Scullen Family to America, 1850

It isn’t clear from your post whether you are interested in tracing the family in Ireland or whether your focus is just on what happened to them in the US. Can you clarify?

If interested in their history in Ireland, do you have information that they came from Ballyscullion in Co. Antrim or is that supposition base don their surname? Note that there is also a Ballyscullion parish in Co. Derry/Londonderry as well as the one in Antrim.

Elwyn, thank you for responding. Excellent questions and I apologize that my original post was not more clear. I am interested in tracing them in Ireland. Catharine Scullen is my ancestor. I'm trying to figure out who Bridget was to her, was it her mother? And go backwards from there. The Ballyscullion area is my best guess as to the high concentration of the last name. Forgive my ignorance, but it seemed to me that the 2 Ballyscullion areas are separated by a body of water. I don't know if there were political reasons for this split, as my knowledge of that area is limited. The one match I have in my ancestry dna matches that has a scullen said that they were from Antrim. I wish I had more information, but I suppose that's why I'm doing the research. I would very much like to clear it up. Thank you.

bo,

There are civil parishes (which is what we use on Ireland Reaching Out) and there are Roman Catholic parishes. Sometimes the RC church uses the civil parishes boundaries but often not. (They tend to prefer larger parishes).  And sometimes they give their parishes different names, and sometimes not. All a bit confusing.

The River Bann is the body of water you are referring to and forms the border between Counties Antrim and Derry/Londonderry. A friend who lives on the river bank says that in earlier times it took a different, more circuitous route and that all of Ballyscullion was once a single parish in Co Derry but then the river changed its course or was straightened to improve navigation, and as a consequence part of the parish ended up in Co. Antrim. I am not certain that’s correct because I don’t see any traces of a dried up river around the Antrim parish boundary. Whatever the actual explanation (and no-one here really knows or cares) the bigger civil parish is in Co. Derry and the smaller in Antrim. If your ancestors did come from the Antrim parish that’s helpful because it's smaller but it is still a very common surname, and it’s always hard to sort the various families out. (And the spelling varies all the time eg Scullen, Scullan, Scullon, Scullion and so on).

The RC church uses the modern river as its parish boundary so all of the RC parish of Ballyscullion is in Co. Derry with the bit in Co Antrim being in the RC parish of Duneane.

So if you think the family came from Co. Antrim I would start by looking at the records for Duneane RC parish. They start in 1834 and are on-line free on the National Library site:

https://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The Ballyscullion parish records are on the same site but they only start in 1844 so may not be much help.

Bridget arriving in the US with the children, but without her husband would make you wonder if he had died. However there were no statutory death records in Ireland in the late 1840s and so establishing that may be difficult.

I had a look briefly at the RC baptism records. There was a Bridget Scullion baptised in Duneane on 11.4.1845 but her parents were Owen & Mary Scullion.  But is Bridget born 1815 the mother of the 4 children who accompanied her. I don’t suppose you know for certain. Perhaps she was an aunt.

You mention DNA testing. Family Tree DNA reportedly has more people with Ulster roots than any other company. That obviously increases the chances of finding a match. You might want to try them or, if you have already tested, you can transfer your results to them for no fee.

The North of Ireland Family History Society is running an Ulster DNA project in conjunction with Family Tree DNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website). You don’t need to be a member of the NIFHS to participate in the DNA project.

Elwyn,
Thank you so much for all of the clarification. I greatly appreciate it. I will look at the nli parish information and hope to get closer.
Scullen naming variations I have seen much of. Scully, scullen, scuilon, scullin etc as you mentioned. Once here their names were bludgeoned as well. No spelling of names for accuracy was done as I learned when finally after hand searching through documents found one of my relatives born here born to a mother spelled Costiarine (catherine was her name).

At any rate, thank you very much for trying to help. I am going to get on it!

Bo

Hi bo,  I realize this thread is 2 years old and you may not see this post.  But just in case, I too am looking at the immigration record you mention with the hope that the 17 yr old Catherine Scullen is my relative.  Like you, I only have a 1870 census record where she is living with 2 young boys, John and James Scullen, and John is my great grandfather.  No relationships are cited so I don't know if she is their mother, aunt, or whatever.  She is remarried and living in Baltimore.  My father said he had relatives in Philadelphia.  I have DNA matches that have ancestors from Ballyscullion, but again I can make no sure connections.  So I was wondering if you had gotten any further in your research of this family.  Thanks - Gail Bresnan in Baltimore MD USA

Gail,

I have found a little bit more information including a child that was born in Pennsylvania. I believe they then moved to New York. I'm traveling right now but would love to connect with you on this issue when I return. Do you have a family tree on ancestry?

I do.  My username is gailabresnan, tree Scullen-Kestler.  Email - gailabresnan@gmail.com.  Also have DNA on Ancestry..