GALLIGAN

Hi There,

I dont want you to get your hopes up, but you are taking a great leap of faith that you will find your family in co Cavan,.

I looked up the NationaArchives.ie for Galligan a publican & I found this

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Cavan/Main_Stree…

he is still there in 1911

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cavan/Cavan_Urban/Main…;

If this man ever married & had any more family I dont know, if you wished to search his details you could try

1. Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864. You can access the website here:http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

Cavan Genealogy,
1st floor,
Johnston Central Library,
Farnham Street,
Cavan Town,
County Cavan.
Tel: +353 (0)49 4361094
Fax: +353 (0)49 433149  email cavangenealogy@eircom.net

If I was you I  would focus my research on as much as there is in US, search all the family, all their information, track the sisters, did they name their homes after a place in Ireland, any obituaries, wills, search for anyone that may have come to live with them, they may have brought family or neighbours over after them, do all the census & look at the original transcripts, someone may have written a place that is so obsure that the transcribers may have overlooked as they may not have recognised the word. Check all the sites that records travellers ie. Ellis Island site, Castlegarden.org if they came from Ulster, they may have travelled through Canada.  Dont dismiss that they could have lived in UK even for a short period & some left for USA from UK.  You are looking for a place in Ireland & also loo for any prayer books, bibles etc.  Talk to any of your family & see if they have any stories, you never know what they turn up.

Good luck with your search & if you find they are in Co Cavan I would love to meet you here & show you around.

Let me know if you have any success, so I can further help others..

Best Wishes Carmel O'Callaghan 

Greetings Carmel,

My apologies for the delay in responding to your post. I received notice of it by e-mail immediately after it was posted, but had to stumble around the site a couple of times before I discovered how to send a reply.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I have e-mailed the Cavan library as you suggested to request a genealogical search for any information they may have on my family.

With my limited research abilities, I have discovered Cavan has the largest percentage of Galligan's of any county. This is the reason for my presumption they may have hailed from there. I will let you know if we are successful.

Thank you also for your kind offer to meet if we come to Ireland. My wife and I definitely plan to do so after hopefully finding from where our families started. She has Irish blood also being from the "Dugan" clan.

I have attached a couple of photos for you taken on two occasions at my 3x great-grandfather Michael's gravesite in North Adams, Massachusetts, USA, about 620 miles from where I live in Nags Head, North Carolina. One is of me on the day I located it two years ago (142 years and 25 days after he died) and the second is of my Irish blooded granddaughter Madisyn Margaret McCoole just about a year ago. I included them to show you we are serious about our genealogical research.

Thank you one final time for your thoughtfulness and time in helping those who wish to reconnect with Ireland. ERIN GO BRAGH!

Respectfully,

Gordon Galligan

6th generation, Irish-American

Thank you Gordon, the photos are wonderful, I love the fact that his so exact age is on the headstone!

I hope your search is fruitful.. Best Wishes Carmel 

I too have descended from the Galligans, (Mary Galligan married to Patrick Owen Keogh) and went to the Geneology Centre in Co. Cavan to research both families. All the Galligans were originally from one Parish/township in Cavan, which I was able to find out there. Then at the County Museum, there is a story of Dr. Galligan who was famous for his traditional musical group and his support of Irish music.

Because of the early birth year of your ancestor (like mine) you may not have an answer because records were not really kept at that time. They will not charge you if there are no answers, and they are helpful at the Geneology Centre.

The hills of Cavan, and the nearby mountain range are beautiful. I could see why my ancestors chose the area in Ontario to build and farm - very similar geography. There is a town in Cavan called Virginia, and my father's sister had that name - which is an unusual choice for a Catholic family.

We stayed at Castle Cabra, if you want to have a bit of luxury on your trip.

Greetings Bridget, (I love the name Bridget, my mother would have liked it for my younger sister, but ultimately decided on Maureen - Mom often called her Bridget as a nickname.)

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I do appreciate your info on the genealogy center in Cavan. I contacted the library in Cavan, but didn't have much luck.

Did you find graveyards and headstones to be searched in Cavan?

My 3x great-grandfather came to the northwestern part of Massachusetts and lived his entire life there. I am currently search the Berkshire County naturalization records for him and his son (also born in Ireland) through the Family Search Mormon LDS website. Lots of info there if you're not already familiar with it. Here's the link http://familysearch.org/films/ . Where in the US did your family get their start? In my opinion, naturalization records have the info I'm looking for - where born in Ireland, when arrived in US, birth date.

Thanks for the recommendation on Castle Cabra. A trip to Ireland is definitely in my future as soon as I have found all I can here in the US.

Please get in touch again if you find anything else of interest about the Galligan's.

Respectfully,

Gordon Galligan, 6th Generation Irish-American

Hi , i was just browsing and came accross your post my grandfather was Dr Brian Galligan as in above post , he was born in New York but moved to Ballinagh Cavan , his father was Pete Galligan originally from Loonogs Crosskeys , i can find out alot more if your interested as far as i can recall at onr time my greatgrandfather had a mining company in New York or around there somewhere