Wall, Gracey, Doolittle, Ward, Byrne etc

[caroleg]

Hi there - spent yesterday with my dad, his 74th birthday.  He gave me my family tree.  All seem to be from the Down area, my maiden name was Wall, so it is basically the Wall family tree, but with lots and lots of other branches, Byrne, Doolittle, Ward, Connor, McDermott, Gracey.  These too all have off shoots to various other families.  I am interested to find out - anything- about my family.  Seem to be more or less Wicklow, Newry, Downpatrick, Dundalk.  Can anyone PLEASE help me.

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you

Carole

[BallyaltikilliganG]

Hi Carole sound very exciting for you and it will be. For others to help you should consider giving this message board, under the right county, your grandparents or even better your Gt  grandparents names and dates, perhaps only give each under that surname and a location.   As a Gracey surname enthusiast  connecting the surnames is not going to be easy unless its recent times since say 1900.  I know a Ward and a Gracey married, but I have mislaid it..   The Downpatrick Graceys have become a well rounded work.  The most recent research is about the catholic Gracey line of Downpatrick area surname by Angela, the older known work was about the protestant Gracey of ballyhossett line recorded in the Blackwood Family Manuscripts stored in the Linenhall Library, Belfast.
from a website who charges fees for more detail , I just extracted one or two for you from the marriageswww.emeraldancestors.com/search/marriages/viewlistma
1857 John  Wall  Married  Mary Ann  Xxxxxx  Down       
1869 William  Wall  Married Margaret  Xxxxxxx  Down       
1916 Andrew  Wall  Marries Esther   Xxxxxx  Down       
 
from http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rosdavies/SURNAMES/W/WadWam.htm
WALL . . see under Walls . I have taken them all out, which is dangerous as most families have spelling variants.
Alexander WALL .  Kilmegan of Slievenisky ; leased a house & 8 acres in 1863 from Earl Annesley  GV
Alice WALL .  Kilmegan of Slievenisky ; leased a house & 8 acres in 1863 from Earl Annesley  GV
Miss Elizabeth WALL . Newry wife of James McGivern; mother of Patrick b. 1874 CR
Rev. John WALL M.A. Tullylish rector of the parish 1622- 1623 TPHS p 12
Robert WALL . Clonduff of Islandmoyle ; leased a house & 10 acres in 1863 from George H. Gartlan  GV
Samuel WALL . Magheradrool received financial assistance of 6 pence from Ballynahinch Presbyterian Church 1 Sep 1728 BPCR
William WALL . Magheradrool father of John bpt.Thursday 4 Oct 1705 & Robert bpt. Jul 1706 at Ballynahinch Presbyterian Church by Rev Henry Livingston  BPCR
William WALL . Warrenpoint husband of Margaret Greer; father of Mary Anne b. 31 Oct 1869 CR
you can look through this website for all your other surnames
before I forget, there is a book about the Wall Family in Ireland, use google there are surnames websites eg Genforum find wll then search the 3500 entries just for Ireland
Keep going onwards, Jim

[caroleg]

Hi Jim thanks for all that information, looks like I have a long yet enjoyable task ahead of me.

The furthest back I have for the Walls would seem to be three brothers dating back to the early 18 hundreds. Peter Wall who married Pheby Byrne, Thos Wall married to Darky Ward and William Wall who married a Judeth Ward.  The spellings of these names are the way  I have received them on a photocopied family tree.  They seem to originate from Wicklow, The Mall.

The Gracey side of my family do orginate from Downpatrick and my family tree for them goes as far back as an Alexander Gracey born 1746 and married a Jane Henry.  I am very new to all this and really appreciate the help you have given me.  I shall, with the information you have given me, keep on digging

Carole

[BallyaltikilliganG]

