Hare/O'Hare in Armagh Ireland

My Grandmother Hawkins was 4th generation Californian when she married my grandfather Hawkins and moved to West Virginia.  Her name before she married was Mary Ann McGregor.  And her family folklore was as romantic as her name.

Her parents were James McGregor and Helen McKinsey.  Today's blog post is about her McGregor side of her family.  James McGregor was the son of Robert McGregor and Mary Ann Hare.  It is not actually the McGregor side that I am talking about, but instead it is her mother's family:  Hare.
I found Mary Ann Hare's maiden name spelled differently in various documents in California.  I decided on this spelling of her name because the website Irish Times shows 42 Hares in Armagh County and NO Hair families.  It also says that there were no O'Hair households in Griffith's Valuation.  There were 120 O'Hares in Armagh in mid 1800s.  Down had 312.  So almost for sure Mary Ann was either Hare or O'Hare.

On the death certificate for Mary Ann Hare's son, James McGregor, the maiden name of his mother is typed in as Mary Ann Hare with birthplace of Ireland.  The information is given by his sister, Anna A. McGregor who is as likely to have known her mother's maiden name as anyone.

I have recently heard from another researcher in Ireland who sent me the following:

Hi, I'm looking for a William Hare/O'Hare born in the Parish of Ballymore, location Aghantaraghan, circa 1792 and died circa 1852 in the Kilkeel workhouse in County Down. Most people know him as William Hare but there is a strong chance he was born as William O'Hare, in 1830 there was a Michael Hare and a Owen O'Hare in the Parish of Ballymore, location Aghantaraghan.. Any suggestions?

My gut feeling is that this man and I are cousins!  I don't know how many generations we will have to go back, but I have a strong suspicion that Mary Ann Hare was from County Armagh.  I have no proof at this time....just a gut feeling.

I began by checking to make sure that the place that the researcher had sent me was indeed in Armagh. And the answer was YEP:

from:  http://www.igp-web.com/armagh/townlands/Aghantaraghan.htm

From the index of deaths 1853-1950 on microfiche that I ordered from the LDS Fiche #1819684 (Deaths K-Z Butte county Ca.  1853-1950) that I looked at at the LDS Library, Mary Ann's place of birth was listed as Moughen, Ireland.   Her son said in a letter to his daughter's future father-in-law that Mary Ann had been born in Northern Ireland.  Several years ago before a planned trip to Ireland, I chatted with researchers on the internet and did some research on my own to see if I could figure out the most likely places that Mary Ann might have been born.

There does not seem to be any place in Ireland spelled just exactly like Moughen.  A lady named Patricia sugessted that she had checked a Townland book and she thought it might be 

Townland:  Moghan

Parish:         Donaghmore

Barony:       Dungannon

Tyrone:       Tyrone

I also considered the county of Monaghan which is not in Northern Ireland but certainly is in the north of Ireland.  

However, the place that seemed to jump out at me as most likely is one that I found in the book Genealogical Atlas of Ireland by Gartner, Harland and Smith.  There is an index in the back of the book and the only spelling that is close to that given in Mary Ann's obituary is Moughan.  It is found on the Armagh map just south of Markethill.  It is located in Lower Fews Barony but VERY close to Lower Orior Barony.  

I visited the site that is marked on the above maps as Moughan in September 1999 and the sign post on the road says Mowhan.  In 1999 it was just a wide place in the road with some empty buildings and the sign post.  I will add photos from this trip.

As additional support to that being a probable place for Mary Ann's birth is a map that I found on-line showing areas where surnames are found in Ireland:

image found at:  http://ahd.exis.net/monaghan/ancirl.gif

Ian Maxwell in his book:  Researching Armagh Ancestors Says on page 7: "The distribution of names in County Armagh illustrates the limited success of the plantation in the region.  The most popular surnames are almost equally divided between Irish and settler surnames.  Murphy, the most common surname throughout Ireland, is also the most popular found in County Armagh.  This is followed by Hughes, Wilson and Campbell, representing settler families, then by the Irish name of O'Hare, and Smith, the commonest name in England and Wales.  ....."

