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, . . . ?)
