Hometowns & Ancestral Birth Places

A Description and pictures of Family Hometowns and Ancestral Birth Places

... ... ... was born in Ireland.

... ... ... lived in St Catherines, Ontario, Canada.

The dominate ethic background that had the most family influence when I was growing up was our Irish background The Hennegans (sometimes spelled Hennigen or Hennigan) took great pride in being Hennegans, and hence Irish. They were very clannish a apparent Celtic trait, although shared with other ethic groups also. My mother, like her parents had been born in St. Catharine’s, Ontario Canada. Her grandfather (my great-grandfather) had left Dunmanway, County Cork to work on the construction of the Welland Canal. Dunmanway (Dún Mánmhaí in Irish) is a small town (population approx 1500) in the south west of Ireland. It is the geographical center of the region known as West Cork. It is also the ancestral home of the Hennegan Clan. My grandfather Dennis, and his sons Uncle Jack, Uncle Fred, and Uncle Tom all worked on the Welland canal until 1930 when it was finished and there was no more work available in the St. Catharines area. They all came to the U.S. together to look for work in the Niagara Falls Chemical Plants. My maternal Grandmother was a McDougal ( sometimes spelled MacDougall, McDoughal or MacDougal). I had been told erroneously by my mother that she was born in Glasgow. Actually she was born in St Catherine’s, Ontario. Her family history has been clouded in mystery ever since I learned that she was not born in Scotland and although she was a devout Catholic probably was not born or raised a Catholic either. It does explain a little why some of my MacDougal were Presbyterians. Research has told me that Clan MacDougall is a Scottish clan traditionally associated with the lands of Argyll and Lorn in Scotland. Our Scotish family tree probably originated in the Scottish highland towns of Oban or Kilininver. My great-great grandparents (Thomas Breen and Bridget Reardon) apparently were born there. Which means there is apparently a lost Canadian heritage that is more extensive then a mere stopping point before immigrating to the U.S. My father’s family has a long American tradition intertwined with its historic past. Richard Bailey immigrated from Northern Ireland around 1770. Both of my paternal ancestors (Bailey and Colyers) have towns name after them in Centre County Pennsylvania ( Baileyville & Coyler). There is also a strong Pennsylvania Dutch linage through marriage, (Coyler, Marke, l) it is believed the Coylers immigrated from Bas-Rhine, Alsace, France, the Markels from the German Palatinate]

Hennegan: Ancestral Birth Places: Dunmway, County Cork, Ireland, Nedineagh East, County Cork, Ireland, Immigration: England, United Kingdom, Montreal, Canada, St. Catherines, Ont. Canada, Oakville, Halton, Ontario, Canada, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada, Niagara Falls, New York, United States, , Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States, Oakville, Halton, Ontario, Canada.

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Memories of Hometowns & Ancestral Birth Places: 12

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Lawrence Bailey

A Grantham Township was a township on the Niagara Peninsula in Upper Canada, later Ontario. In 1960, part of it was amalgamated into the city of St. Catharines.[2] In 1970, the remaining portion was amalgamated into the new Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake.

posted 26 Dec 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

I liked Nana’s house ( 1724 Whitney) because it was so big and had many rooms to explore. I desperately wanted to buy some Garbage Pale Cards for my collection, but Nana thought them disgusting and wouldn’t let me bring any into the house. So one day when she was asleep I ran over to Pine Avenue and bought some cards. Then I hid then in the back yard, so I wouldn’t disobey Nana. She only said she wouldn’t have them in her house. She didn’t say anything about the yard. When my Dad picked me up, Nana, me and him went out to eat. As we were going my Dad said it looked like it was going to rain. I couldn’t wait to get back to the house and retrieve my cards before it rained. Fortunately the rain held off and I was able to get the cards before it rained.

Carl (Carlos) Malvino Bailey

posted 30 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Whitney Ave was the first house in America I ever set foot in. It was so different then the houses in Brazil. It took me quite a while to get use to the sound of hearing footsteps when people walked in the house.

Bernadete Bailey

posted 30 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

St Catherines, Ontario, Canada,is the hometown of many of my material relatives. Many of the past generations of the Hennegan's and some of the McDougals Have been laid to rest in St Catherines Victory Lawn Cemetery. Many other were maried in the Church of St Catherines of Alexandria.

Apparently in the late 1800's and early 1900's St Catherines had a large Irish Imigrant population. Most had migrated their to build the Welland Cannal. My Grandparents with their large family lived at 85 Janies St. St. Catharines ) is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, It lies in Southern Ontario, It is the northern entrance of the Welland Canal. St. Catharines carries the official nickname "The Garden City" due to its 1,000 acres (4 km2) of parks, gardens and trails. The city was first settled by Loyalists in the 1780s. The Crown granted them land in compensation for their services and for losses in the United States. The small settlement was first known as "The Twelve" and as "Murray's District" The first Welland Canal was constructed from 1824 to 1833 behind what is now known as St. Paul Street. St. Catharines a center of abolitionist activity. The town became known to refugee slaves from the United States as a place of "refuge and rest"; it was a destination, one of the final stops in Canada on the Underground Railroad for refugee African-American slaves. I ve been to St Catherines but don't have many memories of it, other than seeing my Grandmother's Grave. I don't even remember seen my Grandfather's i recall that someone said he had been buried in another part of the cemetery. The only childhood memory I have is of visiting some relatives there. I regrettable can't remember their names. They had two charming and pretty daughter. One was named Nora, she was a year or so younger then me. I really liked her. They visited us a few times. But after my grandmother died They never came again and we never visited them.

