Luke Finn & family

[RobB]

Hi
I am trying to trace any living members of the Luke Finn family
Luke was born in the mid 1860's in Loughglynn, his father was Edward, mother unsure (posibly Mary or Maria)
Luke married Mary Barlow (my great grand Aunt) in 1895 in Loughglynn. they had 4 children, Mary Ellen b1896, Bridget b1898, Margaret 1902, & John 1904, all from the family farm in Cloontawart,
I am almost sure that Bridget & John went to live in the USA in 1920 & 1922, to New York,
any info on these people is most grateful
Regards
Rob Barlow
www.barlowfamilytree.co.uk

[efinn]

Hi
I am trying to trace any living members of the Luke Finn family
Luke was born in the mid 1860's in Loughglynn, his father was Edward, mother unsure (posibly Mary or Maria)

Hi Rob,
Well, needless to say I have been tracking the movements of many Finns in your area of interest. Although the vast majority of the Finns I have acquired data on, have been known to be in my Finn ancestry. This being said, there are many records that I have accumulated that I have not identified as being related to me.

The one piece of information that I will pass along to you is the following. I have made two trips to Ireland and visited my old Finn homestead and have spoken to many of the locals in the area. The one consistent piece of information that I obtained from the locals is that there appears to be two distinct Finn lines in the area that you and I are interested in. One line is commonly referred to as the "Buckhill" Finns and the other line (mine) is referred to as the "Lisduff" Finns. The point that I find most perplexing is that the locals claim that the two lines are NOT related.

I find this local statement that the two lines are not related to be a little difficult to deal with. If you visit the map collection on this site, you will see that Buckhill and Lisduff are adjoining townlands and keep in mind that you generally define the size of a townland in "acres" which means these two Finn families were in each other's "backyard" so to speak. I just have a hard time believing that these two unrelated Finn lines sprung up right next to each other and have no common connections linking them together. Perhaps my issue is that I want there to be a connection!

Anyway, some additionally input regarding the "Buckhill" Finns is that a very common given name in that line is Martin. The interesting thing with that statement is that the given name Martin does not show up anywhere in my "Lisduff" Finns...maybe the locals are right...time will tell.

Most of the records that Ed Gaffney has provided in his post, I also have in my archives and needless to say, I have had my eye on the Edward Finn/Mary Loftus connection for many years, but have been unable to find a connection back to my Finns.

For the rest of my comments, you might want to go to my personal genealogy home page and view my pedigree tree.
http://www.thecore.com/efinn/gene/gene1.html

If I were to make an assumption that your Edward Finn was approximately 30 years old (plus or minus) at the time of Catherine's birth, then we would be looking at Edward's birth as being somewhere around 1829. The oldest member of my tree that I have found data on is my great-great-grandfather Michael Finn who was married to Margaret Callaghan. They had a son Edward Finn who was born 1824, however that son married Honora Sharkey so we don't have a match there. It is my belief that Michael Finn is the only one in my direct line that was in an age group that could have been the father of your Edward and that is not looking like a possibility based on my present data.

Based on the above assumption regarding the birth date for your Edward Finn, I checked my extensive listing of Finn Baptisms that was collected directly from the church records in the archives of Dublin. I am surprised to find that the only one listed in that immediate time period is my Edward Finn born to Michael. The next closest Edward baptism recorded is for an Edmond in 1819. http://www.thecore.com/efinn/gene/PAR_B.html Now, assuming that I didn't miss any, I would think that there is a strong possibility that the listed parents (Patrick Fin and Maria McCan) just might be your line. If this is the case, I then have to wonder if this Patrick Fin could have been a brother to my Michael Finn (who also had his first son born in 1819 (see two lines above Edmund). Genealogy always presents so many questions and so few answers.

I have searched other resources and have been unable to find any additional information on my Michael priror to finding the birth records of his children. Michael shows up in the Tithe Apploment Book which puts him in the area in 1825. However, a review of the Elphin Census does not provide any possitive clues of there being any Finns in the area of Tibohin in 1749...so where did they come from!!! As always, more questions.

I'm left with many unansered questions regarding my Michael. Did he have any brothers? If yes, could they be the beginning of the "Buckhill" Finns? Where was Michael born? Who were his parents?

I'm not sure if any of the above sheds any new light on your research, but as we both go forward (or should I say backward) with our research, I believe we should stay in touch as we are digging in the same soil.

Ed Finn

[RobB]

Hi Ed
Thanks for your reply,
Well like you said more questions than answers?
As we have no info on Michael Finn's brothers & sisters the we can assume there is a connction there, whether Michael is the connection or the previous generation, we may never know.
But they did have large families in those day's and the chance's of Micheal having brothers & sisters are highly probable, & Patrick being one of those siblings is a good possibilty.
The name Martin has not thus far been mentioned in my line but i don't have to much info at the moment.
As far as Luke goes the name is certainly mention in your line too, and I don't think Luke/Lucas was a very common name in Ireland at that time,
I have my Luke finn marriage details:
Names : Luke Finn (30) & Mary Barlow (18)
Place: Lisacul R/C Church
Proffesion: Farmer
Residence at time of Marriage: Luke - Cloontawart, Mary - Derry
Fathers name Edward Finn, John Barlow
Profesion of father : both farmers
Mothers name: not given
Witnesses Edward Doherty & Eleanor Healy
Ceremony by Fr Peter Filan
Date 12 feb 1895
Thats the only info i have on luke, I took his mothers name Maria Loftus, from your web site at the Core, but that was only guess work from a process of elimination. I have the 1901 & 1911 census, so i have their children and i know at least 2 of Luke's children went to the US
Margaret arrived in 1923 to visit an Aunt Ellen Neafsey in New York & Bridget in 1920 visiting the same person although on the immigration records they are spelt differently it most likely is the same person, but as i am writing this email i have found a John Finn arriving in New York in 1922 visiting a sister Mary Finn, who had arrive in 1916 to visit an Uncle John Finn in Phillidelpfia, enough for now only so much info one can take in?
Lets hope we can find some concrete evidance for us both
Take care
Rob