RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Limerick => Topic started by: triovlaif on Saturday 19 December 15 01:18 GMT (UK)
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Dear fellow researchers,
I am looking for the origins of three brothers, born between 1815 and 1820 in Limerick, Ireland, who emigrated to the US and Canada.
First was Thomas Liston, who sailed on the brig "Breeze" from Limerick in 1841, shipwrecked on Scatarie Island, Nova Scotia, went to Queens County, New Brunswick by 1843, petitioned for land, married Letitia Sinnett, and had three children between 1845 and 1852: James H. Liston, John K. Liston, and Mary Elizabeth Liston. He died in the 1854 Cholera epidemic in St. John, and his widow remarried and eventually moved to Massachusetts where she died in 1892 of the flu. He has numerous descendants in Canada, the US, and the Philippines.
Second was Patrick Liston, who turned up in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1850, where he was boarding and working as a common laborer. He moved to Bloomington, Illinois, by 1851. He married Ellen (probably Spelman, but also perhaps Ryan) and had nine children, of whom four survived childhood, and he has numerous descendants in the US. Most of his family moved to Missouri.
Note: A Spelman family, James and Margaret, also went to Nova Scotia, then to New Brunswick, to Litchfield, Connecticut, and to Bloomington, Illinois, where they lived in close proximity to Patrick and James Liston's families. So far, I have not been able to prove a connection but this may be the family of Ellen, Patrick's wife.
Third was James Liston, who was also in Litchfield, Connecticut, in 1850, boarding and working as a common laborer. He married Bridget Ryan of Tipperary, Ireland, in Hartford, Connecticut, and moved out to Bloomington, Illinois, stopping on the way in Ohio, where his first son was born, arriving in Bloomington in 1852. He and his wife raised a large family and have numerous descendants around the US, and most of his children moved to Missouri.
Y-DNA testing shows descendants of the three men matching with a genetic distance of not more than 1/67. They have also matched another Liston from Australia who traces his ancestry to Tipperary and Limerick, but the match is more distant at 4/67.
I am very eager to know which townland the three brothers came from in Limerick and how they might have been related to the Spelman family (also spelled Spilman, Spellman, Spillman, and apparently Spillane). I am descended from Thomas Liston, but I feel the Spelman connection may help with finding the Listons' family in Ireland from 1810 to 1850.
Perhaps there is a story in a Liston family in Limerick, Ireland, of three of their brothers who emigrated to America in the 1840s. Did they write home? Maybe some of the descendants in the US and Canada have some old letters from Ireland, a Bible, or some other old documents buried in a box or trunk or old desk in a corner of an attic or cellar.
I have a lot more digging to do, and I'd love to have some companions to help.
I hope more Listons will think about DNA testing to help us all figure out the various lineages there may be and begin to pinpoint ancestral homes. If anyone is interested, go to the Liston Y-DNA Project at Family Tree DNA and order a 37-marker kit through the project. To view the Liston project DNA results, go to www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/Liston.
I hope for some replies.
Dick Norwood (Richard, Hazel V. Case, Mary Elizabeth Liston, Thomas Liston, . . . ?)
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First of all you have Wills.. did any of these ( http://www.rootschat.com/links/01gp4/ ) leave inheritance to someone in US??
You have 3 Listons... is father named on any Marriage Certs?? etc
You don't give their Religion so if RC then registers are online.. registers.nli.ie
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http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0893 and other Parishes, just a matter of going through them for relevant year ranges IF they were RC !!
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..and there is familysearch too try just using the 2 Surnames for Ireland, no dates or location!!
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Thank you. They were Roman Catholic, and I have looked at some of the registers, but it is slow going and impossible to verify that they were the same people without family lore other confirming information. I have been using familysearch and ancestry.com exhaustively and continue to do so, but I am now not uncovering new information anymore.
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Most Listons came from west Limerick especially around Athea but it starts online in 1830
P J
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Athea mentioned here..
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=443266.msg5769811#msg5769811
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Thanks again to everyone. I missed the response about wills and a father named in US records. Unfortunately, the only marriage record I have makes no mention of the parents of the couple. This is common in many early US records and practices vary from state to state.
I'm going to follow all your advice and see where it takes me.
In addition to Liston, I am interested in Ryan and Spelman. I also wonder if there was a Liston-Fitzgerald connection back in 1850.
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there is familysearch too try just using the 2 Surnames for Ireland, no dates or location!!
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It's been a while. I just wanted to thank everyone again for help with my initial queries and report that I have found the townland for my Liston brothers.
Research led me to Logavinshire, Crecora, Limerick. Two brothers and one of their sisters emigrated to Litchfield, Connecticut, around 1848, and their brother Thomas to New Brunswick.
I still don't know who their parents were, but I know what other Listons were in that townland and other families. I have the baptism record of a daughter of the sister.
The townland was confirmed by one of the brothers' obituary.
I want to know more, but I made a lot of headway in the past couple of years.
Regards,
Dick Norwood