Junkin (MacJunkin )ancestors

I think you might struggle with this enquiry.

I looked at the 1901 census of Ireland. There were 43 people named Junkin in Ireland (essentially from just 3 or 4 families). None named MacJunkin though the Mc/Mac/M’ prefixes were often added or dropped at whim in Ireland so don’t read too much into that.  They weren’t considered as part of the actual name. The few Junkins that there were nearly all lived in Cos Antrim and Derry/Londonderry. None in Co. Monaghan. Most were Presbyterian or otherwise of likely Scottish descent, so that fits with your broad background.

MacLysaght’s “The Surnames of Ireland” doesn’t list the name at all indicating it was very rare (as the 1901 census also indicates).

There are almost no records in Ireland for births, marriages etc for someone born c 1715.  From the information you have given, your Junkins probably only lived in Ireland for a generation or so, so that also reduces the likelihood of finding any documentary record of them in Ireland. They were just “in transit” you might say.

PRONI is the public record office in Northern Ireland. The PRONI e-catalogue records just one entry for Junkin in Co Antrim. That was for a Samuel Junkin in the parish of Raloo (near the modern port of Larne) who was on the voters list in 1776, and voted in Carrickfergus in a parliamentary election that year. D1364/L/1 at PRONI.

Researching in Ireland in the 1700s is very hard going due to the general lack of records. If you don’t know where they lived it’s a needle in a haystack. Ideally you need to know the person’s exact denomination and the townland or parish they lived in to have any chance of finding them, and even then there may not be any records for that location.

Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the family originate. 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 FTDNA and can offer testing kits at a reduced price.  http://www.nifhs.org (Go to DNA project on the website).

I thought I posted a reply to Elwyn  with more information on my Junkin ancestors earlier today.  

Here is a little more info i found in my notes  by Brian Orr.  Junkins and Jenkins in Scotland were Huguenots in France and took refuge in Invmess  (thought to be capital of Highlands) Scotland around 1580  or so during the Sccttish Reformation took hold.  Scots went to Ulster Ireland because of religious persecutions of Presbyterians and other protestants in the 17th century.  in 1660  Junkins were found in Ballymena ..Londonderry ...and Tyrone County... Parish was Ballyscullion between County of Antrim and Londonderry .  Names such as Hamilton Junkin. John Junkin 3 Joseph Junkins and  Ringin Junkin.  There was a split parish Townland of Ballyscullion East county Antrim and Londenderry ..  

I belong to ancestry.com and took their DNA tests. 

JOyce    

How can i get to the familytree DNA site to transfer my DNA tests from Ancestry.com that i took last year ?  

Joyce

Joyce,

My understanding of the Huguenots background is that France was essentially Roman Catholic. In 1598 the French King Henry IV granted tolerance to Protestants there in an edict signed in Nantes (The Edict of Nantes). So most Protestants were comfortable with that. However in 1685, Louis XIV revoked that edict (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes) and this led to widespread persecution of Huguenots and other French Protestants. Many fled France and sought sanctuary in Ireland, England and Scotland (and presumably elsewhere).

So the big influx of Huguenots to Ireland was in the late 1680s and 1690s. I don’t think there would have been a big Huguenot population in Inverness in the 1500s. They didn’t really have any significant reason for going there at that time as far as I can tell.  Neither for reasons of persecution nor for economic reasons (ie work).

Huguenots in Ireland did establish their own churches in Dublin and elsewhere but after a period of time most realigned, often to Presbyterianism which being based on Calvin’s doctrines fairly closely aligned with their views.  And there were plenty of Presbyterian churches in Ireland, especially in Ulster, because the area had been so heavily settled by Scots earlier in the 1600s. (Presbyterianism was established in Scotland in the mid 1500s, by John Knox).

Something like 200,000 Scots settled in Ireland in the 1600s (representing 20% of the entire Scottish population). There were some who fled to Ireland for religious reasons during the “killing times” in the 1680s but most came for largely economic reasons. The Plantation of Ulster in the period 1610 – 1625 brought the first big wave attracted by offers of cheap land with low rents and lots of work. Other Scots stayed behind in Ireland when a 10,000 strong Scottish army was disbanded in Carrickfergus in the 1640s, and there was a huge wave of new arrivals in the 1690s because of famine in Scotland. So some did come because religious persecution, notably the Covenanters, but that wasn’t the main reason for the Scottish influxes.

