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Dear dtemple,

Please reply on this forum if you're still interested in your Armstrong and Booth ancestors who emigrated from Ireland to Quebec and Vermont. Several of us have a great deal of information on Robert Armstrong and Ann Booth, and we'd be glad to exchange information with you.

You described a letter written by descendant Effie Mosgrove. That's an important document that I hope you can share with other Armstrong researchers.

Another Armstrong-Booth descendant posted on RootsChat in 2011 (the post that you replied to): <<There also is a document that has circulated the Armstrong family stating the family sailed from Sligo on April 17th 1823 and that they came from the county of "Lathram" and town of "Drumsharribo". I have no idea how accurate this document is or who even wrote it.>>

This is another very important family document that I hope is shared one day by someone!

There's a lot of misinformation posted on-line about Robert Armstrong and Ann Booth. For example -- Robert Armstrong's birth date and place is inaccurately posted in MANY on-line trees, and currently on Findagrave, as "30 Aug 1777 Whalton, Northumberland Unitary Authority, Northumberland, England."

That's not the birth date and place of the Robert Armstrong who married Ann Booth and emigrated from Ireland to Quebec and then settled in Vermont, where he died in January 1850.

According to his obelisk tombstone (erected years after his death by his son Alexander), Robert was age 72 and 5 months when he died January 30, 1850, so he was born in 1777. The exact age calculation of his birth date is August 30, 1777, but the "5 months" may have been an age estimate and not an absolute. People in previous generations weren't as date/calendar oriented as we are today, and often didn't know their exact birth dates. Children often didn't know their parents' exact birth dates, either, as we'd need to consider for that tombstone inscription being correct or not.

The U.S. Mortality Schedule has Robert Armstrong's death in January 1850 at age 72. The death date fits the tombstone inscription (month and year), and indicates a birth year of 1777-1778. Since Robert's wife Ann had already died in 1849, one or more of his children would have given his age information to the census official.

The Robert Armstrong who was naturalized in Vermont in 1843 was age 66, which fits this same man (born about 1777).

His son Robert Jr., naturalized in 1850 in Vermont, said that he was a native of "Latham County, Ireland" which researchers reasonably interpret to be County Leitrim, Ireland. Robert Jr. also said he had arrived in the U.S. in 1835. That's not "emigrated from Ireland," but arrived in the United States, and from Canadian records we know these Armstrongs were in Quebec before moving to Vermont.

The father Robert Armstrong, as sources indicate, was living with his family in County Leitrim when his son Robert was born about 1816. Presumably that's where this family lived for decades, and possibly for generations. Further research in Irish records may reveal additional data.

Robert Armstrong Sr. and wife Ann Booth were married by about 1803, judging by the birth dates of their known children.

There's another inaccurate "fact" given in many on-line trees about Robert Armstrong and Ann Booth. Ann is called "Ann Lattimore Booth" and/or "Ann Lattimore." Tree compilers have unfortunately followed Ancestry's "Hints" and pasted a marriage into their trees without checking it at all. And, without using common sense!

English records show that a Robert Armstrong married an Ann Lattimore on 17 July 1824 at Morpeth, Northumberland, England. That's simply a marriage record for a man who happens to have the same name as the Robert Armstrong who emigrated to Quebec and then Vermont.

The couple who married in 1824 in England is NOT the couple who married before about 1803, lived in County Leitrim, Ireland, and emigrated to Quebec with their children in the 1820s.

The surname Lattimore isn't associated with this family in any records. Several of Robert and Ann's children's death records give their parents' names as Robert Armstrong and Ann Booth (or Robert Armstrong and unknown wife Booth). The obelisk tombstone for Robert and Ann gives her name as Ann Booth, "Wife of Robert Armstrong." In the 1829 baptism of their daughter Mary Ann in Quebec, she's "Mary Ann, daughter of Robert Armstrong of this Seigniory, Mechanic, and his wife Ann Booth."

These and many other source records will help anyone researching Robert Armstrong and Ann Booth. Please LOOK for sources, and don't just copy-and-paste so that you end up with thousands of people in your tree. It's not an accurate family tree with that kind of compilation, it's just names and dates on a page.

Annie
(a descendant of the Armstrongs of Crosscavanagh, in Pomeroy & Donaghmore parishes, County Tyrone, Ireland)

From PRONI's Guide to Church Records - here is the listing for St. Matthews Church of Ireland, Errigal Keerogue parish (located in Ballygawley village). If one or more of your ancestors is interred at St. Matthews grave yard, you may find burial entries for them in these church records. If you find ANY Liggetts in St. Matthews church records (baptisms, marriages, burials), I'd make a note of those for future reference, even if you don't recognize that they fit into your ancestor's family.

ERRIGAL KEEROGUE, CO. TYRONE C.I. Errigal Keerogue (Armagh diocese)

On microfilm and viewable at PRONI:
Baptisms, 1812-1998; marriages, 1825-1994; burials, 1817-1998; confirmations, 1843-9, 1851-63 and 1870-97; vestry minutes, 1757 and 1829-1941; banns, 1819-21; preachers’ books, 1845-75; register of vestrymen, 1870-9; Sunday School roll books, 1849-73 and 1895-1969; Temperance Society minutes, 1892-1908.

