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I am John Oberg from Victoria, British Columbia, on Canada's Pacific Coast.

My great, great grandfather was Thomas Niblock from Lystror, County Monaghan, and I would like help finding what parish he came from.  I do not know his religious affiliation, but I suspect it was Protestant. My lack of familiarity with where Lystror is / was located explains my ignorance as to which parish my great, great grandfather came from.  Finding an answer to that question is, at this point, a very important starting point.

This Thomas Niblock was born on 11 February 1795; emigrated (date and departure point, unknown) to the United States (Rhode Island) in the late 1840s; moved west to Iowa to homestead in the late 1850s; and died on 21 March 1868.  That is all I know about him. If possible, I would like to verify the information I have provided and to learn more about this man.

I would also very much like to discover who his parents and grandparents were. 

An oft-repeated family story is that that Niblock family may have come over from Scotland (prior to this Thomas' birth in 1795), but nobody alive knows where in Scotland or even knows whether that is only an unsubstantiated rumour.  That may not be true, but that story does exist.

This Thomas Niblock married Ellen Reed Mullen (date and place unknown).  She was born in October 1810 (date, unknown) in Legnacreeve, County Monaghan (location unknown); emigrated to the United States with her husband; homesteaded with her husband and a growing family in Iowa; and died on 12 October 1890.  That is all I know about her.

I am aware of the names and some of the birthdates of their children, one of whom was my great grandfather who was also named Thomas (after his father).

I would appreciate help with learning more about both Thomas and Ellen Niblock.

As well, I would appreciate help with going further back in time to learn more about the preceding family members.  And I would somehow, sometime like to be able to prove OR disprove the story that some ancestor of Thomas Niblock (1795) came originally from Scotland.

 

Thank you for any help you can provide. 

John Oberg (great, great grandson of Thomas Niblock of Lystror, County Monaghan)

 

Oh Johnny Oh

Thursday 27th Jun 2013, 04:35AM

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    I think that the townland that Thomas came from is spelled Listroar in most records. (134 acres of agricultural land). It?s in the parish of Clontibret. Griffiths Valuation has a John Niblock in that townland in 1860 when he had a farmhouse, outbuildings and 8 acres (subsistence farming). He was on plot 4 in Listroar, which would be easy enough to locate today. It?s near Scotch Corner on the R 184, south from Clontibret village. John Niblock seems likely to have been a relation of your Thomas, who stayed behind on the family farm when he emigrated.

    http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

    The tithe applotment records (created for taxation purposes) for 1830 record no less than 6 Niblock holdings in Listroar. Joshua with 7 acres, James with 3, John with 5, and what is probably your Thomas with 7, 1 and 3 acres. (That could be 3 separate Thomases or the same one with separate 3 bits of land. There?s no easy way of telling from those particular records).

    http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

    There were no Niblocks in Listroar by the time of the 1901 census. However there were 19 Niblocks in the county, all Presbyterian:

    http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=19…

    Some lived close to Listroar and so could well be relatives.

    That the families were all Presbyterian tells you that their ancestors came from Scotland. Presbyterianism was born there and brought to Ireland by the many Scots settlers in the 1600s.  (An estimated 100,000 Scots settled in Ireland in the 1600s, representing 10% of the entire population of Scotland at the time). That Listroar is near ?Scotch Corner? probably tells you all you need to know about the folk who lived around there. So I?d say that family story about them having come from Scotland is correct. However the move was probably 150 years before Thomas's birth.

    There are no detailed records of where in Scotland most of the settlers came from or exactly when they came (save that it was in the 1600s). Generally they came from the south west of Scotland and lowland areas eg Fife and around Edinburgh.

    There are two Presbyterian churches in Clontibret. I expect your family attended one of them. Clontibret 1sts records start in 1825. Clontibret 2nd in 1845. (Earlier records have been lost). Copies of these records are held in PRONI, Belfast, but are not on-line as far as I am aware,

    Here?s a link to another site listing some Monaghan resources you may wish to investigate.

    http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,508000.0/topicseen.html

    Ahoghill Antrim

    Thursday 27th Jun 2013, 12:31PM

  • Thank you to John and Ahoghillf for your inquiry and reponse. I am not aware of other children, and would like to further the work on the family tree.  I am irregular on Ancestry.com but check in every couple months.  

    I just joined this forum and also am a descendant of Thomas Niblock living the United States, via his daughter, Susan Jane.  He is my great, great, great grandfather.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Babette

    Sunday 12th Apr 2015, 10:53PM

  • 13 Oct 2021

    Hi Babette,

    I hope to correspond with you re content of your 13 April 2015 post.

    I will check weekly to see if you reply to this message.

     

    RSVP

     

    John

    Oh Johnny Oh

    Wednesday 13th Oct 2021, 05:31PM

  • Have you tried Geneanet, it's a free geneology site.  I looked and there are 5,946 Niblocks listed from Ireland, Scotland and the United States.  My family also comes from County Monaghan, but have not been able to locate where.

     

    Don

    maria123

    Thursday 14th Oct 2021, 06:49AM

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