JOHN HILLIS of Co MONAGHAN

[davidP]

Can anyone give me information about a family called Hillis living in Co Monaghan about turn of 18th Cent. They were probably living close to the border with Co Armagh

A son John Hillis was probably born between 1820 and 1830 and was still alive in 1858 when he was named as executor of my GGGGf's will

[Christopher]

Hello davidP,

The online extracts of Griffith's Valuation for Co. Monaghan 1858-60 lists five people with the surname Hillis. Three of them were in the Parish of Clontibret and two in Ballybay.

Ballybay
James Hillis, Carragh 
David Hillis, Drumgarra 

Clontibret
William Hillis, Cordevlis 
Robert Hillis, Cordevlis 
James Hillis, Cordevlis 

BTW you aren't related to a family by the name of Hillis in Belfast are you

Chris

[rcgustafson]

Greetings,

I am looking for information on James Hillis, of Corrush, possibly one of the two James Hillis mentioned in a previous post.  His son, Richard, was born 1814 and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1833.  Richard is my GGGrandfather.  I believe James was married to Nancy McCrea and James' father was supposedly Nathaniel Hillis, married to Catherine Bell.  I have read that several generations of these Hillis folks lived on a farm at Corrush, near Clontibret and died there.

Thanks for any assistance.

Richard Gustafson

[Sinann]

Welcome to RootsChat.
The dates you are searching for are quite early for Irish records but there is Hillis listed in the Applotment books dated 1830 in Currushe.
You can have a look here
http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp

[rcgustafson]

Thanks for that information.  I was unsuccessful in a search for James Hillis but successful in searching the abbreviated form, Jas. 

What is odd is that Corrush (or Corrushe) does not show up on any list or map as a townland, even after a perusal of the 1861 and 1901 townland lists.  I cannot locate a place named Corrush, though it must be in the parish of Clontibret.  It doesn't show up on google maps either and there are only a handful of references on a general google search, none of which lead to a fixed location.  Can anyone help?

[Sinann]

Search just using Hillis without a first name there is quite a few results.

Using the OSI Mapviewer Corrush is listed but doesn't appear to be marked on the map.
http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/

Using search ( just under Buy Map) than By County, choose Monaghan, than Locality find Corrush and click search.
It will bring you to a spot in the Townland of Cordevlis.
A William and a James Hillis live in Cordevlis in 1861 according to Griffiths Valuation.
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=nameSearch

[Sinann]

Corrush is also on Hillis headstones see number 043 and 044 could be more there as well http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/photos/tombstones/1headstones/ballybay-2presby.txt

[hallmark]

Images here  http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/photos/tombstones/monaghan-ballybay-2presby/target40.html

Long time since I looked at those photos!
Dave Hall

[hallmark]

http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/photos/tombstones/monaghan-ballybay-2presby/index.html gets you all the g/stone photos there.