In local custody: Vestry minutes, 1942-; preachers’ books, 1876-. MIC1/2; CR/1/70

I think you're confusing some of these Ulster place names. You'd really understand more about your ancestors' families and their lives if you know what places were where.

You wrote: <<At least two of Joseph & Margaret's children were baptised at Carnteel Presbyterian Church, Clogher in 1821 and 1823 respectively, so I guess that is another church/graveyard to look at.>>

"Carnteel" is a parish and "Clogher" is a parish. There is no "Carnteel Presbyterian Church, Clogher." The Presbyterian Church you're referring to would be Aughnacloy, with records beginning in 1812. The local burial ground is St. James Church of Ireland cemetery, also in Aughnacloy. All denominations could be interred there, not just Church of Ireland members.

Why don't you share more of what you've found on the 4 identified/proven children of Joseph and Margaret Liggett whom you described? Didn't the 2 children's baptism entries of 1821 and 1823 give the father's/parents' residence at the time? My Haddens and other families baptising at that church in the 'teens and 'twenties of the 19th century included the father's name and residence for most baptisms. Was each child listed as a child of Joseph Leggett/Liggett (of one spelling or another) with residence at Keady or another location?

Keady, by the way, is a townland in Errigal Keerogue parish. It's a short distance southwest of Ballygawley village, and close to the ancient townland (and church and burial grounds) of Ballynasaggart. Kenneth Allen has posted some LOVELY photos of the Ballynasaggart church and area on geograph.ie.

I assume one son of your ancestor Joseph Liggett is William Leggett/Liggett who married Margaret Crawford in 1847 at St. Michael's, Toxteth (Lancashire, England). William was a "Joiner" and he told the clerk that his father was Joseph Leggett, also a joiner. Dozens of people have this William in their trees as a son of Joseph Liggett of County Tyrone. I haven't explored the relationship further -- Liggetts are a collateral family to my direct ancestors and I haven't traced them in-depth. However, a joiner is a highly skilled woodworker/carpenter, and this could be a man who didn't farm at all; he made his living with a workshop and not with farm land. So, was the Joseph Liggett who was a "farmer" the same man as Joseph who was a "joiner"? Needs to be researched and clarified!

John Liggett who married Eliza Wallace at Minterburn Presbyterian Church in 1872 was a widower, a farmer, and a resident of Derrycreevy; he said that his father was Joseph Liggett, farmer. John's previous wife was apparently Margaret McElroy whom he married in 1865 (in Clogherny parish), as you noted. On that 1865 marriage record, John's residence was written something like "Derrygreavney, parish of Aughaloo" (probably a clerk's error for "Derrycreevy" and in the wrong parish, as well); his father was recorded as Joseph Liggett, farmer.

There are 3 townlands called Derrycreevy (of one spelling or another) in Clonfeacle parish, County Tyrone.

There was only one Liggett/Leggett of any spelling in Carnteel parish in the Tithe Applotments (1820s-1830s). There were 3 men of that surname counted in Aghaloo parish, 3 in Errigal Keerogue parish (all at Keady) and 4 in Clogher parish.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation three decades later, more Liggetts appear -- including "James" in Derrycreevy, Carnteel parish, and a James and an Elizabeth in Keady, Errigal Keerogue parish.

Back to sources that give information about your ancestor Joseph Liggett: you said you wanted to "try and confirm his marriage details on 11 Oct 1816 to Margaret Robinson." Where did you FIRST find that name as his wife and marriage date? I see it's repeated in dozens of on-line trees, but not a single one has a source for those "facts." Tracing that supposed marriage to its origins in family stories or a bible record or whatever source should be an important part of your research.

I highly recommend John Grenham's web site for excellent research sources, and the IreAtlas townlands database. Also PRONI's Guide to Church Records (downloadable as a .PDF on the PRONI web site) and Brian Mitchell's "A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland," as well as the Irish townlands database already posted in a reply to you by another researcher. Maps are a GREAT help in understanding townlands, villages, poor law unions, and parishes.

Glad to help further if you need it --

Regards,
Annie

Your Liggetts seem to have emigrated to Australia, but apparently Joseph Liggett (the father) returned to Ireland within a few years, since you found his 1870 death record at Derrycreevy. Or was the Joseph Liggett in Australia a different and younger man, perhaps a son of Joseph who died in 1870 at age 83? These aren't my ancestors but I have other Liggett relatives in County Tyrone.

"South Australian Register" newspaper

October 24 1856 - Married on the 14th inst., at Fair View Farm, by the Rev. Robert Haining, Mr. John Marrett, of Altamira Farm, Upper Dry Creek, to MISS MARTHA LIGGETT, third daughter of MR. JOSEPH LIGGETT, Derrycreevy, County Tyrone, Ireland.

August 7 1858 - Married on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at Salisbury, by the Rev. Mr. Boake, Arthur Russell, formerly of Wiltshire, England, to MARGARET, eldest daughter of JOSEPH LIGGETT, Fair River, Dry Creek, formerly of County Tyrone, Ireland.

"Londonderry Sentinel" newspaper (Ireland)

November 26 1858 - Married August 4, at Salisbury, South Australia, Mr. Arthur Russell, formerly of Wiltshire, to MARGARET, eldest daughter of MR. J. LIGGET, formerly of Tyrone.