Marley Family Lettermakenny

Adrian:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

I checked the 1830 Tithe listings for Lettermakenny townland which is actually in Stranorlar civil parish and there was a Michael Marley in Lettermakenny. I don't see any Marleys in the 1857 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing. There were a number of Marleys in the parish of Donaghmore.

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004625719/004625719_00085.pdf

Roger McDonnell

 Roger thanks so much for getting back to me. I have the Griffiths info plus an 1861 census form from Scotland confirming Lettermakenny as the the place of birth of some of my ancestors but that’s all I have. Would you know of anywhere else I can search. The Parish records list quite a few Marleys but none I can connect with so far. Once a again thanks. Regards Adrian 

Adrian:

Sorry! Church records are not available for Stranorlar until 1877 and the only other pre-1850 source would be the Tithes which I checked.

Roger

Hi Adrian, I have just viewed your post 're Marleys of Lettermakenny, Stranorlar, I am not related to the Marley's but I could be related to Roseanne Kelly.  My Kelly's came from Meenavoy, Stranorlar, a townland adjacent to Lettermakenny.  Do you have any family information on the Kelly's.

Denis Kelly, my great great grandfather, 1784-1864, he had a son's, Charles, 1824-1889, and John, 1833-1905, (my great grandfather).  I don't know if Denis had any other children.

There are Marley's still in the wider Stranorlar area (Cloghan/Glenfin), who own a fleet of busses who are probably the same connection, you could also place a request for information on a small local newspaper, The Finn Valley Voice, Main St. Ballybofey, Co Donegal.

I grew up close to Lettermakenny (1950/60s) but I never heard of Marley's living in that area at that time, perhaps they were granted some land during the land war in the late 1800s and moved to the area they are living in now.

I hope I have been some help to you in tracing your ancestors.

Bats wishes

Sarah Boyle.

Sarah,Thank you so much for getting back to me. It's really appreciated.

Rose Kelly died in Milton of Campsie, Scotland in 1855. I have attached a copy of her death certificate which provides much useful information. We can tell that she was born about 1780 and that her father was Charles Kelly and mother was Hannah McGlin. We can also see that she left Ireland in about 1850. This ties in with the records I have regarding the children some of whom came to Scotland.

Based on this information I can only assume that Rose could have been your great great grandfathers sister? Does her mother's name have any meaning to you? I also see a death record on FindMyPast for a Charles Kelly who died in Stranorlar in 1866 which shows his birth as 1780. I'm thinking that this might also have been  brother of Rose? I hope this helps you with your family.

My family remains a mystery when it comes to Rose's husband Michael for whom I can find no evidence of him coming to Scotland with Rose and also no further records in Ireland other than the Griffiths mention in 1830 in Lettermakenny which is an assumption. The only reason I know about Lettermakenny is a Scottish census document from 1861 which shows the children having been born in Lettermakenny. I'm interested to understand what you mean by the Land War.

Thanks for the idea of looking for information through the local paper. I will try that. A couple of years ago I visited Stranorlar and met a couple of gentlemen who were able to take me to a hillside in Lettermakenny which they believed could have been farmed by Marley's. In fact, I'm told the area is still known as Marley's Garden. 

The lack of surviving records in Ireland means that the only way I will find out more about my family is through talking to people like yourself so thanks again for making contact and I really hope I've been able to give you more than you already knew

Kind regards

Adrian

Hi Adrian, the Charles that you have found on Find my Past probably is a brother of Denis with possibly your Rose as their sister, we can only speculate, without census records, and the Charles name runs through our family.

The McGlin(Glynn) name is still very common in the Glenfin/Cloghan areas of Donegal and as the crow flies (as they say here) wouldn't be that far from Lettermakenny.  

If you Google, the Irish Land war, it will tell you a lot more than I will be able to type here, but it was a terrible time in Ireland but they won their right to own their land in the end.  I never heard of Marley's garden, a new one too me.

My Mum had most of her family and uncle's emigrate to Glasgow from the late 1800s and I still have extended family there and one living in Campsie Drive, Bearsden.  Rose probably would have gone to Scotland during the famine (genocide) period when things were very bleak in Donegal, I hope she had a better life there.

Please let me know if you have any luck, through the newspaper, tracing the McGlin or Marley families.

Best wishes

Sarah