There is an excellent description of Armagh County in the late 1700's and early 1800's in the introduction of Maxwell's book.  There is also an excellent overview of the famine and fevers.  Mr. Maxwell says: "...in July and August 1846 blight struck again the impact was devastating throughout the county.   I think that not only was this disaster the impetus to push my Mary Ann to emigrate, but also likely to have been the cause for my potential cousin's William Hare to have moved to the work house in County Down.  Mr. Maxwell says that during the late 1840s and in the years immediately after the Great Famine some families were evicted from their smallholdings by landlords in need of rents which could not be paid or anxious to consolidate the farms on their estates."  He also comments that the devastation was even more severe in Armagh because it happened in a period of time that was suffering from a slump in the linen and cotton trade. 

I want to put the names that Robert and Mary Ann named their children as they are likely to have named them after parents or siblings.  Robert was the oldest and born c 1854.  George and William were sons for which I have no birth dates.  There were three daughters Katie, Emma and Annie for which I also do not have birth dates.   James A. McGregor is the son from whom I descend and I suspect that he was the youngest child born in 1869.

While Sarah was attending Boston University, she did a semester abroad in Dublin.  We decided to take all of the kids to Ireland to visit.  We visited both the north and the western part of the Island and, of course, spent time in Dublin as well.  On our way home from Northern Ireland we drove through Mowhan and I took photos of the area as I suspected that Mary Ann Hare might have been from the area.  Here are the photos that I took at that time:

When I have time, I will go through the notes that I made from the class "Paddy on the Internet".  I would like to pursue the clues that a brother got the family land....which would mean that there should be a Hare male living on land after 1850 who would be a relative.  I would also like to look at Griffith's Valuation.  I need to think through if there are more ideas of things that I could look at in NY and CA that would give me clues for Irish roots for Mary Ann.  I would also like to see if there is a picture of Mary Ann among Granny Mary's "things".  It would be good to add the photos of the cemetery and of Cherokee into another blog entry to tie in here.  

In 2022, I am adding some information that was given to me during a  "work at your own pace" class about Scotch-Irish Research.  It is perhaps something to look at as well:

On my next trip to PRONI (in 2023) I would research the Estate records for the Gosford Estate near Markethill. Archibald Acheson, Earl of Gosford was a Scottish Servitor from around Edinburgh who received estate lands near Markethill, County Armagh around 1620 as part of the Plantation scheme. There are over 40,000 pages of Gosford Estate records at PRONI. Where does one start? The Gosford Estate records are not well described in the PRONI catalog.

Summer 2013 I received an e-mail from Jill in Australia asking me if I had more information.  (I have filed Jill's e-mail in folder labelled Hare)

Saw your posting on internet and wondered if you have anymore info on the Hair / Hare family that you’d be able to assist me with.

I’m tracing the family of John Hare / Hair  & Eliza Riddle, particularly their daughter Charlotte Hair who married Joseph Gibson.

John Hare & Eliza Riddle married (according to the info below) 28 Jan 1857

Kildarton, Arm, Ireland, John”s Father was David Hare. The info on their son John Thomas /Hare states he was born 1 April 1867 Market Hill, Armagh, Ireland

I’m assuming John Thomas Hare is Charlotte Gibson’s (nee Hair) brother. Charlotte Gibson’s family settled in Australia, and a photo of John & Eliza Hare is in a family room of my workmates in-laws. I also suspect a possible connection:  Andrew Hare who is found in the township of Kilbracks to this family I am researching

I spent a few hours this morning digging in my files and piles and only found one more thing that might be of interest to Jill.  I hate that I did not make better notes, but I just have a note to myself that "It looks as if the most likely persons to use Mowhan/Moughen/Monahan as a Post Office would live within 17 or 21 maps.  ....need to find townlands in order to find these people on the maps.....Andrew Hare located on Kilbracks Townland on map 17 is located perfectly to consider Moughen his post office.  Then I have a map on which I seem to have located his land.  I am having trouble typing below the map, so I will add my comments and then show the map.  Judging from the notes that are paper clipped to this pile, I am guessing that this map was associated in some way to Griffiths Valuation 1864.  As I have made a note on another page that is labelled Barony of Fews, Parish of Kilclooney, contains Markethill.  Griffiths Valuation 1864.  No and letters of reference to map:  28A and B Andrew Hare...The folder that contains these papers is labelled Trip to Northern Ireland Sept 2003.  It is an interesting fact that Jill has connected an Andrew Hare to the family that she is researching and that I had singled out Andrew Hare as a possible candidate for a brother to my Mary Ann Hare.  I haven't yet done the calculations to know much more.

