Thursday, February 12, 2009

More Geneology

I can't believe how much fun I'm having doing geneology! The problem is that I spend hours looking up information. Every time I get birth dates in an earlier century, it's exciting. In some lines, I'm at 1494 for a birth date. How cool is that? I've been quite surprised at how early some of my ancestors appear in the United States. Some from my Maternal Grandmother's side must have been almost original immigrants.

I originally got into this because I was trying to find out if the stories about one of my Paternal Grandfathers marrying an American Indian woman, was true. Supposedly, several Hagerty brothers left Ireland during the Great Potato Famine. I did research on that. It occured in 1846 through 1848. I checked some ship passenger lists, and there were quite a lot of Hagertys, but I couldn't trace them without starting from myself and working my way back.

I was quite surprised to find my Great Great Grandfather Elias Haggerty was born in Pennsylvania in 1810. My ancestors had been here before the potato famine. Elias' father was born in Ireland though. I'm not absolutely sure I have the right person on him, as there are some conflicting evidence, but his name may have been, Believe John Haggerty. That name is no stranger than some I've come up with.

I find myself trying to imagine the life some of my ancestors lived. It really boggles the mind. I also ran into some really old information. It seems most modern Irishmen all come from 3 sons of a man called Milesius, who was a Celt from either Italy or Spain. They decided to conquer Ireland. Their names were, Heber, Heremon, and Amergin. It seems that Heber took over northern Ireland.The date listed was 1699 b.c. The great King, Brian Boru came from Heber's line. The Hagerty family also came from Heber's line. Anyway, it's quite facinating!

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