Callaghan/Duffy Families In Clondavaddog

Hi Bill and Welcome back to Ireland Reaching Out!

I sent Seamus an e-mail alerting him to your message.

Roger

Hi William

Thank you for getting in contact and Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I understand you have been researching and documenting the Duffy Family history in New Jersey, USA for almost 40 years, my hat is off to you William, that is unbelieveable. I have also seen your Duffy family Tree on ancestry and it looks brillient, it is very well detailed and extensively researched,

I may find it hard to progress it further for you but saying that I promise to give you whatever small bit of help I can trying to get over that proverbial "brick wall" and hopefully connect you back to where you family would have come from within the County of Donegal.

There is a site that came online in the last year called irishgeneology.ie, and it is brilliant in that anyone that might have an interest in researching their family, can go online and search the Civil Records for Births, Marriages and Death registered throughout Ireland after 1864. I promise I will explain this in more detail later but I used this to see if I might find by chance find a John Duffy who death might have been registered after this time in Donegal.

There was a good few John Duffy's but I see four registered which fall roughly within the age bracket of Parent to John b.1845, William b.1848, Anne b.1850 and Bridget Duffy b.1855. I attcahed these few records to this message.

This is the website below. I am afraid due to time restraints I did not get a chance to search for a Death registered for Johns wife who would be registered as a Catherine Callaghan born abt 1820's.

Millford (or) Milford, is the location that the people of Fanad and surrounding area would have used but using other locations in Donegal will expand this. You should give it a go, it a really good site, you will get to see the image of the Record (but not always in early years) and best of all it is free.I will research more as soon as I can, and I of course welcome any others that might find they can contribute also.

Kind regards Seamus

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp

Hi William,

I am afrid I have exhausted searches with Parish Records paying particular attention to the two John Duffys in the 1858 Griffiths Valuation from Magherwarden and Dargan. I am pretty sure that your Duffy Family did not originate in the Parish of Clondavaddog ) Fanad.

The John Duffy in Magherawarden was married to a woman named Mary Gibbons, and I attached two of their children (below)

Cecelia Duffy b.01 May 1853 (Parents John Duffy and Mary Gibbons)

and Hannah Duffy b.26 May 1861 (Parents John Duffy and Mary Gibbons) 

This would be the family of John Duffy d.17May1905 (85Years) Widower - Son Edward in attendanace, Magherawarden, Fanad.

The John Duffy in Dargan, Fanad was married to a woman named Margaret Cannon and I attached one of their children (below)

Baptism Record - Bernard Duffy 21 Jan 1855 (Parents John Duffy and Margaret Cannon) 

This would be the family of John Duffy abt 1820 d.16Jan1894 (74Years) - Son James in attendanace, Ballymagahey, Fanad.

Other John Duffys in Fanad in the Parish Records for this time:

Baptism Record - Patrick Duffy b.17 May 1857 (Parents John Duffy and Catherine McGinley/McGrorty)

Baptism Record - Bridget Duffy b.08 Aug 1847 (Parents John Duffy and Bridget Toland)

Baptism Record - Michael Duffy b.28 Feb 1854 (Parents John Duffy and Bridget Toland) 

Seamus,

You have gone "above and beyond the call of duty"!!!!!! , as we say militarily here in America!!!! You have done a lot of research for me. I guess all that is left for me to do in relation to Clondavaddog is to go to that web site and check for recorded deaths of Catherine Callaghan, right? And if there are none, I can scratch off Clondavaddog as being the civil parish of my ancestors, right? By sctatching off Clondavaddog, I will be narrowing it down firther on those 12 civil parishes where there is a John Duffy and a Callaghan family. In fact, since Clondavaddog had 29 Callaghan families out of the 77 in those 12 civil parishes, I'm lowered it down to 48, right? What do you suggest that I do next on the other 11 civil parishes? Post my request on the message board of those 11 other civil parishes, just like I did with you for Clondavaddog?

Please get back to me on my questions to you and your thoughts on what I should do next.

Thank You

William J. Duffy

Good man William,

That would be right, you can scratch off the Parish Clondavaddog as I thoroughly checked for any Catherine Duffy deaths and I am now 97% certain there aren’t any John Duffy’s and Catherine Callaghan recorded having children in the Parish in or around the 1850’s.

