Lawrence (Laurence) Byron Conley (Connolly) : Short Biography

Lord Lawrence Byron Conley (Sr.) b. 1790 (?) (emigrated from Leap, Co. Cork undetermined if born there) 

• Emigrated from Co. Cork, in 1814 to America.

• 1815 m. Christina Eaman. Dundas, Canada. Refn.: Countryman Family History: including a reproduction of Countryman genealogy. by, Countryman, Ardell. [257p.] https://archive.org/details/countrymanfamily00coun/page/256/mode/2up?q=… This excerpt contains Lawrence father's name was Jacob. DNA and research proved 2 Lawrence Conley's born within a few years a part but 1 is of Ireland and the other b. Guilderland, New York. To complicate issues DNA of Lord Lawrence Byron Conley descendants, share DNA with Larence S. Conley's descendants whose father was Jacob Conley.

• Lawrence descendants do share DNA with Christina Emans descendants but not Christina Eaman's. Christina Eman is the dau. of Jacob Eman and Christina Benneway who are a connected to a branch of Eurial Lacy's family.  Lawrence's granddaughter Frances Medora Conley married Eurial's son George Edwin, and his sister Mary Emily married Isaac Jacob Eman the brother of Christina Eman. Connection of the Lacy's can be found in The Genealogical Helper 1976-09: Volume 30 Issue 5 https://archive.org/details/sim_evertons-genealogical-helper_1976-09_30…

• On my 2nd great grandfather's Sylvester his death certificate list his mother's name as Emmons, however it was Adams. This was listed by his son Frederick Conley. It is suspected he was listed Sylvester's grandmother's surname by mistake. 

In 1968 my gr. aunt Florence Conley, who once lived with Lawrence’s grandson Sylvester, her grandmother Margaret (Sheehan) Conley and her fat. Frederick and mot. Clara, travelled to Co. Cork to research lineage. Discovered Sr. was titled and banished from Co. Cork. This was unknown by the present generation of the family. Due to the lack of technology in 1968 we do not have a copy of the trial nor does gr. aunt reference it in genealogy booklet she created. You will find a copy of the page containing gr. aunts research on downloaded 003 jpg. The added red documentation is from my research on Ancestry.com.

On what little documentation we can find his given name has been spelled Lawrence. My cousins from his 2nd marriage in Canada, their family folklore believes surname was once spelled Connolly in Ireland. Trial transcripts were listed in the English form as Conley. Was this the transcriber's interpretation?

Cannot find title in Parliament. He was banished by his peers, could they erase his name from the books? I am so lost about titles.

This is what we do know: 

• Ethnicity with Conley DNA matches are from Scotland and Ireland. 

• Lawrence was in the lumber business. Gr. aunt lists Sylvester's f. Capt. Jack profession in her research as a lumber schooner captain. This has been established with newspaper articles and a census. She also knew Lawrence lived in Vermont for a time before she lost him in Canada. By a strange coincidence my grandmother Ermina Katherine Eastman Conley b. 1899 d. 1989 maternal family was in the lumber business in Rutland. Vermont. Her maternal side merges in with 4th grgf. profession along with other surnames associated with the family of Larence S. Conley. (The list of allied surnames are found below)

• Sr. had a brother named, (James was discovered 1st by family event and then confirmed by DNA), James b. 1795 Leap, Co. Cork, d. 1884 Rawdon Township, Hastings, Ontario, Canada  in The Heritage years: a history of Stirling and district [336p.] https://archive.org/details/localhistory_2mt/page/n335/mode/2up

• Sr. and James ghosted family documentations of their children and some grandchildren who married into families from Cork, Ireland. Anyone who married someone from Co. Cork expect alterations to the document or none at all.

James Conley's event which alerted him as family.

2nd grgp’s Sylvester and Margaret Sheehan Conley marriage certificate: her name was listed as Smith, residence and age altered. We can assume Sylvester's parents were aware of these alterations to the marriage cert. since they married at Sylvester’s grandmother’s home in Michigan and his mother’s bro. and his sister was a witness. The name changed on the marriage cert. was known prior to their deaths and family were told Margaret’s mother’s 2nd marriage adopted Margaret. This was also documented in gr. aunts genealogy booklet. It has been discovered 

• Her biological f, Timothy Sheehan b.1798 Schull East, Co. Cork, Ireland  d. 1861 Refn. Year: 1860; Census Place: Oswego Ward 3, Oswego, New York; Page: 78; Family History Library Film: 803839, (last USA census before death) 

• Sylvester and Margaret m. 1864. 

• Mary Donovan Sheehan b. 1820 bpt. Lisgoold, Co. Cork. Margaret's mot. never remarried. 

In 1864 Sylvester’s father left Brownville, Jefferson Co., New York (profession passed to eldest son 3rd. grgf Jacob James alias Capt. Jack) and sailed to Michigan for their wedding. Simutaneously in Brownsville, Jefferson, New York, 1864 Jacob son of James Conley, removes to Brownsville. They replaced one Jacob with the other! Why? Is it the stigma of the banishment or something else? Was the marriage cert. altered due to Margaret's family connection to Co. Cork?

Edson, Dean, Keene Allied families; 

Edson, Dean and Keene are in my grandmother Ermina Katherine (Eastman) Conley's lineage. These three families lived in Vermont at the time of Laurence's arrival.  Edson and Dean lineage  married Laurence Sr.'s grandchildren and great grand children. Keene m. James Conley's dau. Nancy.  

Deane's also are connected to Co. Cork, Ireland. Ermina Katherine (Eastman) descends from Walter Deane: Moses Deane, the ancestor of the present Lord Muskerry of Springfield Castle, County Limerick, Ireland, resided in the beginning of the 17th century “in the vicinity of Taunton,” Somersetshire, England, “where the Deanes had lived for centuries.”** His son, Matthew Deane, settled in Ireland, “near the time of Cromwell,” |t which would be soon after John and Walter Deane, also from the vicinity of Taunton, came to this country. He purchased large estates in Dromore, County Cork, and was created a Baronet by Queen Anne. He died Jan. 10, 1710, aged 84. The Hon. Sir Matthew Fitzmaurice Deane, the present Lord Muskerry, is his great-great- great-grandson. There are now in the possession of Lord Muskerry at Springfield Castle the portraits of his ancestors, Moses Deane and his wife, “ dressed in the style of covenanters.” §§