Hornberger family

I had planned a trip to the Ohio Genealogical Society's 2013 conference being held in Cincinnati, Ohio for April 2013.  Mom and I were talking about my upcoming trip and we talked about the fact that Mom has a first cousin who lives just north of Cinn in Blue Ash, Ohio.  I had found a photo among miscellaneous papers that were in my mother's home before she moved to a retirement community.

Mom and I had talked about who it is in the picture.  Mom thought that it was her grandfather's second wife.  I thought that the photo looked a great deal like my grandmother, but I had some hope that mom would say that it was my gr-grandmother instead.  But Mom thought that perhaps her cousin might know.  So I planned a visit with my mom's cousin, Nancy.  The trip was made even more fun by the fact that Nancy's brother, Bob and his wife came for the visit as well.  I could fill this entire blog post with all sorts of things that we talked about.  It was absolutely great getting a new perspective on my mother's mother's family.  This is a family on which I have done VERY LITTLE research!

The first thing that Nancy and I did was decide that the photo was definitely not the second wife of her grandfather.  Nancy remembered that the lady was heavy and would have been older when she married.  I now believe it very likely that the photo is an early picture of my grandmother.  I just need to do a bit of research to see if the dress that she has on would have been likely for the time period around 1920 give or take a few years.

Genealogically speaking, the highlight of the visit was a comparison of my research with a family tree that another sister to Nancy and Bob had done in as a high school project many years ago.  I would have to guess that this sister had access to information from family members who would now be long dead.  My information agreed with most of what was in her report leading me to believe that I am on the right track.  So here is the information about our shared Hornberger family.

All three of us descend from a man named Frederick Hornberger.  Fred was Nancy and Bob's grandfather and my great-grandfather making us first cousins once removed.  Fred was born 22 Aug 1865 in Alsace Lorraine, France.  Remember that Alsace Lorraine is a region that is sometimes a part of France and sometimes a part of Germany, so one needs to look at the date of the evnet to identify the right country when the event happened.  Fred was a barber for much of his life in Ironton, Ohio.  He died 16 Nov 1959.  ( an area of NE France, comprising the modern regions of Alsace andLorraine: under German rule 1871-1919 and 1940-44)

  Frederick Hornberger appeared in open court Nov 2, 1886.  “Frederick Hornberger, an alien, who being duly sworn, says that he is a native of Germany and came to the United States on or about the day of July 1880, under the age of eighteen years; that he is twenty one years of age and upwards; that it boni fide his intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce forever all allegiance ....to the Emperor of Germany whose subject he is....”....”Also at the same time, personally appeared in open court Michael Scherror who resides at Ironton, Ohio and Jacob Scherror who resides at Ironton, Ohio and being duly sworn, sat that they are citizens of the United States and are acquainted with Frederick Hornberger an applicant for naturalization and know that he has been in the United States for five years last,....”  attached to this paper is a certificate of Naturalization of minors.  and Naturalization dated the 17th day of April 1928 from the probate court of Ironton, Ohio.

   The home in which Grandmother was raised by Frederick Hornberger is at the corner of 5th St and Spruce.  The address in Ironton is 1303 South 5th St.  Later when just Frederick and Emma were left, they rented or sold the big house and  lived in the little house behind the big house at that address. 

I think it very likely that this is indeed the door that is in the photo of the young woman that I was trying to identify.  I feel very certain that it is my grandmother, Clara Margaret Hornberger Sammons.

and the below is likely the smalll house that Fred and Emma lived in when all of the other children were gone.

These house photos were taken by me in 1997.

Frederick Hornberger is buried with both wives in the Woodland Cemetery in Ironton. 

  Lawrence R. died at birth and Maggie died in childbirth..  Lawrence R. and Maggie are buried side by side along with Frederick Hornberger and Anna Hornberger (Frederick’s second wife).  Close by is Emma Hornberger (grandmother’s older unmarried sister who lived with their father until his death.)  Also buried there is William F. Gravenkemper, a baby of Aunt Frieda’s.  Close by in Platt A is Eleanor Haney and her husband, David--She was also a daughter of Frederick Hornberger.  She is buried among many Haneys.

 In the cemtery in Ironton. there is a small monument with Lawrence Schmidtt’s name on it.  Then there are headstones for Lawrence, his wife Margaret, and her father, Abraham Rauch all together.

Frederick  Hornberger's parents were George and Barbara Schweikart Hornberger.   I was told that Frederick’s father died when Frederick was fairly young.  He had fought under Napoleon.  Barbara married a Mr. Unger after the death of Frederick and they came directly to Ironton because they had relatives there--the Schweickart’s who were in the lumber business.  They moved when Frederick was about 16.  Frederick had one sister that I know about who was named Lena.  I was told that Lena lived and died in Coal Grove.

