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Ireland Family Migrations

My Ireland family ancestors made five major westward moves in sixty years as they pursued a better life for themselves and their families. Sometimes the families moved together, sometimes they moved a few years apart. Sometimes a few family members were left behind, sometimes a few people moved but then returned.

Dates of moves are approximate (usually plus or minus 3 to 5 years), but places are usually accurate to at least the county level.

Belfast to Philadelphia - 1829

After his wife died in Belfast in about 1816, Robert Ireland Sr. and three or four of his six children moved to America.

  • Robert Ireland Jr. at age 20, a coppersmith, and his older brother William, age 29, a bookbinder, arrived in Baltimore in 1829. I speculate that they moved immediately to Philadelphia, as William married Elizabeth Priestley there in 1830.
  • It's unclear when Robert Ireland Sr. and his eldest son Henry came to America, or when Henry settled in Yonkers, NY (just north of NYC.) They may have paved the way first, perhaps migrated in 1829 as well, or followed later.
  • Reports are mixed as to whether son John moved to America.
  • Son David James remained in Belfast, where he had a son James, daughter Sarah, and perhaps a third child.
  • Daughter Elizabeth died on the Isle of Tasmania (southernmost Australia) in 1831 at age 26.

Philadelphia to Cincinnati - 1833?

Robert Sr., Robert Jr., and William all moved to Cincinnati with their families in the early-mid 1800s, but the exact dates aren't known. Robert Jr. married Sophia Elizabeth Morgan in Cincinnati on 20 May 1837. Part of their courtship is described in the Sophia Elizabeth Morgan biography.

William and his family returned to Philadelphia after several years and settled there. Henry and wife lived out their lives in Yonkers, NY but stayed close to their Cincinnati relatives.

Cincinnati to Macon, IL - 1863

Coming soon

Macon, iL to Stewartsville, MO

Coming soon

Stewartsville, MO to Bronson, KS

Coming soon


Are we related?

Here are the GEDmatch Kit #s for my father and mother:

GI: A909282
CL: A216073


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