In the past few months I have received several extremely helpful pieces of information on the Kingston family from readers of the Dufferin Co., Ont. board, as well as helpful information from the Dufferin Co web site.

As a result, I have been able to pull together a much more detailed and accurate picture of my father's family than we have ever had before. To return the favor I would like to direct anyone who has an interest in these same families to the web sites where I have posted the tree.

The tree is called "Kingston-Carroll" and it has been put up on www.ancestry.com and www.gencircles.com.

The Kingston, Holleran and Callaghan familes were Irish Roman Catholics who arrived around the midpoint of the 19th century in Melancthon twp of then Grey Co. After that they intermarried and moved to other parts of Ontario: Samuel Kingston to Welland Co. for example), and his brother John (b. 1839, Co. Cork, Ire.) and his wife Julia Holleran (b. 1844, Ire.)came to Erie Co. where they have many descendents, especially around Elma, Wales, East Aurora and Buffalo.

Please feel free to use this tree to aid your own research, and as usual so much new information as I have recently found brings many new questions. If you have data on the following persons, beyond what I have already, I would be very pleased to receive it - as well as anything pertaining to the Erie Co. branch:

1. Paul Kingston (b. 1847, Ireland) and sister, Ellen (b. 1857, Ont.), children of Paul and Mary Kelly Kingston of Ireland & Melancthon. I have nothing other than their early census entries with their parents, though Ellen lived to at least her early 20's.

2. Patrick Holleran (b. 1835, Ireland, son of John and Margaret Ryan Holleran). He left Melancthon and was in Stisted & McMurrich, Muskoka w. wife and kids for the 1881 census. Then I lose the entire family.

3. John Holleran (b. 1838, Ireland, another son of John and Margaret.) I cannot find marriage, census or death records for him after the mid-1860s.

3. Jane Kingston Callaghan (b. 1849, dau. of Paul and Mary as above, sd. she was born in Timoleague, Co. Cork in an early 20th cent. border crossing doc.) She and at least two of her children by Bernard Callaghan (b. 1839, Ireland, also of Melancthon) seem to have been living in Buffalo around 1913-1916, though I cannot find them in the 1920 or 1930 U.S. censuses.

Any leads would be appreciated, and I hope the tree as it is at present will be helpful to others.

Jack

Have you been able to use land records to narrow down where Paul Kingston (who married Mary Kelly) might have lived? I have found with my own Kingstons that I really have to find what townlands they lived in so I can figure out who was related to whom. They did move around occasionally, which makes even using townland information a challenge. I am now focusing on Meenies (townland spelled this way on vital records)or Moyny East (townland spelled that way on land records). My gggrandfather was Paul Kingston, born c1800. I do not know the name of his wife. Their daughter Mary was my ggrandmother by a 2nd marriage.

From what I have seen on the net, this area is one of the very few that does not have its records available for searching through a regional center on the net. Therefore, I haven't seen the land records.

However, the following posting was made some time ago in a group on Ancestry.com (you may well have been part of the discussion.)

"Mary Kelly was one of the Kellys of Lower Moyny (Meenies), Drimoleague, and Paul Kingston was one of the many Kingstons from the same area. The familys are still in the same area.

The Baptism record for John is 22-July-1839, sponsors John Kelly and Mary Kingston.

The Baptism for Sam is 24-Sep-1836, sponsors John Kelly and Kate Kelly.

A Mary and Jane also in 1835 and 1841 resp."

joekelly, Kingston message board of Ancestry.Com, "Kingston - Drimoleague" thread, 06 December 2002

The Paul Kingston (and Mary Kelly) Joe Kelly referred to are clearly my great grandparents.

However, lacking any way to verify the baptismal information he has given, I have only included those children on my tree that I have been able to find data on myself. Thus, I have left the Mary and the Jane he refers to off of the tree for the time being.

John, Samuel and Jane emigrated from Ireland, but the Jane that I have (b. 1849) was born later than the one Joe Kelly referred to. Given the duplication of names, I have assumed that Jane #1 died as an infant.

