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Hallmark sent you a link for a John Harrison lighthouse keeper, one born in Belfast.  I would go with that man.  Good job, Hallmark.

I do not think I have followed a Belfast Harrison family.  I have followed Harrisons in Down, Armagh, Monaghan, and Cavan.

Hello, Sinann,

How are you?  Where were those lighthouses?  Were your Harrisons sailors, ship captains, trained as lighthouse people, electricians?  My family did not have a sailor, ship captain, lighthouse keep (or even a person who lived on a coast), but had one electrician in New Zealand.

I looked for John George and John W.  I do not have the younger man, John George in my County Monaghan tree.  I do see five or six John Ws.  They were Wesley (so Methodist), 3 Williams, and a Wilson.  If you could find the meaning of your W. in John W. it might help narrow things down.  Most of my John Ws went to Virginia.  Is that were your family was?  Those John Williams are in the genealogy by John Houston Harrison, Settlers by the Long Grey Trail.  It is available for sale through Amazon.com; it can be reprinted by Amazon cheaply, not worth buying the expensive original; they have the same text.

Now over in my County Down tree I see two John Georges.  One died in WW something, young, unmarried.  The other was married Ellen Beatty in Donaghcloney.  I have not connected them to my family or another family either.  We have DNA tested Harrison families in the area.  One big family is the Harrisons of Seagoe Parish (kind of counties Down and Armagh) and they may or may not include Donaghcloney (Down or Armagh, not clear).  You could look on a website called Harrison DNA Project that lists all the different Harrison families worldwide.  You could search the word Seagoe and look down in lineage 83 for that Seagoe family.  There is not such person as Polly Harrison and I should put you in touch with a member of the Seagoe family; I am not in that family.

Polly LYNN

Dear Canada Girl,

You write of an Eliza Jane Harrison who married, possibly in Cootehill, Cavan.  I am told that marriages most often took place in the home parish of the bride.  If true in this case, we are looking at a Harrison family of Cootehill. 

There were Harrisons of Cootehill, County Cavan, who went to Canada.  Two trips.  The first was James Harrison of Cootehill (born about 1770) and his wife Frances who took all but [one] of their children with them to Canada in, best guess, 1820.  Frances died aboard ship (1820) and the father about two months later or in the 1820s anyway.  Children were all on Wolfe Island, Canada at this point.  The late couple had left behind in Cootehill their son Edward Harrison who was doing his apprenticeship--a legal agreement--in weaving.  Edward--in no hurry to join his family--married Rachel Wilson, had a first son James named for the baby's paternal grandfather, and then the family of three went to Canada in 1832, specifically Caledon, Peek County; is that Ontario?  Now, did these Harrisons (either James or Edward) leave behind a brother in Cootehill?  I don't know.  James had two siblings in County Monaghan, but Edward could have.  I don't know of any other sibling for either. 

Mine were a Presbyterian family.  James Harrison had a known bro and a known sister.  The brother was Hugh Harrison of Ballybay, County Monaghan (born 1760).  Their sister was Isabella Harrison White.  (Both Isabella and Hugh married Whites, also a brother Joseph White and sister.)  These three Harrisons--James, Hugh, and Isabella--trace back to John Harrison the Elder of Castleblayney, who was there in 1663 and died there in 1703.  This John was probably born in England, as six branches of our 9 branch family have the same oral tale, that the first Harrison in Ireland was born in England, came to Ireland under Cromwell.  The end of short oral tale.   

If you think your Eliza Jane Harrison was related to these Cootehill Harrisons (of mine), I would be interested in knowing, please.  Thank you.  I do not see McKeogh in my tree, but do see McGeoh in Armagh and McKeown, and MCCoy, probably not what you are seeking.  Which spellings have you seen for the name you have?  Thank you.  We have three to four Eliza Janes in our Harrison family.  But your Eliza Jane Harrison might have been named for her mother's family, given the Irish naming tradition followed by my Harrisons.

In sum, my family had a James Harrison of Cootehill and his family were of Cootehill no earlier than he himself and my guess is he was born over in County Monaghan in about 1770.  The Canadian descendants of James Harrison (but not by his son Edward) called their hometown "Monaghan Goire" which means near Monaghan, in this case near the county of Monaghan.  One descendant searched maps for Monaghan Goire, so I write here that it was Cootehill, County Cavan, where all of James's children were born.  I hope this is your (Presbyterian) family, otherwise, I have written off topic.