As regards advertising on other Parishes, IrelandXO is fairly new and only now breaking out within the Parishes of Donegal. These Parishes will no dought will be resourced with Volunteers throughout time, but at present they wouldn’t be there at a local level to help you as of yet. I will continue to help out with these, but my honest opinon on the best way forward now would always be DNA Testing.

I would wagering a  few pints of the black stuff with you William, that you would have had DNA Testing done already with either Ancestry or FTdna. If this is the case, I would recommend you upload this data to Gedmatch.com

I have put together a simple guide for transferring raw data from ancestry, that I often do send to my own DNA matches on ancestry,If you haven’t done this yet, you should give it a go and come back to me William

Thanks Seamus

Seamus,

Thanks for responding back to me. Yes, I've done DNA testing through Ancestry and FTDNA. I will now upload to Gedmatch with the guide that you provided. Also, I'm coming to Ireland for a 2 week tour in the last 2 weeks of July, with 2 nights in Donegal. Perhaps we could have a "few pints of the black stuff"????????

I will keep in touch with you on the DNA and my upcoming trip. Ok?

Thanks

William

Hi William, so sorry as I didnt realise you had posted, that sounds great, I am always up for meeting up and having a few pints and bit of banter, I dont know my concrete plans at the moment for then but will keep it in mind.

I do have a busy time in the summer with the keeping the small ones active and heading on holidays at home and abroad, and only get to travel home to Donegal a few times throughout the year! But its all good.

You will love the holiday in Ireland, I guarantee it!

Sláinte Seamus

Hello Seamus,

it is me again, William Duffy. I've begun checking on death registrations for John and Catherine Duffy, through irish genealogy.ie, for the other registration districts in Donegal. Since you have already done Milford and Millford for me, I will concentrate on the other registration districts in Donegal. I see that there is a "Milltown" registration district covering the civil parishes of: Clonca, Clonmany, Donagh, Culdaff, Moville Lower, Moville Upper, Mintaghs, Destergeny, Fahan Lower, Fahan Upper and Muff. Is that correct? On the web site, the registration district of "Milltown" is not listed, or does Milford or Millford cover those parishes?

Please get back to me on this.

Thank You

William Duffy

Hi William,

It is always confusing trying to tell the diffence between the Civil Parish and the Ecclesiastical or Church Parishes in Donegal. This will help explain it but I might have to come back to this later http://www.irelandxo.com/find-my-parish/what-parish

I have looked but am afaid don’t see any registration district such as Miltown in Donegal. You might need to double check this again and show me where you might have seen this wrote as maybe well be able to make sense of it the...

When you are in the irishgeneology.ie website, looking for Carr Families the only Districts or Registers of interest to you in Co.Donegal are Ballyshannon, Donegal, Dunfanaghy, Glenties, Inishowen, Letterkenny, Milford, and Stranorlar.

It seems to me that the District or Registers follow  the List of Irish Poor Law Unions for Co.Donegal.

When looking up the Carr (Kerr) Births, Marriages, and Death results for Carr Familes the only Districts

you need to keep an eye on the left hand side of the geneology site 

By SR District/Reg Area

Ballyshannon 

Clogher

Donaghmore

Donegal

Dunfanaghy

Glenties

Inishowen

Letterkenny

Milford

Millford

Stranorlar

Electoral Divisions (These are the not the Poor Law Unions for Co.Donegal but it will show the general area of interest of the Districts above)

Ballyshannon 

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/ballyshannon-rural/

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/ballyshannon-urban/

Clogher

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/clogher/

Donaghmore

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/donaghmore/

Donegal

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/donegal2/

Dunfanaghy

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/dunfanaghy/

Glenties

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/glenties/

Inishowen

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/inishowen-east/

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/inishowen-west/

Letterkenny

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/letterkenny-rural/

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/letterkenny-urban/

Milford

Millford

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/millford/

Stranorlar

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/stranorlar1/

https://www.townlands.ie/donegal/stranorlar2/

Registration Districts of Ireland

http://genealogyresearch.org.uk/IRL_RegistrationDistricts1871.pdf

Civil Parishes and Townlands of County Donegal

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bhilchey/DonegalMain.html

Donegal Ancestry - Guide to Reseaching in County Donegal

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hiflyte/iredata/doneg…