The Mary Kingston, who is your ancestor, is she the Mary Kingston he refers to b.1835?

Given that Mr. Kelly's info duplicates almost all of what I have found on my own I am certain that these are the same family. However, there is one fly in the ointment. Jane stated in a border crossing document that she was born in Timoleague, not Drimoleague. Of course the family may have moved from the former to the latter place before emigration, but that's the sort of detail I'd like to straighten out.

Jack

Jan,

Sorry, I meant to say that this Paul and Mary are my great, great grandparents.

Jack

Jack, let me see if I can address your comments. Perhaps I should say first that the Mary Kelly who married Paul Kingston is not my Mary Kingston. I am trying to find the common ancestor for five families - all cousins. Most of these families emigrated from the Drimoleague area to Somersworth, New Hampshire, with one in nearby Rochester,NH, and one family in the Barre/Northfield, VT, area. It is likely they originated in Meenies (probably Moyny East). My own direct line is causing me the greatest problem for two reasons: (1) when my ggrandmother Mary Kingston married Maurice Mahony in the RC parish of Drimoleague in 1870, it was a 2nd marriage for both of them, so I have no definite information on Mary's first marriage. (2) My grandmother told her children that her mother, Mary Kingston, was raised a Protestant and that when she married a Catholic, she was disowned by her family. (A C. of I. priest told me this was not uncommon). I don't know whether it was Mary's first husband or 2nd husband who was the Catholic. I found what I believe are Mary's three sons by a Florence McCarthy in Drimoleague RC church records. I cannot prove this is my Mary because I cannot find the marriage record, but because Florence and Mary's son, who lived in Somersworth where my grandmother lived, was a half-relative, it makes sense that the marriage to Florence McCarthy was probably Mary's first marriage. Mary's father was Paul, but I don't know the name of Mary's mother. It is likely that Paul Kingston, my gggrandfather, was a brother to Sam Kingston who married Margaret Sullivan (formerly married to Gow)and Ellen Kingston who married Jeremiah Daly. I think that Sam and Ellen raised their children Catholic because they married Catholics (Sullivan and Daly).

As for records being online, you are right, but I travel to Dublin periodically and transcribe records from parish registers at the National Library. I don't happen to have all of the records for Paul Kingston and Mary Kelly, but if you would like to confirm the record of Mary who was baptized in 1835, I happen to have that: On Jan 12, 1835,
Mary Kingston, daughter of Paul Kingston and Mary Kelly was baptized in the RC parish of Drimoleague. Sponsors were John and Catherine Kelly. Residence: Moines

You mentioned that your Jane, born in 1849, is probably different from the one that Joe Kelly has. That is not necessarily so as it was very common for emigrants to declare a younger age when they emigrated. It could well be the same Jane. You would have to look through filmed church records in Dublin to check out both Janes. The Skibbereen Heritage Center is now transcribing Drimoleague records so you might want to check them out. If you have a few extra pennies to spare, you could check on your records. (Not only did Irish emigrants not always know their date of birth, but some of them changed their age for various reasons. I had a great-aunt who told her family she did not want to be "put out to pasture" when she was older so she made herself much younger than she was, but she really knew her correct year of birth.)

As for land records, Griffith's is now online, and if you are not able to travel to Ireland to look at filmed land records, you can order them from a Family History Center. I use Tenure and House Books to find who leased a particular plot just before Griffith's. I use the Tithe Applotment Books (Often in the 1820's and 1830's) to see who leased the land at that time. They are not numbered in the same way as Griffith's so it is difficult to know who the predecessor of a person leasing at the time of Griffith's is if the person was no longer living when Griffith's was published. (And the Mormons did not film all of the Tithes. There are certain libraries that have them - e.g., Boston Public Library and Boston College for my area). You can use Cancelled Land records (Cancellation Books) to follow who leased land after Griffith's. My email address is janfortado@comcast.net if you would like to email me directly. Jan