I am researching my Wallace/Hays ancestors.
Elizabeth Wallace was born around 1724 in County Tyrone Ireland to John Wallace anfd Martha Jane Hays. She had a brother Samuel who immigrated to USA PA in 1756.. She married Joseph Junkin in 1743 in Pennsylvania .. COnflict in when they were married as my notes say she came over with Joseph Junkin in 1735 as his wife.. IT can not be as she would have only been 11 years old.
John Wallace was born in 1681-17?? in Ayr,Ayrshire Scotland died in Tyrone Ireland . His parents were William Wallace and Elizabeth Bruce.. He married Martha Jane Hays before 1723. John fled to Tyrone Ireland because of religious persecution . William Wallace was born in Scotland1645-died in 1713 in Scotland.
Martha Jane Hays was born in 1690-1745 to William Hays and.Mary Elizabeth Slack in Tyrone County Ireland. William Hays was born in Glasgow Scotalnd in 1650 died in Tyrone County 1725 . Scottish Convenanters .
Will add more .
Jac
Monday 7th Feb 2022, 01:56AMMessage Board Replies
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Jac,
A significant number of Scots Presbyterians fled to Ireland in the 1680s. The period was known as the killing times. Your problem is that there are few records in Ireland for the 1700s, and so tracing the family in Tyrone will be very challenging and perhaps impossible, especially so as the families evidently only lived in Ireland for 60 or 70 years.
They will have attended the Presbyterian church. Covenanters in Ireland today are generally called Reformed Presbyterians but they didn’t have any Ministers in Ireland till 1757 (when Rev William Martin was ordained). So apart from occasional visits by itinerant Covenanter Ministers from Scotland (who left no written records) your ancestors would surely have attended the mainstream Presbyterian church. However I do not know of a single Presbyterian church in Tyrone with any records for the period 1700 – 1750. And there are few other records to research either, especially if you have no idea of where in the county they lived.
The 1901 census of Ireland contains 192 Wallaces in Co Tyrone. Most of those were Presbyterian or Church of Ireland with a couple of Catholic families, and some Methodists (who would have been Church of Ireland pre 1816). You could use that as a crude method of trying to narrow the search area but with the passage of 150 years since your families left, it may not be all that reliable.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
Possibly DNA testing may be a way of matching with others who have additional information about where the families resided in Ireland. 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).
Elwyn, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Monday 7th Feb 2022, 04:26AM