(The research on the Cootehill Harrisons, was done by the late Elizabeth Chadwick Stanford.  The research on Edward was done by S, living.)  Good luck with your Harrison ancestor, Eliza Jane Harrison.

Polly LYNN

The following Harrisons were born at Acle, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England.  Who was the father of each and your source for knowing?
1.  Daniel Harrison (born about 1826, died after 1881 census), son of ?
2.  James Harrison (born about 1835, died after 1881 census), son of ?  married Mary A.
3.  father of Emma (b. 1861) and Walter (b. 1874). 
4.  Thomas Harrison (born about 1846, died after 1881 census)
5.  father of James Beckett Harrison (born around 1849) and Ann Jane Harrison (born about 1838)
6.  father of William H. Harrison (born about 1842) and Julianna (born about 1845)
7.  Samuel Harrison (born about 1849)
8.  Walter J. Harrison (born about 1857)
9.  Robert W. Harrison (born about 1854, died ?)

THANK YOU!

I finally have a question.  I am so excited to ask it I can't sleep. 

In baptismal records throughout Norfolk, but especially among the Harrisons of Great Plumstead, Great Yarmouth, and Caister, I am seeking these two babies, Isaiah and John, the uncle of Isaiah. 

1. Isaiah Harrison, said to have been born 1666.
The 1666 comes from an erroneous assumption that we can ignore.
I think the latest he could have been born was 1667.  The earliest was late 1650s, all of the 1660s. 
At the regular age, so about age 14?, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith and became a very skilled one.  (That he was highly skilled may be an exaggeration by enthusiastic descendants.)
In about 1687 he went to America, specifically Oyster Bay, now Nassau County, Long Island, New York colony.
His eldest known son was--unfortunately for discovering his father--Isaiah Harrison [Jr.].  Other sons all born in New York were John, Gideon, Thomas, Jeremiah, and Samuel.  Three of these are obviously straight from that day's church sermon: Isaiah, Gideon, and Jeremiah.  The rest are names used a lot in the families f his relatives: John, Thomas, and Samuel.  I am surprised not to see a James among them, also commonly used by his cousins.
Thus we are looking for an Isaiah born in Norfolk who was not buried in Norfolk.  His descendants were in the colony of Virginia.
Descendants in the 1700s were all manner of Protestants, even marrying a Quaker.  In the 1500s early 1600s in Norfolk they could have been Church of England, though almost no descendants were.  (Out of 3,000 descendants, about four were C. of I. or Episcopalian.)
If you google Isaiah Harrison, please ignore any suggestion he was the son of the Reverend Thomas Harrison of Chester and York and Dublin.  I have shown this to be wrong, lots of reasons wrong.  Isaiah was no born in Chester either.  He was instead from a Norfolk family.

2.  John Harrison was uncle of Isaiah (b. 1660s).  I am guessing at his first name, as there was a John Harrison in the next generation and a handful of them in the third generation.  Name could have been James, I suppose. 
John Harrison was a young adult in 1649-1650.
We are looking for a John Harrison born about 1630 (latest 1632, earliest 1620s) who was born in Norfolk. 
"Under Cromwell"--so I am thinking 1649-1650--John Harrison went to Ireland.  (I am told Cromwell sent troops to Ireland before 1649 to put down the 1640 or 1641 rebellion.)  I shall add, "never to return to England."  That is he would have been buried in Ireland, not Norfolk.  His descendants were/are in Ireland.  I don't know that he was a soldier.
DNA testing helps me show that Isaiah and John's sons were not brothers, but first or second cousins.  I have ruled out scone cousins. So Isaiah and John were nephew and uncle. 
No known apprenticeship here, though descendants 200 years later include carpenters.
The Irish Harrisons were tenant farmers with 10 to 40 acres.  It may simply be Irish history, but out of 84 farms in the family, almost all were cattle or dairy farms, some with Herefords for meat or Holsteins for milk. 
The Irish Harrisons were Presbyterian and conservative (rarely breaking off), though they could have become Presb. after England, say in 1685-1703 in Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland.  Eventually in the 1800s some were Methodist. 

This family has distinctive hair.  The Harrison males have hair that is black and wavy OR red and wavy.  The Harrison men have a hairline that I can recognize, but find hard to describe here.  I is a lowercase n, meaning high forehead.  Not bald, with hair on (top, sort of), back and sides.  The Harrisons have twins every so often. 

THANK YOU!