret is with them in the 1900 census in NYC, and also listed at the same address in an 1896 NYC Directory. That census is a very difficult one to read, but it looks like she may have been born about 1845, and emigrated to NY about 1886. (But the info in that particular census do seem suspect in several cases.)
Great-great-grandmother Margaret does not appear with the family in the 1905 NY State or 1910 US census. I have not found her death certificate yet after checking several possible ones. But, I did just find a good suspect in a 1904 record written as the surname "Tierny" that I need to check out in the Municipal Archives next time I am there.
So, any Tierneys, McTiernans or others who have suggestions for this family in Ireland - I'd love to hear them!
By the way, I've written a couple of blog posts on Michael with a couple of photos and documents included:
http://currach.johnjtierney.com/2010/10/michael-tierney-ny-policeman-part-1/
Best Regards from New York, and luck to all who search!
John Tierney
JJT
Monday 4th Feb 2013, 08:41PMMessage Board Replies
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General-North/South America: Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reasonwhy they left, who they may have travelled with?..etc..Generally more information was given atthe port of arrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at (e.g.Liverpool, New York, etc.), this could be a good place to find more information. -And perhaps evenfind out an exact place of origin. Also try these links before sir you mite have some luck. Ellis Island:http://www.ellisisland.org/search/passSearch.asp Castlegarden:http://www.castlegarden.org/ US National Archives/Immigration info:http://www.archives.gov/research/immigration/ The Boston Pilot; From October 1831 through October 1921, the Boston Pilot newspaper printed a?Missing Friends? column with advertisements from people looking for ?lost? friends and relativeswho had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 40,743 recordsis available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad thatappeared in the Pilot. http://infowanted.bc.edu/ The next thing you could do is find the counties and places in Ireland your family names are mostprevalent. Look at the website http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ and perhapssomething will match some other clue you may have found elsewhere? If nothing turnsup ? it is advisable to try different variations of the spellings of the names. If you have a possiblefirst name you could try the Irish Census 1901, 1911 at www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ or the landvaluation record called Griffiths Valuationhttp://askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml
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Hello,
Thanks for your note and links! I probably should have mentioned I have been searching for awhile and have hit all the usual stops at this point.
We don't have much oral history in the family on the emigration - too far back and too much disconnection in the generation before mine.
The Castle Garden records are so spare, I can't even tell which of the Michael Tierneys and Anna McDonalds might be mine, so I have several possibilities - and there's really no useful info on those records in any case.
We are talking about emigration prior to 1880, and naturalization in 1885 (which has a nice signature, but nothing more than "Ireland" listed as origin.) So while I've looked through the 1901 census to see what's what for Tierneys and the various variants, I can't really do anything with them since I have no info on any other family names, whether anyone stayed behind or where exactly they came from. Too many possibilities.
I'll probably revisit everything again with fresh eyes, but for now I think it is fingers crossed hoping a knowledgable connection pops up here, cousin-bait on my blog or via a DNA match at FTDNA and/or 23andme. Or, I'll just have to trek around Ireland knocking on doors. ;)
Cheers!
.JT.
JJT
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Hello! I am a McTiernan descendant of my great-great grandfather John McTiernan Jr. (Born 1847 - emigrated 1870 USA - deceased 1897 USA in mining accident) He married Mary Ann Donegan of Felling, Durham England. His father was John McTiernan, Sr. (Born 1812) We originate from Dromahair, Co. Leitrim where I am looking for living relatives...perhaps we have a connection???
Have you contacted Michael McTiernan? He has done extensive work back to the Middle Ages and beyond with regard to our McTiernan lineage...he may be of assistance. Go to for extensive McTiernan information:
mctiernan.com/dnatest.htm
Best of luck and please do let me know how things go!
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There's certainly a possibility that we have a connection! Have you had anyone's DNA from your male McTiernan line tested? We could compare results. My connections within the McTiernan surname group are in the T2 group, as Michael McTiernan has them listed on his site.
I've sent him my results and joined the FTDNA group, but haven't been added to his tables of results. My closest matches had his email listed on their profiles and he didn't reply to my request to info on how I might reach out to them, but I was able to find them myself online. They don't happen to know where their families came from either.
Did your family location information pass down through the family, or did you find it in some records? I've run out of ideas for mine, and could always use a tip!
I've been hoping one day I'd get lucky and find a brother or uncle related to my GGF in NYC - nothing so far, but I'm mapping out all of the Tierneys from Manhattan city directories in the 1800s and early 1900s and perhaps might see a pattern emerge.
I'd love to keep in touch in case either of us come up with anything in the future - besides here and my blog, I can be contacted directly at john at johnjtierney.com.
Cheers,
.JT.
JJT
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Wow! You are well on your way if you had your DNA tested and you know your group. Yes, my cousin Gene was tested to determine our grouping. We are in the "T" ranking and if you go back to the link I gave you and you scroll down until you get to the yellow charts, my family is the 5th YELLOW chart down and on the far right. John McTiernan Sr. Listed 1st - (1817) Co. Leitrim and then my GGF John Jr. (1847).
I know we had an elder cousin that had a photo of him with Co, Leitrim listed as where it was taken on the back. Not sure if the picture led to him or in the search for info the photo was found.
I can tell you ths FOR SURE...ALL McTiernan's came from ths small region in NW Ireland, so you are on the right trail AND Michael WILL get back to you FOR SURE, he does work and responds to McTiernans,etc. from around the world. So he is quite busy, in fact we made a lot of connections this week alone and he has been very busy latenights after work getting everything straight! He gives f his time freely to preserve our heritage. Not only is the man generous he is absolutely brilliant to put all thsvtogether! it may take him a bit to do some research for you and either give you information you are looking for or advise you what or where to go/do next. He is the expert!
So I am excited us to have connected, because ths was a major brek through for you! Happy for you - it just takes time to it together the pieces!
Are you on Facebook?
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I had myself tested at both 23andme and FTDNA about 2 years ago now - 23andme hasn't panned out with specific genealogical info yet, but have learned a lot of general info there. Haven't had another FTDNA match since those first McTiernan ones arrived with my results and I let Michael McTiernan know I was in there.
In our family, there was a story that my Tierney GGF came from Roscommon, but no paperwork to back it up. If my FTDNA results do bring me to Leitrim as they seem to, Roscommon isn't too far a jump off so could have been a short family migration within Ireland before the jump over to the US(?)
I have some 4th cousin matches on 23andme that are from Roscommon and I suspect they might be Tierney related, but haven't figured out the connection there yet.
Although my closest FTDNA match (off by 1 at 37 markers) doesn't know too much of his family tree, he was nice enough to share the couple of generations and location in the US he did know, so I'm going to try to follow his family one of these days and see if they have any clues on the jump back to Ireland.
By the way, I have been doing the virtual version of knocking on doors, and reached out to a local Dromahair blogger just to ask if he happened to know of any Tierney/McTiernan researchers in the area. He responded that there was a local research center, and that oddly enough the McTiernans that live in the area are referred to as "Tierneys".
and Yep, you can find me on the Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/johnjtierney
Regards,
.JT.
JJT