Somewhat disorganised at the moment I have copies of the Gracey of Ballyhossett tree, and can send you these privately as attachments etc when you want more info. To give you a quick flavour and connection into that family Ros Davies Co down website lists
Alexander GRACEY  .  Ballee of Ballyhosset; husband of Jane Henry; father of James who was born in 1790 MID p 11
then heres an extract from from a Booklet Dr Alexander Leslie Gracey - Victorian Doctor by Richard Clarke
The Gracey family settled in the townland of Ballyhosset, near Ardglass in the early seventeenth century.3 We first hear of Launcelot Gracie, a lieutenant in the army of King James I, who acquired lands in Lecale. His son Robert Grace or Gracey (1644-1718) had various leases of land in the area, followed by his son Robert (c 1700-1782) and grandson Alexander (c 1747-1828). Our interest is with Alexander's second son, James Gracey (born 1791 ), who has left us notes of his life and the early progress of his son .....
On the Wall family I looked around familysearch focusing on Wicklow and quickly found
Peter Wall Birth:  02 MAR 1877   , Wicklow, Ireland
Parents:
  Father:  Thomas Wall  Family
  Mother:  Celia Wall Doolittle   
that was a nice surprise linking names again
You are going to be busy. Its great your Dad had kept his family line. Photocopy it and give it to some else for safe keeping.  You could perhaps invest in a family history maker or similar type software or download the free one from www.familysearch.com itself. If you transfer all what you have got then its easy to expand as you learn anything new. If you are computer literate then you can go to town and do your own database big time.  My advice is to share all, if anyone is nasty enough to pinch your information without quoting its source it will get known to others, you will always have people coming back to you because you share. You dont need to share recent information from before your grandad or gt grandad was born, until you want too. Keep everything until in some years ahead you know for sure its irrelevant to your quest. Beware of this habit,  I have 200 files of worldwide Gracey information. Finally life moves fast, build up questions for your dad and ask him regularly about close relatives, that gets something you dont always get a second chance to ask etc. very good luck to you in the meantime.  Jim
 

[caroleg]

Jim, this is truely amazing.  It would appear from the records that I have got, Alexander Gracey (b.1746 - d. 1828) married to Jane Henry (b.1752 - d 1832) is my Great great great great great grandfather.  His second son is James Gracey b.1790 and Married in 1823 to a Mary Leslie b.1793.  My records on the Gracey side start at Alexander and go all the way down to my father - soon to be updated with all the more current people.  The Wall side joined the Gracey side in 1925 with my Grandfather Patrick Lawrence Wall marrying Emily Gracey.  I have a William Wall & Judeth Ward who's son Thomas was born in 1837 and married Rosanna Doolittle.  The father of Jane Henry, Alexanders wife was a Joseph Henry.  From these records it would also appear that Alexander Leslie Gracey is my great great great uncle.  I shall get the book by Richard Clarke.  If you would like I can send you the information on the Gracey family that I have?  I would really appreciate you sending me some attachments my email is ** Email address has been removed to prevent spam and other abuse.  Please use the secure PM system to exchange personal information.
Thank you for this Jim.  I cannot wait to tell my father about your help and the further information you have given to me.

Kind Regards

Carole

[BallyaltikilliganG]

Carole, first I am so pleased, its working out so well for you.  keep thanking your dad. By the way he's still only a chicken, some three years older than I am.   How on earth did he manage to collect his information?

I will send you a PM message, but try to keep your message board information flowing on each surname.

I will prepare the most relevant Gracey of Ballyhossett information over the weekend for you. This is on an older computer useing 95 or earlier!
JIm

[caroleg]

Hi there Jim, again I cannot say how pleased I am with all the help you have given me.  Told my Dad yesterday and he was so pleased with his pedigree.  It has now started much amusement within the family as my Grandma Emily who died in 1998 always told my father he was marrying beneath himself :-) All the relevant information we have on my mum's side (McNally's - Bradleys) dating back to around 1790 show they were all very much rural folk and not able to read or write. 

My elder brother has been amazed at all this information and it has spurred him on again to do some more digging.  He has been researching the Wall side of the Family.

My dad is a wonderful man, and oh yes, still very much a spring chicken like your goodself.  In fact this seems to have spurred everyone on as my mum now wants to find out even more about her roots.   

All the information I have from my father was collected via one of my cousins in Ireland who works in a records office in Belfast I think.

How long have you been doing this Jim?  I take it from the amount of information you have you are connected with the Graceys of Ballyhosset too.  This would then make us related.  I am finding this all really exciting.  Researching yesterday, on the widening family tree I came across a letter, obviously written from some form of prison from an Owen Rogan so I shall have to dig deeper and see if this is one of my relatives too.  The Rogans of Dundalk joined the Graceys when Anne Jane Rogan, my greatgrandmother married John Shannon Gracey.  My records for the Rogan family go back to a definite provenance of 1826 but with two more links on top of them but unfortunately without dates and amongst that tree there are three Owen Rogans.  All very interesting stuff.

This is my first attempt at using a Forum so unfortunately I have never used the pm function but I am sure I will be able to work it out.

Thank you so much again Jim.

Carole

 

[BallyaltikilliganG]

A Shannon connections shows up among Jackson Eagleson's research see his vyger website ie
Gracey-John-Margaret_Shannon-1870-Coleraine,  and also
Gracey-Charles-Margaret Jane_Rogan-1890-Down   
just wait till I get my hands on the Ballyhossett detail,
that prison info, if the date is after 1914 pm me please
Jim

[cassiar]

Hi,
Would either of you have a Robert Gracey with a son Hugh b. Feb. 19, 1855 who lived in the Portadown/Lurgan area?
cassiar