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Research in Other Countries => Immigrants & Emigrants - General => Topic started by: Shanks on Wednesday 05 April 06 00:45 BST (UK)
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:) Hello all, I am hoping I am doing this right as I am a pretty slow learner.
I am having a very hard time finding where in Ireland my ancestor left from. His name is/was William SHANKS and I think he left from Dromore Co. Down to come to either New Brunswick, Canada (where he ended up) or United States (maybe passed through?) in about 1818
He came here with wife Sarah DIXON and their Ireland born children, Samuel b about 1792, Sarah b about 1801, Jane about 1802, Robert about 1806 and William about 1809 (dates from Canadian Census)
I have reason to think that maybe Sarah DIXON was William second marriage and that his first wife and Samuel's mother was Mary SHAW.
As you can see I have many "I thinks" in my story. Any information on this family after they arrived in Canada I have tons of but I can't seem to get into Ireland.
Any help would be much welcome or if I am flogging a dead horse...LOL
Should there be anyone searching the same family and want any of my info from 1820 on please just ask I have scads!
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Will scan this and give it to my friend Mandy who is also busy with the Shanks family tree I think she found some of the Irish ones
Elizabeth
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That would be so awsome. I am at a standstill.
Thanks!
Annie ;D
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Hello
Gave Mandy your info and when she has time she is going to see if your Shanks are the same as hers
There are lots of Shank's here so will ask around
Are any from Northumberland
Elizabeth
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Hi Elizabeth,
I am not even sure that he is from Dromore. I am only going by a passenger list from the ship WestPoint that sailed to New York sometime after 1815 I think the date was. All it said was William SHANKS and wife from Dromore. Other than that the only other thing I have is a land grant from New Brunswick that states that he arrived in Canada in 1819 and lived in County Down Ireland for ever before that. I don't know if maybe he lived in the States for a short time before coming here and just failed to declare that to the land grant people or I just can't find a ship that brought him. Census records state that the children of William were born in two differant places. William SHANKS born 1809 was born in Armagh, Ulster, Ireland and Robert SHANKS born 1806 the same place. Jane and Samuel born 1802 and 1795 born in Down, Ulster, Ireland.
I am wondering also if Sam maybe was a brother from a differant mother LOL. It has been suggested to me that perhaps William was married to a Mary SHAW before Sarah. I met a man when I was in Ireland a few years ago. He lived in Near Mallow County Cork. He is searching SHANKS family and has boxes and boxes of information but I didn't know very much what I was doing at the time (I still don't) and so didn't take advantage of his knowledge.
Well thanks again for your help.
If your friend thinks we may be connected and she wants what I have on the North America branch let me know. I will do my best to get it to her.
Annie
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We haven't forgot you
Mandy has not had much time but tonight I gave her the last mail you sent and she is going to find what she has and will hand onto you .Ive told her about rootschat
Elizabeth
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:D
Hi again, not a problem, I didn't think you forgot me. I have been busy too what with grandchildren and...and...well I guess its just the grandchildren LOL
I am going away for a Wild Womens Weekend :o Thursday and coming home Monday so no rush is expected from me.
Annie
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hi, in early 1800 there were only 76 SHANKS in the whole of Ireland, 2 in Antrim,12 in Armagh,48 in Down, the latter being the most populated part of the "North" at that time. They are believed to be English or Scots, depending what you read. Dromore is a village next to Lurgan, a few miles away. When i researched the archives or the Church of Laterday Saints in Belfast,on microfish, i found 4 families of Shanks in the Lurgan Area, only one was Catholic.
That organisation made records of all births marriages and deaths no matter what religion People were and have very complete records. The Brownlow Family, were granted all the land that the modern town of Craigavon, most of the land south of Lough Neagh and created Lurgan, where weavers, tanners and farming allowed the father and later son to build a Castle with a lake. Very impressive for a little inland town. Shanks is a very common name in Aye,Scotland and the Regiments have lots of the family recorded in Service. there are lots of books to get the idea of how the towns grew before you get to the point where food, religion and work sent people packing and off to far off shores. Just a side note,1661-62 Restoration of Charles II, sent a lot of Quakers to the north of Ireland, so we end up with a lot of meeting house for them where they started and kept their records. My book Parish Registers,Historic Treasures,F X Mc Corry,Page 108 of Sacred Landscapes and Human Endeavour in South-West Antrim, shows a map of over 100 families who worked the Lough and their travels. My point regarding the above is Lurgan and the Brownlow family left a big footprint and we are fortunate to have a lot of recorded history built around the township,Armagh Down and Antrim where you can find what made them the special people they became. i have 226 on my tree, so far, and have found the Parish Clerk a great help, and the records office in Roscommon the best place for Certificates to confirm what you thought as a fact, Jim
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Hi
Sorry to reply on an old thread but just noticed the post saying bout small number of Shanks family in Ireland in early 1800s. Robert Shanks was a farmer born around 1765 and married to Elizabeth Bolton - I think they stayed in co Down . Their daughter Elizabeth came to Scotland with her husband Thomas Pew and their children around 1840 , settling in Airdrie Lanarkshire. Is any of this familiar ?
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I wonder if Shanks ever made it back from that weekend.
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Could have left from the Clyde to New York. For an insight into their experience, check R.L.Stevenson's "An Amateur Emigrant," you'll get this online.
Skoosh.