If your ancestors fled France because of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, I suspect that must have been in the 1680s or thereabouts. I also suspect they may just have come direct from France, rather than via Inverness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes

I can’t find any trace of anyone named MacJunkin, either in Ireland or in Scotland. And if they were of French origins, I can’t see them adopting a Mc prefix in Scotland because that originates in the patronymic naming system, which the French didn’t use. 

I had a look at the 1841 Scottish census. (That’s the oldest census in Scotland) The name Junkin is not common in Scotland. There were just 12 (and no MacJunkins). There were about 6 Junkin families in the whole of Scotland. None in Inverness though there was a 3 year old child in Morayshire which is not too far away. So they were thinner on the ground in Scotland than in Ireland, and that’s not saying much.

Jenkin/Jenkins is much more common in Scotland with 774 in 1841. MacLysaght’s The Surnames of Ireland says Jenkins is an English name. So who knows?

You are correct that there are 2 Ballyscullion parishes. The bigger one is in Co Derry/Londonderry and then there is Ballyscullion East in Co Antrim.  They are divided by the river Bann. The tithe applotment records for 1828 list farmers in Ireland (the tithes were a tax on land). There was a Joseph Junkin farming in Ballymacomb (Ballyscullion Co Derry) at that time:

http://www.irishgenealogyhub.com/derry/tithe-applotments/ballyscullion-parish.php

He’s also in the 1831 census, and from that we know there were 9 in his family, (plus 2 servants) and the family were Presbyterian.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinshollon/Ballyscullion/Ballymacombs/50/

Joseph died in 1875 aged 82, so born c 1793:

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1875/020638/7240862.pdf

Ringing Junkin died in 1871 aged 95, so born c 1780.

https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_retu…

I can see 3 marriages, all for female Junkins from Ballymacombs 1845 onwards. Tradition was to marry in the bride’s church. One was in Bellaghy Presbyterian church, another in Castledawson and the 3rd in Moneymore 1stPresbyterian. Bellaghy Presbyterian has no records before the 1860s (the original church was burned in the 1798 uprising and the Minister had to flee to America because of his part in the uprising.  The next Minister didn’t bother keeping any records for nearly 40 years), Castledawson has baptisms for 1703 – 1706 and then nothing till 1809 & Moneymore 1st has nothing earlier than 1827.  And that is broadly the general position for much of Ireland. Only a handful of churches have any records for the 1700s. And so there’s no obvious documentary way of identifying who Joseph or Ringing Junkin’s ancestors were, nor any of the other Junkins in Ireland at that time.

Regarding transferring your DNA results, my understanding is that there is a way of downloading them from Ancestry and then you can send them on to another DNA site/sites. I don’t know how to do it myself but if you contact the NIFHS their expert will tell you how it’s done. It should all be free too.

Here is a little more information i had in my notes.

Grandmother of Joseph Junkinn was present at the siege of Londonderry  around 1688-89. She saw the walls of glorious old  Derry the smoke of the most important gun fired.   

A Robert Junkin was at the Battle of Dunbar . He along with 3900 Scots were captured and sent to America as indenture servants. Robert  was to have founded the Junkin family in Maine .

Joseph Junkin wife Elizabeth Wallace parents were John Wallace and Martha Jane Hays.  Martha's father Will Hays fled Scotland to Ireland was said to be at the siege of Londonderry.  

JAC

I had a look at the Great Parchment Book. No Junkins listed in Derry in 1639:

https://www.greatparchmentbook.org/book-history/

It’s possible that there was a Junkin at the siege of Derry but we don’t have a comprehensive roll or record of who was living there then (1688) so it’s difficult to say.

In 1831 Joseph Junkin of Ballymacombs was the only Junkin listed in the county.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1831/Londonderry/Loughinsho…

Thanks ! I appreciate all your help. How do the Irish name their children?  Junkin researchers even the very experience ones have not been able to find out who Jospeh Junkin parents were.  We can not go farther back than 1715 when Joseph was born. He came to the USA along with his brothers James or John, Thomas and sister Rebecca  who married George Galloway .  

Jospeh Children all born in PA  

William. my 54th great grandfather.  Mary Polly. Josephh II George. Agnes. John Benjamin Elizabeth. 

Just wonder if Joseph dad was a William

Joyce

Joyce,

Being honest with you, to have got back to 1715 is pretty good. Most irish research comes to a stop around 1800 due to the lack of records. So to have got back another 100 years is exremely lucky. We simply don't have any records In ireland or Scotland to get back any further than that. Nobody was keeping them, in the 1600s. When I see trees that claim to have done that, alarm bells generally ring because it's very unusual and often points to guesswork.