The Children of Frederick and Maggie Schmidt Hornberger were:  Emma b. Feb 1889, Clara Margaret b. 5 May 1890, George b. Jan 1892,  Frieda b. 26 July 1895, Eleanor b. 1897, Carl b. Feb 1899, Lawrence who died at birth in 1901. From

Margaret Schmidt Hornberger's parents were Lawrence Schmidt and Margaret Rauch.  Lawrence was born 10 August 1824 and died 9 Jan 1883.  Clara Hornberger Sammons (my grandmother told me that they lived on a farm in Hanging Rock.  She would point out the church on the side of the road and say that they had attended church in that building when we would drive by Hanging Rock on our way to or from Ironton and Huntington.

  On June 30, 1997 I visited the genealogy section of the ironton Library on 5th ST.  I was unable to find lawrence or any of his family in the 1870 census for lawrence County.  However in the 1880 census for Hamilton Township in Lawrence County (which is where Hanging Rock is located) I found Lawrence as head of his family on p122c.  I made a copy of this record.  Living with Lawrence who is 57 at the time is Margarete, his wife, who is 45, Emma who is 19, Loucinda who is 14, Albert who is 13, Margarete who is 13, and Kate who is 10.  Also Abraham Rauch who is his father-in-law who is 82 and Frank Kassick, a boarder who is 23 and a farm laborer.  So Lawrence must have moved his family to Lawrence County and specifically to Hanging Rock sometime after 1870 but before 1880.  Both Lawrence and his wife list their place of birth as France and list both sets of their repective parents as also having been born in France.  All of their children were born in Ohio.  So the puzzle is: If there 19 year old was born in Ohio, they must have come across the ocean before her birth.  That means that they immigrated before 1861.  I need to check censuses in other areas of Ohio for 1860 and 1870 to see if I can find them.  I might also look at land records to see when Lawrence bought the farm at Hanging Rock--probably between 1870 and 1880.  It is also possible that I missed the census record back in 1997...now it is much easier to check censuses.....I should take care of this....

From the family information that Nancy and Bob's sister had gathered while in High School comes the following:  Abraham was born 1798 in Strasbourg, France.  Died 1885  Abraham was the father of Margaret Rauch Schmitt Note the spelling of Schmitt in an older transcription.  I should drive to Ironton to see how it is spelled on the tombstone and also see if there is a death certificate with the spelling on it... Bob had asked me what the correct spelling is.  

In the above map one can see where Strasbourg was located.  Jack and I visited there many years ago.  I would like to add some photos of the area.  We were driving and it was very interesting to see that Hornberger was a VERY common name in the area.  We visited Strasbourg and I have photos that I would like to add here.  I did not have the information that Lawrence Schmitt was born in Strasbourg when we made our visit.  

One more comment before I quit for the night.  My mtDNA results show me to be:  Haplogroup H.  According to Brian Sykes in his book the Seven Daughter's of Eve, this group has origins in the white area shown on the map below that is marked Helena:  

As you can see, the area is absolutely right for my maternal lines...very close to where my mother's mother's family lived as late as the 1800s.  My "clan mother"  lived 20,000 years ago when the ice age was at it's most severe.  These were the people who had pictures of "the hunt" on cave walls. Brian Sykes has nicknamed the clan mother for Haplogroup H Helena.   As an additional aside from Brian Sykes' book:

"Over successive generations the clan that began with Helena became easily the most successful in Europe, reaching every part of the continent.  The reference sequence with which all mitochondrial mutations are compared is that of Helena's sequence.  Forty-seven per cent of modern Europeans are members of her clan.  We do not know whether this remarkable success is because her mitochondrial DNA possesses some special quality that gives its holders a biological advantage, or whether it is just chance that makes so many Europeans trace their direct maternal ancestry back to Helena and the freezing winters of her Ice-Age."  (taken from p. 233)

In 2018 I am adding the following:

I have a quiet day today.  So I picked up a couple of magazines to figure out if they need to be passed on to someone.  The first is the NGS Magazine from October-December 2017.  There is an article about mtDNA by Diahan Southard.  I have copied the article and put it in a folder labelled mtDNA in the DNA cubby in my office.

