On May 27th John Giacoletti and I travel to Northern Ireland to begin a three
week trip to research those families who defended Derry during the great
siege. While rootsweb claims to have in excess of 20,000 surname lists we
are interested in less than one hundred. That is the approximate number of
families we have found that have roots both at Derry and King's Mountain
and it is the migration of these families from Ulster to the Carolinas by way
of Pennsylvania, Virgina and other places that we wish to explore. I could
not be happier with my travelling companion who by all accounts is a scholar.
John and I both attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He received a M.A there in 17th Century British literature and for two years
was a Wilson Library Fellow and assistant to the Curator of Rare Books. For
his thesis he did a manuscript attribution study and gained great skill in
reading the Elizabethan hand. I was a business major and am included on this
trip because I drive well on the left side of the road!!
In order to help the researcher gain a better understanding of his or her
Ulster roots three documents have been offered to the lists during the past
few months. The first and by all accounts the most popular, has been the
thesis by Professor James W. Hagy entitled, "Castle's Woods: Frontier
Virginia Settlement, 1769-1799 published 1966 at East Tennessee St.
University. The importance of Castle's Woods is twofold. First, it had its
day of importance as a stepping stone to the West and secondly, it is
important as a case study of the American frontier. I actually located
Professor Hagy a month or so ago, thirty-seven years after he wrote this
thesis and had a nice conversation with him.
The second item offered was a two book set by the Reverend Alexander Lecky;
"The Laggan and its Presbyterianism" and "In the Days of the Laggan
Presbytery" published in Belfast 1905 and 1908. The Laggan is the area
between the river Foyle and the upper reaches of Lough Swilly, and extending
in one direction from Lifford to Letterkenny. It formed the most productive
and desireable portion of the ancient territory of Tyrconnell. These books
represent the first published source of early settlers (Presbyterian elders)
arranged by Parish and TOWNLAND. To know who sat in the pew next to you is
really exciting if you are researching allied families of your direct line.
I will not list all the names of the people listed in Lecky's books except to
say that if I send this post to your list it is because a person with the
same surname is listed as an elder in the Appendix.
The last and most detailed offering is titled, "A History of the Siege of
Londonderry and Defence of Enniskillen in 1688 and 1689, with Historical
Poetry and Biographical Notes, & by the Reverend John Graham, M.A., Rector of
Migilligan, in the Diocese of Derry. The Battles of the Boyne, Athlone, and
Aughrim, the Siege and Capitulation of Limmerick, by Lord McCaulay.,
Toronto, McClear & Publishers, 1869.
What a title!! They don't write em like that any more. I sacrificed my copy
to the copy machine as it was in poor condition and now it is for all
purposes destroyed, but it copied really well. From the forward we read the
following:
"In bringing out a new edition of Mr. Graham's narrative of the Siege of
Derry, and enhancing its value by descriptions from Lord McCaulay's graphic
pen, the publishers conceive that they are conferring a benefit upon the
reading public of Canada-for the events which these pages record are such as
we do not willingly let die. Apart altogether from the political and
religious aspects of the question, the romance of history never had a fairer
theme. Truth is proverbially stranger than fiction, and never did the
all-exiting elements of truth gather in sterner compression than around these
memorable hundred days. What fiction ever imagined excitements and
sensations more thrilling? and yet they are no morbid fancies of the
distempered brain, but events which actually happened, events from whose
enactment and results, the destinies of a nation were changed."
I will keep sending these documents to as many people as want them up until
May 1st. Contact me at cscunc(a)aol.com for details. Upon our return all
findings will be posted to our website (under construction) and the lists
will be notified. It is not possible to remain on all of the lists all of the
time so feel free to contact us at cscunc(a)aol.com if you have any specific
questions. Thanks to those people who sent us e-mails so far with their
family lines that tie to Derry and King's Mountain.
Regards,
Robert Cowan
John Giacoletti