Hughes & Traynor Family From Kellystown, Meath

Want to establishment contact with Hughes / Traynor Families in the Rathkenny / Grangegeeth - Montnewtown-Slane area,

Between 1827 and 1832 the Hughes and Traynor families from Kellystown, Montnewtown, Meath emigrated to St Lawrence  County, up state New York, Father, Many of their Grangegeeth and Rathkenny neighbors also emigrated. Matthew Hughes (1771), mother, Bridget Traynor,(1765), children Michael. James, Patrick, John, Margaret, Julia, and Thomas. They were all baptized in Rathkenny and Grangegeeth parish and lived in Kellystown. Their new American location was the original American Frontier and Irish were separated and isolated from most of the rest of  America by the Adrondacks Mountains. The Irish were not welcomed in many of the developed  areas of America. Since the new Irish immigrants could not speak, read or write the English language they all lived together and spoke and lived their old Celtic  livestyles. They farmed their new properties, established their churches, intermarried and raised their families within their own communities. When my GGGgrandfather died in 1853 he could not write and signed his will with a "X".  

Matthew Hughes and family never forgot their home land. When Matthew died in 1853 he left $600($18,000 today) to the poor and destitute in Kellystown. These immigrants named their first Catholic Church, St Mary's(Grangegeeth Church was St Mary's), and named their roads Irish Rd, Ireland Rd and Irish Settlement Road, Hughes Road for their Irish homeland. When the original St Mary's church burnt down in the 1840's, they built new churches in the adjacent newly established villages all named St Mary's. All these churches are within 10 miles of the original church site. Today the adjacent villages of Waddington, Potsdam, Ogdenberg. and Canton all have a St Mary's church and many St Mary's Cemeteries. 

Some of the original Hughes - Traynor family members still live in the original settlement area but most are now spread all over the USA and the world. The many St Mary's Cemeteries are now the home to the  original immigrants and the road names are still there. My generation is trying to reestablish contact with our Ireland Families..

If you could help or pass on my request to people who my be interested in exploring where their possible relatives.please contact. Bill Hughes,  hughes.w@comcast.net. I will be visiting Meath and Louth in September 2016.    

Bill Hughes

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