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« on: Tuesday 28 March 23 19:53 BST (UK) »
Thanks for the rapid response Annie. I'll paste the email content I sent to Jack below. If you can help me it would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Derek
"I have been unable to ascertain exactly where my Irish HENRY roots on my maternal side, originate.
Catriona Lennon ( MONAGHAN COUNTY LIBRARY, CLONES) very generously did find one of 5 children of Hugh Henry and Mary Ann Monford called Jane (1st known child), being baptised in Ballybay, Monaghan 17th May 1824 but all the usual available resources (e.g. land records etc) have not revealed new proven links to Ballybay. There are obviously "relatives" there but, for example, no marriage record seems to be available for Hugh and Mary. I've even tried the Ballybay Facebook site, to no avail!
By the mid 1820's the family were in Donegore, Antrim and the local church sold me a DVD of the available records. I found James (1826) Mary Ann (1830) but the origins of Sarah Ann and her brother Thomas Henry both supposedly born (Census for Thomas and an 1879 Walsall marr for Sarah) in Ireland c1837, remain unproven. I suspect Thomas may have been born c 1832 but that's only because, when he died in 1892 in Wolverhampton Staffordshire where he ended up, he was recorded as 60 years of age. Lookups have not yet found his baptism. Whether the family moved from Donegore to elsewhere in Antrim is unclear but the whole family apart from possibly James were in the Midlands by 1851.
Rootsireland are yet another subscription to consider but when I did find someone to check before I committed they told me they could find nothing.
All other researchers investigating the family have the same dead end and so far DNA has only resulted in finding the obvious links and trees all stop at Hugh and Mary. Since I began this the various sites, including Familysearch.org, have included more data but none have solved the mystery.
If you have any new strategies to suggest which point me in another direction, I would really appreciate it.
Apologies for going on a bit. I do appreciate you at least reading through this.
Kind regards,
Derek Thom
Wolverhampton UK"