09 March 2007

If I won the Irish Contest

I won't win, because I never do. However, if I did win the Irish trip, I'd go to Newtown Limavady and the surrounding area in County Derry, Ireland. That's where my Neill ancestors immigrated in the 1860s, initially settling in Canada. Family always indicated the Neills were famine immigrants, but they weren't. They hung in there almost twenty years before immigrating. And they kept little of their Irish culture--none of that heritage has been passed down. In fact, I had a difficult time locating their origin in Ireland. Of course, my Neill ancestor married an Anne Murphy in Canada. She was born in the early 1840s and was an Irish immigrant. Of course, there are so few Anne Murphys that I am having a difficult time finding one who could be her (grin...)