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Messages - redmargaret

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Offaly (Kings) / Re: Blong in Ireland
« on: Tuesday 01 November 11 16:12 GMT (UK)  »
I really don't have much more I can tell you.  I know my grandfather's brother Christopher emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Massachusetts.  He had one son and at least one daughter but I only met them once many years ago and don't know what became of them.  My father claimed that a relative whose mother was a Blong was a member of a chicago mob in the 20's and was killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, one of the byproducts of our flirtation with Prohibition.  He woould have been about my father's age and it's possible that his mother was one of my grandfather's sisters.  I never heard my father mention that a cousin from Ireland lived with his family in Pennsylvania.

I have attached a photo of Pat Quinn talking to my father (back to camera) and a neighbor that was taken during a visit in the 60's.

I believe there is information online about immigration thru Ellis Island and I know the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) maintains a large genealogical data base which is accessible online.


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Offaly (Kings) / Re: Blong in Ireland
« on: Saturday 15 October 11 19:15 BST (UK)  »
Just read corisande's post on Blongs in Clonmore.   One "correction".  The cottage in which my grandfather Timothy grew up in Clonmore is still owned by the Quinn's though they live in newer houses they have built on the prpoperty.  When I was last there in 2003 the cottage was being used as a storage shed but I've heard from subsequent visitors that the Quinn's plan to restore it.  One of Pat Quinn's grandsons runs a car business of some sort in the area.

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Offaly (Kings) / Re: Blong in Ireland
« on: Saturday 15 October 11 18:10 BST (UK)  »
Timothy Blong born April 1858 was my grandfather.  He was the son of Peter Blong and Mary Ann Cassidy who were married in January 1852 in the RC Church in Clonbulloque.  One of his sisters did marry a Quinn and my father and I met Pat Quinn in Clonmore when we traveled to Ireland in the 60's.   Pat Quinn's son, grandchildren and great granchildren still live in Clonmore.  My grandfather had eight siblings -- John b. April 1852, Ellen b. February 1854, Peter b. August 1856, Christopher b. March 1860, Michael b. August 1862, Mary Ann b. November 1867, and Katherine & Brigid b. January 1869.   The dates come from Church baptismal records.  My grandfather emigrated to Canada and from thence to the U.S. where he became a well known horseman in Pennsylvania.  Christopher also came to the U.S. and settled in Massachusetts and raised a family.

It is believed that my great grandfather Peter was the descendant of a Blanc or Le Blanc, a French Huguenot who came to Ireland in the army of William of Orange and that sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century the name became "anglicized" and the family became R.C.'s.

Part of the confusion in researching the family is that Blanc and Le Blanc were very common names among the French and there are many Blancs or Blongs in the Clonbullogue area who are not related to one another any more than all the Jones's or Smith's are related to one another.  When my father and I were in Ireland we also met members of a family that had retaken the name Blanc after using Blong and who lived near the Quinns in Clonmore but were not related to us.  The photo is a picture of the house where my grandfather grew up; the thatched roof was replaced with tin after the thatch burned.


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