My Irish Greenlees Ancestors from Aghalurcher, Co. Fermanagh

Aghalurcher Church

Since it's St. Patrick's Day I thought I'd talk a little about two of my Irish ancestors. I don't have that many Irish in my ancestry but my maiden name (McGinnis) is Irish. Many of my readers know that I'm always looking for Joseph McGinnis and his wife Fanny Downey who came from Co. Down in 1846 and settled near Guelph Ontario Canada.

But today I want to share a bit about my Irish  3rd great grandparents John Greenlees and his wife Elizabeth Johnston.

John and his wife came from Ireland to Ontario sometime between 1819 when their daughter Jane (my 2nd great grandmother) was born, and 1822.  Unfortunately ships passenger lists to Canada before 1865 did not have to be archived and so they are few and far between. So far I have not found any record of their arrival but Ontario was a very young settlement in those years and the courage they had to make the journey with three young children astounds me.

I know a lot about John and Elizabeth during their years in Ontario. But I've never known where in Ireland they lived. And then came great news from a fellow researcher and descendant.

Two years ago  their marriage record was discovered. This was the first clue I had of where in Ireland they came from. They married in 1814 in Galloon Parish, Clogher Diocese in Co. Fermanagh Ireland. Their marriage record found in the Parish Record books by another descendant (who very kindly sent it to me) reads:

 John Greenlees of P'h of Aghalurcher & Eliz'th Johnston of Drumy.

I can't begin to describe how it feels to have not only a county but an actual parish in Ireland after years of only knowing "Ireland" as their place of origin.

Today I treated myself to doing more searching for John and Elizabeth Greenlees, and to reading about Aghalurcher. I am not sure what "Drumy." stands for except perhaps Drummally? If anyone knows I'd love to hear from you.

 Nothing turned up for John or Elizabeth but I did get sidetracked looking for some of hubs' Irish ancestors - and had great success! I'll blog about that another day.