Quaker families Homecoming in Warren County, Ohio planned for September 19,20,21,22 2013

Judith Russell and the late Ron Edmundson, with help from their excellent committee members, have hosted our very special group of participants with connections to the Bush River Monthly Meeting Cemetery in Newberry  County, South Carolina several times since 2001.  This year's homecoming to Newberry County was to have been in April 2013 and to have had the theme of migration out of Newberry County by the Quaker families.  During the first decade of the 1800s there was a mass migration of the Quaker families out of the south and into the non-slave states of Ohio and Indiana.  Many of the Bush River MM families ended up in Warren County, Ohio as a part of the Miami Monthly Meeting in Waynesville, Ohio.  When this year's April meeting time in Newberry seemed to be plagued with problems, it seemed natural to move to a time in September and move the venue to Waynesville, Ohio where so many of the families are found beginning in the very early 1800s.

We have chosen the dates:  September 19, 20, 21,  22, 2013 and we are inviting you to join us!

The host is Milton Cook who continues to live on the same farm that his Cook family purchased in the early 1800's in Warren County.  Milton also continues to be a part of the Miami Monthly Meeting in Waynesville, Ohio as his family did in generations before.

Marsha Moses and Sharon Hastings have agreed to be the support committee.  The three of us met in April to plan the homecoming events.

Thursday, September 19th

Events will start midday.  We will meet at the Red Brick Meeting House to set up tables on which everyone is invited to share books, information about your families, special collections relating to these early families.

Sometime in the afternoon we will take a tour of Milton's land.  Milton still farms the Cook farm and is known for his prize winning tomatoes!

Dinner will be include Beef from Milton's 100% grassed beef, vegetables from Milton Cook's Organic Farm including tomatoes.  Perhaps a salad from other local organic farms.  It will be held in the Red Brick Meeting House.   Dinner will be followed by a ghost tour of Quaker historic district of Waynesville.   Dinner reservations will need to be made ahead---no last minute reservations.

Friday, September 20th

This day we will plan to travel to Ceasar's Creek Pioneer Village.  Also part of the tour is the Ceasar's Creek Cemetery which was originally located behind the Ceasar's Creek Monthly Meeting.  Ceasar's Creek MM was laid down in 1952 and afterward the building was moved to Ceasar's Creek Pioneer Village.  The cemetery is, of course, in the original location.  There should also be time to visit other Meeting Houses in the area such as:  Center, Chester and Dover meetinghouses and graveyards. Also Springfield and  Hadley farm and museum.    After that we will travel to Wilmington College Archives where there will be time to do research in the Quaker collections.

Tentative plans have us eating dinner at the General Denver Hotel in Wilmington or in Waynesville at the Stone House Tavern or Benitos Pizza.  The evening ends with a ghost tour of the houses on Main Street.


Saturday, September 21st

This day will be spent in Waynesville.  The events will most likely include a slideshow on the Underground Railroad,   time to look around the museum,  time to look at exhibits in the Red Brick Meeting House,  time  to visit the Mary L. Cook library in the Waynesville public library which is a treasure trove of information about these Quaker families.

Tom Hamm has agreed to speak to us Saturday afternoon.  Tom is the curator of Lilly Library's Quaker Collection and Director of Special Collections for Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.
http://www.earlham.edu/news/news/?id=14799&r=14619

We have invited Tom to bring some of his the books that he has written to allow those who would want to purchase copies.
http://www.quakerbooks.org/ThomasHamm

There are tentative plans to have a catered lunch at the Red Brick Meeting house on Saturday and to have dinner together at the Golden Lamb on Saturday night.

Sunday, September 22nd

The group will meet with the Miami Monthly Meeting at the White Brick Meeting House at their regular meeting time of 10:30 and conclude with a potluck lunch.

For me the connection began in spring 1999 when my husband and youngest daughter and I made a trip to South Carolina.   I can still remember how excited I was to find the cemetery that I believed my 5-gr-grandmother, Sarah Moore McKinsey was most likely buried.  I still do not have proof that this is where she is buried.  But I think it highly likely that she would have been buried very close to Nehemiah Thomas in this cemetery before her family moved on to Warren County, Ohio.  I believe that it would have given them comfort to know that she was next to her uncle Nehemiah.

Today, thanks to Judith Russell and others who have joined her efforts, the cemetery has been restored and cleaned up and maintained.  If you would like to contribute or want more information:

http://genealogytrails.com/scar/newberry/bushriverquarkermty.htm