Nilan from Boston looking for clues...

Hi Steve,

MacLysaght's The Surnames of Ireland has a short write-up on this surname:

"Nyland, Nilan - Forms of Neylan used in Co. Galway."

And from the Ireland Townland Index at: www.seanruad.com

TownlandAKAAcresCountyBaronyCivil ParishPLUProvinceBallinderreen 186GalwayDunkellinDrumacooGortConnaught

shows one of your placenames of interest to be in the Civil Parish of DRUMACOO.

Brian Mitchell's A Guide to IRISH Churches and Graveyards shows a Roman Catholic Church is / was (?) in Ballinderreen townland and a graveyard to be in Drumacoo townland.

I will check the RC parish maps site and post another reply as to what records are available.

Best wishes,

James McNamara

feakle@irelandxo.com

Hi again Steve,

The Roman Catholic Church at Ballinderreen townland (in the RC Parish of KILCOLGAN) has been filmed:

The FHL (LDS) has film # 0,979,691 (item 10) with baptisms from 1854 through 1881 and marriages from 1871 through 1884.  See www.familysearch.org   You can order the film for about $5 at any Family History Center (FHC) and keep there for about 6 weeks.  If you rent the film 3 times it will go on permanent loan at that FHC. 

The National Library of Ireland (NLI) has basically the same records filmed on their positive film #2442.  See: http://www.nli.ie/  The FHL film was filmed at the NLI in Dublin.

The Galway Family History Society West, Ltd. (through Irish Family History Foundation) has records online for searching by fee (small fee) at: http://galwaywest.rootsireland.ie/ with baptisms from 1854 through 1900 and marriages from 1871 through 1900.

Hope that helps.

All the best.

James McNamara

feakle@irelandxo.com

It is useful to have the exact birth date to find a person on the web. In the case of Ellen Nilan, she was born in Ballinderreen to Thomas "Nilan" and Sally? King on 6 March 1867. The Family History Library number for this birth is 101143. This information may be accessed on Ancestry.com with a free two week subscription. There was an Ellen "Neilan" who sailed out of Londonderry bound for New York on the Anchor Line passanger ship Devonia on 20 March 1891.  The voyage was listed as 32 days in length. Her age was registered on the ship's log as 24, which is consistant with a birth year of 1867. Her occupation was listed as "None". She sailed with a Bridget (age 19) and James Nilan (age 9). All three were listed as "single".  This would be important if she became an American citizen, because the naturalization papers are stored by the US Government by arrival date.

There was another Ellen "Nelan"  who arrived in New York on the Germanic on 19 April 1886.  The ports of departure were Liverpool and Queenstown. Her age was listed as 19 which would have meant a birth date of approximately 1867.  The counties were listed on the manfest, but her's was unreadable except for "Ireland".

There are no civil registrations of Marrage for her registered in Gort that I could find on Ancestry.com or any other site, although there was one for an Ellen Nilan in Loughrea in 1888.  There were several Australian, England, andUS marriages that would be consistant with her age and date of birth, but there were no parents listed.

I could not find any death records that listed parents names.

Good luck in your search,

Pat Vail

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (Husband of Ann Fahy of Coolfin, Ardrahan, Co Galway)

My family is from Raheen, Gort Co Galway.

My Great Grandfather was James Niland who died in 1917 aged 60,

We dont know how long there were in Raheen but he had a Sister that Lived in the  Kilcolgan Area and there are many Niland's from this area.

Mike

mike.oconnor58@btinternet.com