There was a broad tradition in Ireland & Scotland of naming children according to the following rules:

The 1st son was usually named after the father's father

  The 2nd son was usually named after the mother's father

   The 3rd son was usually named after the father

    The 4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother

     The 5th son was usually named after the mother's eldest brother

 The 1st daughter was usually named after the mother's mother

  The 2nd daughter was usually named after the father's mother

   The 3rd daughter was usually named after the mother

    The 4th daughter was usually named after the mother's eldest sister 

     The 5th daughter was usually named after the father's eldest sister

The problem with relying too heavily on naming patterns is that, apart from the fact that not all families followed it, there are lots of things that can upset it. Common ones that I have encountered are: 

when the father and either of the grandparents have the same name. So you obviously can’t really have two or even three sons all with the same name, so a different name is often needed though some families did actually use the same name again on the birth certificate, but differentiated with another more informal name for day to day use. So if you had two Georges (as per birth certs) you just called one of them something else eg Simon;

if a child dies young, then it was common practice to re-use the name for the next birth. But if you don’t know about the death, your analysis of who they were named after could be completely wrong; 

Or if a close relative had just died and their name was used out of respect. 

I have also noticed that many families liked to name the odd child after the local Minister/Priest, schoolteacher or a relative with no children of their own. 

Sometimes people were christened with one name, but went by a different one (and would appear in censuses and other records by that alternative name), eg Henry & Harry or Ann & Nancy. 

So for all these reasons, whilst tradition says, for example, that the 4th son was named after the father's eldest brother, it isn’t always so.

Superb information.  You're right learning any family info before 1800 is a pain

Vann Junkins 

Hi all, just to reopen the thread I appear to have Junkin ancestry in my paternal side. On completing Y DNA testing on my paternal line it appears most of the matches link to the Junkin surname.  It looks like the relative below may be significant, George Junkin as his line has been corroborated by one of my 67 marker matches:

http://library.logcollegepress.com/Junkin%2C+David+Xavier%2C+The+Revere…
 

The biography is interesting as it states on page 12 that the family originated in Inverness but were likely of Danish origin which ties in with my paternal haplogroup which I suspect is Scandinavian in origin. 
 

Junkin would be an unusual surname but I wonder if there may be any useful parish records on the Scotlands People site? Difficult to tell though as I think surnames might have changed quite frequently then? Thanks again

315 Junkin baptisms in the Church of Scotland (ie Presbyterian) records on Scotlandspeople. The oldest dates to 1621 and was in Canongate (Edinburgh). However very few Scottish parishes have records for the 1600s and frequently for the 1700s so there are likely to have been many other baptisms that are not recorded.

1 Catholic baptism in 1850 in Greenock.

Thank you Elwyn. I’ve checked further and it suggests the family were Huguenots who escaped Flanders / Northern France and settled outside Inverness before moving to County Antrim. It looks like the line was originally Danish. 

Grant,

It’s possible that your ancestors are Huguenots who fled France. It’s also possible that your ancestors came from Inverness. I think it much less likely they were both. History doesn’t really make that very likely.

The Huguenots weren’t significantly persecuted in France till the Edict of Nantes was revoked in October 1685.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes

That led to an influx of protestant Refugees to Britain and Ireland.  So if your family fled France because they were persecuted Huguenots, then it was some time around 1685 onwards.  I am not aware of any fleeing to Scotland in the 1500s, let alone to Inverness (then a very small town), nor of a political reason for them to do so. As I have said previously I don’t think there were any in Inverness then at all. (Presbyterianism – which was established in Scotland in 1560 - took time to expand across the country. In the mid 1500s Inverness would have been mostly Catholic. An odd destination therefore for any Protestant fleeing Catholic persecution in France. I don’t think that can be correct).

This thread says John Junkin was born in Ireland in 1715.   Accepting that the main Huguenot refugee outflow was in the 1680s and 1690s, there doesn’t seem to be sufficient time for them to have gone to Inverness, flee again (for reasons unknown), and be established in Ireland in 1715.

It is true that Presbyterians in Scotland were persecuted in the late 1600s. The 1680s were known as “The Killing Times” when Covenanter Presbyterians were persecuted because of their beliefs. However that stopped in 1688 with the protestant King William’s accession to the thrones of both Scotland and England.

