Sayers Family

Hi 

: Do you know much about their emigration? The dates, the reason why they left, who they may have travelled with?..etc..Generally more information was given at the 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 even find out an exact place of origin.

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 relatives who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States. This extraordinary collection of 40,743 records is available here as a searchable online database, which contains a text record for each ad that appeared in the Pilot. http://infowanted.bc.edu/

Do you know what religion they were? Most Catholic records are held locally - One site which might be of use is - http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/browse/ - where you can ?browse? an overview of available records per county. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for possible 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/.  The Anglican Record Project is has created an index to their records: http://ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/AngRecord/bunclodyunionindex.pdf

Presbyterian registers are held in three main locations: in local custody, in the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI) http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm and at the Presbyterian Historical Society http://www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com in Belfast. PRONI has microfilm copies of almost all registers in Northern Ireland and also lists of records held by the Presbyterian Historical Society. For the rest of Ireland, almost all records are in local custody. It can difficult to locate these as many congregations in the South have moved, amalgamated, or simply disappeared over the last sixty years.

Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at ). www.failteromhat.com

You might also try:

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

British parliamentary papers on Ireland can be found at: http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/9824/eppi_pages/215093

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

The Public Records Office of Northern Ireland http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history.htm

Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.

Kind regards,                    

Genealogy Support 

The Sayers were cousins of the Harkin family that settled in Chicago. Several of the Harkin family members came to Chicago after traveling from Londonderry to Quebec, Canada in August 1886.  Mary Jane Sayers (f. Andrew Sayers and m. Ann Gallagher) married her "cousin" Edward Harkin (f. Edward Harkin and m. Mary Jane Gallagher) in 1890. Ann and Mary Jane Gallagher may have have been sister or maybe cousins.  The Harkins refered to Mary Jane Sayers as their cousin and called her Big Min to distinguish her from their sister Mary Jane who they called Minnie. I have a copy of an address of J. Sayers, Convoy, Co. Donegal, Ireland where the Harkins wrote to their Sayers cousins. I also have a photo of another unnamed cousin who was a Catholic priest that may have been taken in Liverpool, England. Not sure which side of the family this is.

I have been researching the Harkin story with my grandmother for many years. Their family story is one of residence and the birth of 11 children in Ireland, England and Scotland as their father Edward Harkin was an auctioneer who followed the wool and tweed trade as well as an inventor and umbrella maker. After Mary Jane Gallagher Harkin died in 1882, many members of the Harkin family emigrated to the US in 1886 and settled in Chicago.  I have some possible names of family members from Donegel but still looking for details and have been recently been looking into the story of the Sayers family for some answers.  

I have much more information to share. Maybe we could collaberate some of the Sayers Family and Harkin family histories to find some answers.

Thanks, Jessica

Jessica,

I thought I replied before but not sure.  Thanks for providing that wonderful info on these families.  I am a descendant of these clans that settled in Chicago.  Mary Jane Sayers-Harkin's daughter Mary married Richard Condon.  Who owned the Condon funeral home and they had 6 children, one of which was my Mom Patricia.  TThe Harkin clan, I found owned at least 3 umbrella chops in the Chicago downtown in the 1880's.  I am meeting my cousins later this month and would love to share this and all the other information that you have.  My email address is jimalda@gmail.com.  Thank you for sending anything and letting me know your connection.  I recently upgraded on Ancestry so I hoipe that I can collaborate and help you too. 

Thanks again,

Jim Dougherty