North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS) WikiTree Challenge Highlights

Question

Hello WikiTreers!

WikiTree Challenge #5 is now complete. We spent a fun and collaborative week working together to build up a massive list of ancestors based on the seven starting people chosen by the North of Ireland Family History Society (NIFHS). We were challenged with finding Irish ancestors, some born within eras of few records. Once again, our group of researchers did a fantastic job of tracking down family members and documenting them on WikiTree.

Challenge participants added or connected more than 3,931 relatives for the seven starting people! The highest amount of people were added to the lines for William James Pirrie (1847-1924), who gained 865 relatives in one week! All seven of the lines were connected in unique ways to the global tree, with some being connected through multiple branches.

Altogether, more than 72 WikiTreers made 9,281 edits to connected profiles. Groups were quickly formed to tackle the more difficult lines, with emphasis on birth records and probate indexes. 

MVP: Martin McDowell

Top Bounty Hunter: Maureen Ahern

Team Captain: Donna Baumann

All contributors ● Scoring explanation ● Research resources ● Connections to all contributors 

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Our seven starting profiles: 

1. William "Stephen" (Millar) Boyd (1931-1977): We connected 718 people to him, bringing his CC7 to 726.
2. Henry George "Harry" Ferguson (1884-1960): We connected 505 people to him, bringing his CC7 to 511.
3. Seamus Justin Heaney (1939-2013): Connected 255 people to him, bringing his CC7 to 300.
4. John Wilson Kyle (1926-2014): Connected 302, bringing his CC7 to 305.
5. Robert William "Gary" Moore (1952-2011):  Connected 309, bringing his CC7 to 312.
6. William James Pirrie (1847-1924): Connected 865, bringing his CC7 to 1,404.
7. Ruby Florence (Murray) Lamar (1935-1996): Started with just seven relatives within seven degrees and connected 366 additional relatives, bringing her CC7 to 373!

Comments

Interesting Connections:

This year, 2023, is our "Year of Community Connections." So, we're looking for interesting connections between our starting people, and utilizing MyConnections, between starting people and others in their community. (Any time you are on a category page, you'll see a green MyConnections button in the corner. Click it to see how you are related to everyone in the category.)

Here are some of the connections we found this week:

• Seamus Heaney was a Nobel Prize Laureate Poet. He is widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. 16 degrees from him is Geordie Barnett, who was an Irish historian, archaeologist, botanist, geologist, folklorist and poet.  He is best known for his discovery of the Beaghmore stone circles, and developed the theory that they were an ancient lunar observatory.
• Dr. Harlow Barney was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, one of 12 children. He married Amy Wolf at the age of 20. In 1849 he was involved in a civil suit. It may be the one for an H. M. Barney regarding money lost due to a fire. He took on Greenberry Lafayette Fort as counsel. This was Fort’s first briefing as a lawyer, and he was able to win the case. His opposing counsel? Abraham Lincoln! Fort and Lincoln became fast friends, and Fort continued on to become a politician in Illinois. 
•  On 29 May 1953, Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Edmund, Derek Wright and Murray Ellis arrived at the South Pole in their Ferguson tractors on 4 January 1958. They were the first to do so overland since Scott in 1912, and the first to reach it in motor vehicles. Edmund Hillary and Harry Ferguson are 19 degrees apart.
• It was fun seeing an Australian and New Zealand connection in William’s branches. Sir James Allen GCMG KCB was a prominent New Zealand politician and diplomat, born in Adelaide, Australia. He held a number of the most important political offices in the country, including Minister of Finance and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was also New Zealand's Minister of Defense during World War I. William Hugh Montgomery CBE was born in New Zealand and was a politician of the Liberal Party, from the Canterbury region. William John Montgomery was a New Zealand politician from Little River on Banks Peninsula, and a merchant. In 1884 he became the 4th Minister of Education in New Zealand. 

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More Interesting Discoveries:

• Sometimes we find the occupations are what bring the couples together. This one was found off on Ruby Lamar’s branches. Ellen McCormick was 23 years old, a spinster, and a shirtmaker, residing Bennet St, when she married Thomas Doherty. He was  25 years old, a bachelor, and a tailor, residing on William street, the son of William Doherty. Ellen Doherty was Ruby Lamar’s great-grand-aunt.
• Samuel Cunningham represented his family's Belfast-based linen business in the West Indies. In 1796, He was in St. Vincent planning a trip home to Ireland. He was only 28 years old; but he had a premonition that he was going to die enroute. So, he wrote his will. In it he left generous bequests for each of his parents, all his siblings, the poor of Killead parish, and other named individuals. Sure enough, Samuel was in a battle at sea when a French privateer attacked the ship he was on - the Portland Packet, which was under the British flag. Samuel fought bravely with the seamen (according to the survivors) to fend off the attack and save the cargo; but he and the captain were shot and killed. Samuel is buried on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean Sea. The ship eventually made its way back to Ireland.
• The inter-related families of Andrews, Barbour and Pirrie have made many notable contributions to the industrial and political life of what is now Northern Ireland, both before and after the partition of Ireland in the 1920s. See The interlinked Andrews, Barbour and Pirrie dynasties of Northern Ireland.
• Starting person Gary Moore's great-great grandfather John Lowry was a mariner and sea captain for over 20 years (before changing occupations). His first wife's sister also married a sailor and sea captain (William McMeekin). They all lived on the same street in Belfast in the 1870s. William McMeekin became deputy harbour master for the City of Belfast! He held this position from at least 1877 to 1900. His son Edward McMeekin worked as a ship's engineer. Sadly Edward was found dead in Belfast's Abercorn Basin in the afternoon of 6 December 1915. There was no evidence to show how he entered the water.

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Watch the reveal on YouTube! 

Answer 1

This is such a wonderful place for contributing to the global tree! Salutations to all who participated!

Comments

Thanks Alexandra! I think they did an amazing job!