Hillbilly genealogy?
I have a cousin who married a man from Ireland, and this man's brother, whom I've never met, is a genealogy buff living in Dublin. He's been delving back into where the Ryans came from - my mom's family, and also the family of my cousin, whose dad was my mom's older brother.
As it happens, my dad had some Ryan ancestry as well, and I knew those Ryans came from Thurles in Tipperary, but a lot of them left around the time of the famine and went off to the north of England to find work. Dad was born near Manchester, in an enclave of Irish Catholics living in Leigh. His mother's mother was a Ryan.
This morning, the cousin sent me a bit of new research from her brother-in-law. The parents of John Ryan, my great-grandfather who came to Canada in the 1840s, were also born in Thurles. This is on my mother's side, not my dad's.
On this map you can see that Ryans are overwhelmingly represented in Tipperary, so maybe it's not evidence of hillbilly ancestry after all. I haven't seen anything suggesting the two lines of Ryans were connected at the time, but still - same surname, same town (pop. around 8000 now, no idea what it was in 1840).
I recall my mother telling me that when she got married, the priest met my dad's cousin May Ryan - his only relative in Canada - and since my mother's name was also Ryan they were asked by the priest to affirm that they weren't related. As far as I know they never had any reason to think they were. I don't think they ever knew about the convergence of their ancestry in Thurles; I know about it on my dad's side only because at some point in my teens I took down some family history notes from May.
As it happens, my dad had some Ryan ancestry as well, and I knew those Ryans came from Thurles in Tipperary, but a lot of them left around the time of the famine and went off to the north of England to find work. Dad was born near Manchester, in an enclave of Irish Catholics living in Leigh. His mother's mother was a Ryan.
This morning, the cousin sent me a bit of new research from her brother-in-law. The parents of John Ryan, my great-grandfather who came to Canada in the 1840s, were also born in Thurles. This is on my mother's side, not my dad's.
On this map you can see that Ryans are overwhelmingly represented in Tipperary, so maybe it's not evidence of hillbilly ancestry after all. I haven't seen anything suggesting the two lines of Ryans were connected at the time, but still - same surname, same town (pop. around 8000 now, no idea what it was in 1840).
I recall my mother telling me that when she got married, the priest met my dad's cousin May Ryan - his only relative in Canada - and since my mother's name was also Ryan they were asked by the priest to affirm that they weren't related. As far as I know they never had any reason to think they were. I don't think they ever knew about the convergence of their ancestry in Thurles; I know about it on my dad's side only because at some point in my teens I took down some family history notes from May.