My Irish Immigrants

Like many genealogists with Irish immigrants, I don't have a great deal of information on my Irish family in Ireland. 

Samuel Neill immigrated as a single man in 1864, arriving in Canada's New Brunswick Province with his married brother Joseph and Joseph's young family. The Neills were living in Limavady when they left Ireland for Canada. Their immigration information appears in Brian Mitchell's Irish Passenger Lists 1847-1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America on Ships of the J. & J. COOKE Line and the McCORKELL  Line (Genealogical  Publishing  Co., Balto., MD.  1988).

Samuel's brother Joseph was married in Ireland before the family's immigration to the United States:

From  the "Quarterly returns of Marriages 1862 Ireland  Vol.  9," LDS microfilm roll 0101440, page 375.

On  16 January 1862 at the Derrymore Presbyterian Church,  Joseph NEIL[sic] and Ann BRYCE[sic] were married by Wm. [JAMISON?], with witnesses  of  Wm. MC INTOSH and John ARCHIBALD.  Joseph  was  of full  age  and was a bachelor who lived in [Taques] Hill  in  the parish  of Drumachose.  Joseph was a servant, and was the son  of John NEIL[sic] who was a laborer.  Ann was a spinster of full age and  was  a servant living in White [??] in the parish of  Drumachose.  Her father was James BRYCE, a laborer.

Samuel and Annie Murphy were married in New Brunswick in 1865. Unfortunately there is no additional information on the family in their marriage record there. Nothing is known about Annie's Irish origins other than she was born in the late 1830s/early 1840s and was a native of Ireland.

The Neills moved to near West Point, Hancock County, Illinois in the late 1860s and remained there until their deaths. Research in Hancock County has not located any information related to Annie's Irish origins. The Neills settled in Hancock County likely because Joseph's wife, Anne Brice, had family already in the area. 

Annie (Murphy) Neill died in St. Albans Township in 1897. Samuel died at his home on 17 March 1912.

Samuel and Joseph supposedly had several siblings. One may have been a Roseanna Neill who died in Ireland.

A Marriage Register Gives Two Witnesses

This is the marriage register entry for Samuel Neill and Annie Murphy from Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1865. This entry comes from the county's marriage register G, page 148 (Family History Library microfilm 855391).

I have had a copy of the bond for this couple for some time. The marriage register entry gave the names of two witnesses. Durbin is the bondsman for the marriage bond and I have not determined if there is a relationship between Neill and Durbin. Ann [sic] Neill (the witness) is probably the Anne Neill was was a sister-in-law of Samuel Neill. In this case the name of the witness was not a "new" clue, but that is always a possibility.

For some reason, I thought a digital image of the spine of the book was necessary. Since it only gave the volume letter it really wasn't that helpful, but it does make for a nice illustration.

What I really should have included was the Family History Film number in my file name for this image. I included the volume and page number.

Before writing this blog post, I had to go back and "recreate" my work to get the microfilm number. That's time I would have saved if I had done it in the first place.

There's one more copy of a marriage item for this couple--the records from the church where they were married.

That's next on my list.