William George Johnston, Sarah Jane White, Mary White, John Johnston and Susan Braden

Hi Georgia,

Could you please post your message on the Urney (Castlederg) parish page here: http://www.irelandxo.com/group/urney-tyrone

You're best bet for finding information about the Scottish connection is to check the Scotlands People website here: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Without knowing a place of origin for your ancestors, creates for you a very difficult task. You could try a few avenues, but really you should try to find any details that you can about them. Have you checked any family letters, documents, bibles, or spoken to other family members about them?

Do you know what religion Mary was?

There are no microfilmed copies of Roman Catholic church records available for the diocese of Urney (Derry). Perhaps it is worth trying to write to the parish priest for more assistance.

Church of Ireland parish registers for the period up to 1870 are public records. Registers are available for about one third of the parishes, however many were destroyed in the Public Records Office in Dublin in 1922. Most are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A list of all surviving registers is available in the National Archives. http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42 and http://www.nationalarchives.ie/.

Do you know when they emigrated? or where? Have you tried checking the Ellis Island records (www.ellisisland.org) or the Castle Garden records (www.castlegarden.org)? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. If you knew which city they arrived at, this could be a good place to find more information, and perhaps even find out an exact place of origin.

Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864 however. You can access the website here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

You could also try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) or the later Griffith's Valuation (1848-64). Griffith's is freely available here: www.askaboutireland.com or here: www.failteromhat.com Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at. Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38). Microfilm copies of the books for all of Ireland are available at the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/tithe-applotment-books-and-the-primary-griffith-valuation/ or the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS).

You can information about the frequency of the name in the mid-19th century and any other variant spellings of the name here: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/

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)

Hi Sinead,

I altered the search information and posted it on the urney tyrone site. Perhaps you will have a different site for me to post after reading the note. 

After working with another relative the only true infromation that I have on the Johnston side of the family is this:

My G GF was born in 1855 as William George Johnston in Ireland. He immigrated her in 1883

My G GM was Sarah Jane White, born 1856 in Ireland. She immigrated here in 1882

Sarah's Mother was Mary White, born about 1825 in Ireland. I do not know Mary's maiden name or her spouse's name. Mary was listed as widowed on the census and she lived with Sarah and William. Her parent's birthplace was listed as Ireland. Mary immigrated to the US in 1886.

William's known sibling is John Johnston, born 1866 in Ireland. He also moved to the US in the Thomaston, Ct area.

On all but one of the US censuses, William and Sarah's ancestors were born in Ireland. William and Sarah owned and operated a dairy farm in Thomaston, CT USA. (One US census listed Williams parent as having been born in Scotland.) 

Family has passed down that the family was from Scotland, but how far back that goes is not definite.

Thanks - I know that this is not a lot to go on and from my own searches, there are a lot of people with the same names, making it difficult.

All suggestions are welcome :)

Thanks,

Georgia Johnston