So Huguenots and other Presbyterians had no reason to flee Scotland for Ireland after that, though there was a big influx in the 1690s due to famine in Scotland.

https://www.scotland.org.uk/history/killing-time

Hi Elwyn, I was slightly surprised myself but there is evidence of Flemish migration to the area:

https://flemish.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2015/10/23/the-flemish-in-moray-par…

In terms of the historical timeline from about 1560 onwards there was a rise in Calvinism, so possible would make it more likely. 

Grant,

Happy to accept there were some folk from Flanders in the Moray area pre 1685, but they appear to have gone for the normal economic reasons.  And for those arriving in the early period, they’d have been Catholic, not protestant. They certainly weren’t Huguenots refugees so far as I can see. That was a quite separate movement after 1685.

I have found the Surname Junkin in County Antrim, Down, Fermanagh and Londonderry. They are in Cemeteries throughout Ulster.  Some moved to the Republic in Dublin. Theres one in Dublin turned out to be a genetic cousin. There are Junkin's still living in Ulster. I've been and stay in contact with them. We all have the very same naming patterns that have been going on for centuries. Mostly tenant farmers ive found. They came from Scotland beforehand in and around Stirling and Brechin Scotland. There were others. The Huguenots/Walloons were moving out of France starting late 1500s. Margaret Junkin Preston stated the Hugenot spelling of Junkin was Jonquin. She was quoting her father. The Huguenots were weavers werent they? I know not of any connections to the McJunkin family. I've genetic matches with the majority of the Junkin families throughout Appalachia from Pennsylvania to Alabama.  Apparently we love hilly small plot farms. It looks like we're all extended family. From Scotland to Ireland to the American Appalachians. I know my name is spelled with an S but my original immigrant grandfather spelled it without.. Junkin.

Regards,

Thomas Vann Junkins 

The first Junkin/Junkins recorded is in Brechin Scotland. It is a Robert Junkins. It was spelled Jonking. Jonking pronounced sounds like anglicized Jonquin. I'd say definitely french in origin. I've found people with this Surname Jonquin also living in French speaking Belgium very close to France. 

Just sharing what I've learned.

Vann Junkins 

Joyce

Find me on ancestry.

Thomas Junkins

Hi Thomas, thanks so much for sharing. Can I check please if you or any male members of your family have undertaken Y-DNA testing through FamilyTree DNA? I have undertaken a test called the Big-Y which provides a detailed haplogroup. There are also tests of smaller number of markers too but it’s very valuable to test if you are interested.

At 67 markers and above, most of the matches have Junkin or Junk as the earliest known ancestor. It’s interesting as the common haplogroup is I1 which is commonly associated with Scandinavia, so I wondered if there was an indication of earlier migration routes? 

I wonder if you have located any Junkins further North in Scotland? 

Just to add, one of my Junkin matches has an interesting web link to the family in the States, will try and find it for you.

Thanks again, Grant

Family Tree DNA - https://www.familytreedna.com/products/y-dna

You may have this already - http://www.frontierfamilies.net/family/junkin/family/home.htm

Grant, 

The only test I've taken is the ancestry test. But I do know some Junkin in Ulster who have taken the y. Nobody in my immediate family that I know of. Thank you for your correspondence through collaboration we will knock these walls down. I also know of a Jenkins in Scotland who claims Junkin ancestry. 

Vannjunkins1972@gmail.com 

Vann.

Thanks again and definitely keep in touch. They are running a sale on the Y test at the moment (finishes today) and if you ever need more information on it please shout 👍

Grant - thanks for posting on this forum, interesting to read. Are you a member of the Jenkins group project on Family Tree DNA? Several have ancestors who had the name 'Junkin', myself included - but these (so far) are all traceable to Scotland.

Chris

Thanks Chris - yes I’ve sent away a request to join the group and it’s pending. Is your kit number showing on the group? Thanks again.

Thanks Grant - let me know if you still have trouble joining. My kit # is IN125613.

Chris

Hi Elwyn,Van and Grant. I’m Joe Junkin, direct descendant of Joseph I of Antrim who emigrated to PA in the mid 1700’s. His big clues were that he was a Covenanter, suggesting Scottish ancestry which I wasn’t able to confirm during a week in the Archives at Edinborough three years ago. I have his wife’s mother’s sampler which says “Elizabeth Wallas is my name and I wrout this seam in Strabane 1704. Junkin built the Junkin house now in Mechanicsburg PA, having been moved and improved in the last year. Your collective Junkin data is great and appreciated.