Newest Focus
Looking into Patrick Hannigan and John Hannigan, two more cousins or siblings in the Newburgh/Marlboro area.
Open Issues
- Which exact Donegal townland or parish is he from?
- Is the Patrick Hannigan ‘father’ of Bridget Hannigan Downer findable in the Finn Valley?
Where they lived
IN IRELAND
Coming soon!
IN THE US
Coming soon!
Associated surnames
Any Lawn, Downer, Gallagher, Welsh out there?
Hannigan cousins?
Descended from these Hannigans, come from the Finn Valley Hannigans, or match me on DNA? Let’s compare notes.
Bits of DNA in Donegal
The brick wall
Michael is where this whole line simply stops. I have both his marriages, his census returns, his land deeds, thirteen pages of his own probate file — and not one document that names his parents, or even confirms what parish he came from. All we had was bits of DNA, clustered in Donegal. Family DNA points at the Finn Valley in east Donegal — Cappry, Ballybofey, Stranorlar and Killygordon — where a Hannigan family was still farming the same ground into the early 1900s. It’s a strong hypothesis. It still isn’t a record naming Michael’s parents.
It isn’t for lack of searching. Irish civil registration of Catholic births didn’t begin until 1864, and he was born around 1849, so there is no civil birth record anywhere. Roots Ireland’s parish indexes don’t have an identifiable ‘him’.
Michael died at Middlehope New York on 21 September 1902. The probate file, thirteen pages sworn by his son-in-law and naming his surviving children, is likely the best American document I will ever have on him.
What I’m looking for
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- Anyone researching Hannigans in Stranorlar and Donaghmore, Co. Donegal.
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- Anyone who could possibly get death records from New York. (I know…gold dust!)
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- More information on Patrick Hannigan (d.1909) and Mary Ann (Lawn) Hannigan (d.1908), both of Cappry — a will, in particular, should name family where the calendar entry doesn’t. Are you a descendent of theirs? I’d love to speak with you!
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- Griffith’s Valuation and the valuation revision books for Cappry, to trace one Hannigan household forward from the 1850s. This is on my list for an upcoming trip.
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- DNA matches to the Finn Valley Hannigans who can also show a documented link back to a named ancestor in Ireland — mine only goes as far as the shared match.
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- Any Hannigan emigrant siblings of Michael’s who might have left their own paper trail in America. I think I have one sister, but there is an undeniable cluster of Hannigans in the Newburgh/Marlboro New York area, all with DNA matches down their lines.
Michael Hannigan — a world timeline
Michael’s life, from Famine-era Ireland to the Hudson Valley of New York, set against what was happening at home in Ireland, in America, and in the wider world. The coral markers are our own family; the rest is the world he moved through.
Our familyIreland & UKUnited StatesWider world
Behind Michael stands his father, a Hannigan of County Donegal, whose given name, parish and townland are not yet found. Family DNA research points to south Donegal, converging on Ballybofey and Killygordon. For now, that is the brick wall.
1845–1852
The Great Famine (An Gorta Mór) empties much of rural Ireland; this family belongs to the generation it scattered across the world.
29 Sep 1849
Michael Hannigan is born in Ireland — family DNA research points to south Donegal, converging on Ballybofey and Killygordon.
1855
Castle Garden opens at the tip of Manhattan as America’s first official immigrant depot — the gateway most Irish arrivals passed through before Ellis Island.
1860s–1890s
The Hudson River brickyards around Haverstraw, Roseton and Marlborough boom, drawing thousands of Irish labourers to the river towns where this family settled.
1861–1865
The American Civil War.
1866
The first durable transatlantic telegraph cable links Europe and North America.
1870
Michael arrives in America, aged about twenty.
2 Dec 1871
Michael is naturalised as a US citizen at Boston, Massachusetts.
28 Mar 1875
Michael marries Margaret Welsh at St Mary’s, Marlborough, Ulster County, New York.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1876–1889
Eight children are born at Marlborough and Newburgh: Daniel Ambrose (1876), John Francis (1878), Michael Edward (1879), Timothy (1880), Patrick (1883), Joseph Albert (1885) — my direct line — Mary Catherine (1887) and James (1889).
1879–1882
The Land War: Land League agitation resists evictions and demands tenant rights across Ireland.
1880
Michael is recorded working in a dye factory; by 1900 he is farming at Newburgh.
1891
Margaret dies, aged about thirty-seven, likely at Middlehope, leaving Michael with their children. No death record survives — the county has since certified that none can be found — so her passing is known only from what follows.
20 Sep 1891
Michael remarries — to Julia O’Rourke, at Newburgh, Orange County. It is this second marriage that tells us Margaret had died.
1892
Ellis Island opens in New York Harbor, replacing Castle Garden as the nation’s immigrant receiving station.
21 Sep 1902
Michael dies at Middlehope, in the Town of Newburgh — the death was never registered with New York State, so no certificate exists; the probate file, sworn by his son-in-law, is the best record of it.
1903
The Wyndham Land Purchase Act helps Irish tenants buy out their holdings, dissolving the old landlord system.
1903
The Wright brothers make the first powered aeroplane flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1912
The liner Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg, with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.
