Hart family of Magherashanvalley, Donaghmore, Co. Donegal

[joemc]

When I was searching for the map above I remembered there was a townland called Scotland within a few miles of Magherashanvally, I am wondering was this the Scotland the descendants were referring to? I know it's a long shot but stories often get muddled over the generations so perhaps...

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[ZiggyZipgun]

That would be a quite a twist, but anything is possible.  One of Samuel's sons, Solomon, is listed on the 1880 census record as being born in Scotland, and it also says his mother and father were born in Scotland; prior to 1880, every census said he was born in Ireland.  In 1890, the Michigan death index again says he was born in Scotland.  I've wondered how that ended up on those two records, since he did not live far from two of his older brothers, and Solomon's wife outlived him by 49 years; up until she died in 1939, she was still telling stories about the indian village near the farm where her family settled in Michigan.  I figured he might have claimed Scotland as his birthplace if his family never really thought of themselves as Irish. 

Here's the article from 1925.  The president of the committee, William H. Hart, has a daughter that's alive and well, who is 96 years old and has a lot of odd stories from her uncle and her grandmother, pertaining to her great-grandfather, James Hart, and his wife, Jane Kirk (not "Kerk"). 

[Doris Gates]

Hello,
This is a long shot, but I happen to have some information regarding a Rev. John Hart (spelled his own name as "Heart", but the records of the Presbyterian Fasti record it as "Hart"), who came from Hamilton, Scotland to the church at Taughboyne, County Donegal about 1655/66. (this was an area known as "the Laggan"). He ministered there for some 30 years, and died in 1687.
  Rev. Hart had a son named Samuel born in Hamilton, Scotland, while he was a minister there (prior to that, Rev. Hart had been a Dunkeld, Dunino, and Crail, Scotland).  He was a graduate of St. Andrew's University in 1637, and married in 1644 at Edinburgh, Scotland to Agnes Baxter (or "Backstare").  Rev. John was buried in the churchyard of Taughboyne (also called Monreagh).  Agnes was buried in Greyfriar's Kirkyard in 1689, so it appears she returned to Edinburgh, where she probably still had relatives.  John and Agnes had a daughter, also called Agnes, who married Rev. Robert Craighead, another Scottish minister who  was appointed to the church in Donaghmore.  Rev. Craighead married Agnes, daughter of Rev. Hart, and eventually, he became the minister of First Londonderry Presbyterian Church.
Your Harts in Donaghmore were there nearly a century later, and I can't make a connection, but I thought you might be interested in Rev. Hart/Heart.

[martha conner]

I am just getting started in this but descended from rev Thomas Craighead who immigrated to the United States with his son.  I am now looking for information on his grandparents, and I only have the name John Craighead but do have information for Thomas Craighead and Janet "Ferguson" Craighead.