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My great great grandparents David Allen and Ann Black immigrated to the United States in 1852. They sailed with their eight children (Ann, May, David, Alexander - my great grand father, Eliza, Jane, Thomas, and Harriet) from Liverpool, England to New York aboard the ship Rochambeau (see image below). The ship manifest listed their origin as Great Britain, but all US cenuses identified the family as Irish. David was about 45 years old and had the unusual occupation of physcian. Alexander and his brother Thomas both fought for the Union in the American Civil War.

I have been unable to determine where in Ireland the Allen family came from. Recently, I used the Irish Ancestors web site at The Irish Times to determine which Irish counties had a large number of Allen and Black overlapping households as recorded by the Primary Valuation property survey of 1848-64. I identified five counties all in Northern Ireland: Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down and Tyrone.

It is my hope that someone from these counties may recognize this family or have records to establish their connection to their local communty.

Michael Allen

New Mexico, USA

Ireland Reaching Out - www.irelandxo.com

Michael Allen

Friday 15th Jun 2012, 02:54AM

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  • Hi Michael,

    Looking at your query, I would say that a good place to start your research on David, is by checking the sources connected with his occupation as a physician or doctor.

    There are two possibilities: either he trained in Ireland or he trained abroad. If he trained in Ireland, you could try the following:

    To trace the careers of medical practitioners, the major sources are Dublin Directores, which list physicians and surgeons from 1761 and apothecaries from 1751, local (generally later) Directories and Irish Medical Directories, published intermittently between 1843 and the end of the 19th century. Another, less conventional source is the 'Biographical file on Irish medics', compiled by T.P.C. Kirkpatrick and comprising a compendium of biographical material on irish medics up to 1954.  It is held in the Royal College of Physicians. The College and the National Library of Ireland both hold a copy of the index.

    Perhaps he also fought in the American Civil War as a doctor?

    Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

    Kind regards,

    Sinead Cooney

    Genealogist (Ireland XO)

    Thursday 21st Jun 2012, 03:54PM

  • in my family a Jean Black  married Joseph Ramage ( my ancestor) in St Columbs - the main cathedral in Londonderry on 13/4/1726. Assumimg this was the bride's parish ( the Ramage's were out Limavady/Coleraine way) the Blacks  may have been from arround Londonderry. Your are a bit later but a look for Blacks in Londonderry might be fruitful.

    Friday 29th Jun 2012, 07:40AM

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