The 'Stafford' O'Neills of Rocktown / Ballymacpeake

[M_ONeill]

Hi Annie, great to hear from you, there seems to be a small but growing group of us now!

I haven't done my DNA but the cousin I mentioned before has done Ancestry DNA - it has suggested to him one match in this line, a lady living in Austrailia, a 6th to 8th cousin. He has sent her a message but as of yet no response. From what Ancestry showed us of her tree she seemed to have some connection to the Dawson family - another well known local family (after whom the nearby town 'Castledawson' is named). The Dawsons were known to have married into the Downing family of Rowesgift.

I'm also in contact with some O'Neills in New Zealand who descend from the 'Ballymacpeake' Stafford-O'Neills. I'm not sure if they have done their DNA. If you like, I can get in touch with them and ask if they'd be happy to share contact details with you!

Now that I look through some of this thread again, I find myself wondering if it's pure co-incidence that both James O'Neill in Dreenan and Hugh O'Neill in Dungiven were grocers. I also wonder about religion being the cause of Hugh and Mary Irons' clandestine marriage. Other O'Neills in Rocktown and Dreenan seem to have married women from Protestant families yet stayed put - again, I feel like there's a story there yet to be uncovered.

[grannypammy]

Hello M
Thank you for your informative reply, you certainly have our Dungiven O'Neill's well researched and you have given me great inspiration to move forward as to where the family could have ended up after Hugh O'Neill 1899 moved to Dungiven..
Hugh O'Neill may have move out of his rented home on Main Street Dungiven 1872 to move in with his son John and lived with him until he died in 1880 ..It stated on Hugh's death record that his son John was present at his death..Interestingly you mention Patrick Kealey taking over Hugh's old home place, which may have been Hugh's daughter in laws father who was also Patrick Kealey..The old place still remains the in O'Neill name to this day on Main Street, Dungiven..We had until recently owned 2 houses beside other on Main Street which may have been the old Kealey home inherited by my gg grandmother Catherine Kealey and handed to one of her sons.
 
On to Mary Irons Ardnariff, Bovevagh/Boveva, Kennaught, and how she may have met my ggg grandfather Hugh O'Neill Rocktown..If you check out records for Ardnariff you will find several O'Neill families living there in the early 1800s with lots of different variations of the spelling O'Neill..It might have been Hugh already had O'Neill family in the Bovevagh area and met Mary Irons...I have found no other children born to Hugh and Mary other than John in fact I can find nothing else regarding Mary Irons either so I assume Mary died very young ..Hugh's grandson Hugh born 1867  referred to his grandfather in his will and left money for a headstone to be erected on his grave but no mention of his grandmother Mary so possibly he never knew her  ..
Ballinascreen and Dungiven records were held by a R.C priest who was moved from Dungiven to Ballinascreen and used the same book to make his records but he does give good accounts of the address for each record he made ..There is no doubt Hugh O'Neill may have had O'Neill relatives in Draperstown I have came across them in my research but there was no mention of them by my grandfather or his brothers they only talked about the Rocktown connection ..
In a general O'Neill search on Irish Genealogy ie I have discovered several O'Neill bachelors and spinstors  from Bovevagh that died of old age in the workhouse in Limavady..
So after reading your post you have me thinking that possibly the O'Neill Bovevagh connection just died out ..My grandfather had 14 O'Neills so the name lives on through Hugh from Rocktown in Dungiven

[anneannielouise]

I'd be very interested in connecting with anyone from this line that has done their DNA for sure thanks.

[M_ONeill]

Hi Anne, I've sent you a PM with my cousin's email address. He says you're more than welcome to get in touch. 

I've been continuing to dig into the records to see if I can find any confirmation of Hugh's connection with Rocktown, but I've yet to come up with something concrete. There is another Hugh O'Neill in Ballymacpeake, born in 1866 to Stafford (possibly 'James Stafford') O'Neill and Cecily O'Neill who were married in 1853; Hugh later emigrated to New York State in  and married a Johanna Dillon in 1904. Stafford was born c.1825, parents currently unknown.

I'm trying to figure out where Hugh could fit into the O'Neills of Rocktown/Dreenan/Ballymacpeake - and although there aren't very many records prior to 1830, I can't help but feel there's enough seemingly-related O'Neills here that some kind of connection *may* be possible to determine.

[anneannielouise]

It is close enough to Rocktown. I was just looking again at the 1831 census there and the Lavey church records but they do not help that much!

[M_ONeill]

I suppose it depends whether Hugh continued to have an active link with the Rocktown O'Neills after his marriage to Mary Irons. If not, he might not appear in the 1830's-onwards records, but if he *did* then his name might make an appearance, for example as a sponsor for baptisms or a witness for marriages.

One tip based on my own research; when looking at early church records for the area, it's worth searching for 'Termoneeny' which was another, older name for the parish. 'Greenlough' is another place it's worth searching in - it's another nearby parish and prior to the construction of the R.C. church at Lavey it seems a lot of local O'Neills were baptised/married there, especially the Ballymacpeake Stafford-O'Neills.

Regarding Hugh's son John, what do you know about him? Who did he marry and where? It might be worth trying to widen the search and pick up on other details. Same with Mary Irons, where did she come from? Bear in mind that if she wasn't a Catholic prior to her marriage, she may be recorded in church records, dependent on her prior denomination.

[anneannielouise]

John married Catherine Kealey in St Patrick's Dungiven and there are plenty of records around for the family and DNA connections too. He was a grocer/butcher too with a home on Main street, Dungiven as well as a farmer. If you send me your email I'll add you to my family tree at ancestry.

[M_ONeill]

Email address Sent!

It might be worth checking to see if the Kealey's also have some kind of Rocktown connection - the O'Neills in and around the area seem to have married within a fairly small, yet very close knit network of families. Of course, if Hugh had effectively broken away from the family that might not hold true for his children in Dungiven.

[anneannielouise]

Our Kealeys of Killerfaith may have some connection to the McGraths/McGras who are family to the McAnally/Campbells of Tyrone/Antrm.  Roseanne Campbell Kealey came from Tyrone  and seems to have O'Neill family over there too, with an O'Neill birth sponsor, so it may well be that those O'Neills are the same as the Rocktown ones or, as is equally likely, we have more than one set of O'Neills in our Ancestry. We have DNA O'Neill cousins that seem to come from Wexford (that are dna linked to 4 of us descendants of John and Catherine Kealey O'Neill). Have a look at my tree. I have certainly looked at the possibility that all of these families have Bellaghy/Maghera/Magherafelt/Cookstown/Coalisland and even Rocktown connections. Quite a web!!