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, Was the hometown of the McDougals and Grants my Great-grand parents. My Grandmother was born there according to family record, despite my mother told us she was Ireland. i know little of the town and have made it a goal to eventually go their. Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is a part of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. The majority of residents reside in the area bounded by Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment. The escarpment (colloquially known as 'the mountain') is home to a section of the Bruce Trail.

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Coyler,Pennsylvania is a Village in Potter Township Centre County, Pa. is a profusion of roads which loops quite confusingly over a considerable territory. A Saw Mill was built their by William Coyler, Hence its name. The lumbering operation was the main source of employment in Potter Township for many years.

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Baileyville, Pennsylvania was founded by Richard Bailey. It is a picture-post card village in Ferguson Township, Centre County Pa. It con sists of two sections West Baileyville and East Baileyville. Richard bought the surround land and resold them to people who formed the nucleus of the Village. His son John Bailey built a grist and flour mill in 1812 in the center of the village

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Scotia Pennsylvania is a town that no longer exist. The village was vacated in 1922. Although the community was called Scotia, the name of the local post office was Benore ( Gaelic for Mountain of Ore) Andrew Carnegie through the Edgar Thompson Steel Company leased large tracts in the township. Small-scale open pit mining took place there since the 1880. However mining halted abt. 1913 when the ore deposits were no longer economical to work.

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Port Matilda, Pennsylvania even more than my native City and birth place of Niagara Falls seems like my Ancestral Home. It my roots, it who I am. It was the town where my Father grew up. It where I spent my summers as a child. It is or at least was a sleepy small bourough which sits in the southeast corner of Centre County among the ridges and valleys of the Northeaster Appalachians. Legion has it that the valley took it name from a Shawnee Indian Chief whose tribe once inhabited the valley.

The town at the foot of Skytop Mountain in the Bald Eagle Valley was laid out by Clement Beckwith in 1850, and named for his daughter. My father’s family moved there Just before World War I when the Coal mines in Scotia Pa. ran out. Port Matilda was home to McFeely Brick Co., located on Brick St. at the northeast end of the town adjacent to the railroad. My Grandfather and later father went to work in the brick yard by father at the age of 15 years. There he learned how to operate large machinery including a crane. this knowledge led to his being placed in a Combat Engineer Battalion during World War II and becoming a crane operate for UNION CARBIDE before and after the war. Along Main Street there were a row of quaint Pennsylvania Dutch white houses with green awnings, long verandas, each with a swing on them and a hex symbols above the doors. Every house had a brick pathway leading from the street to the porch. The main industries in the town was the Lacobe Brickyard. There was the yellow brick Clearfield Savings and Loan, a barber shop, and a Restaurant (where I learned to play pin ball), and a Texaco Station but the dominating feature of the downtown was the General Store. I have fond memories of walking the uniquely rural streets and the unpaved streets called lanes. Two streams flow through the town. On the eastside of the town running northward was the clear water babbling Halfmoon Creek. On the southwest side of town, running to the edge of Grandmother’s backyard was the deeper slow moving brown water Bald Eagle Creek. It was in the Bald Eagle Creek, under the bridge that connected West Water Street to East Water Street, where I caught my first fish it was a small undersize sun fish. However I felt as if I had caught a twelve-foot Marlin. My Grandmother’s home was on a White house opn Water St. I don’t remember others around it though. On one side of the house was a train depot. As kids I and my brother’s and sisters would run along the tracks, waving and racing after the steam engines. At night in my father’s old bed upstairs in my Grandmothers House I’d listen to the trains roar through at night. The Bald Eagle Creek boarder my Grandmothers backyard; and I would pretend that it was Bald Eagles Camp. At night on warm summer nights fireflies by the hundreds lit up the yard and danced like fairies, as we kids tried to catch them in bottles. (see: Centre County Townships and Boroughs http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pacentre/twpsboros.htm

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

Lawrence Bailey

Dunmanway (Dún Mánmhaí in Irish) is a small town (population approx 1500) in the south west of Ireland. It is the geographical centre of the region known as West Cork. It is also the ansestral home of the Hennegan Clan. Dunmanway is the heart of the West Cork region. This region is internationally famed for its beautiful scenery and terrain as well as its cuisine and hospitality. The town itself is surrounded by picturesque mountains, ideal for hillwalking, to the north, south and west. Hence it has often been called "Gateway to the Mountains". One of Dunmanway's greatest assets are its beautiful natural surroundings and terrain, typical of the West Cork region. The town is encompassed by hills to the North, South and West, and apart from being picturesque, it has a lake situated only a few hundred metres from the town centre.

posted 26 May 2016 by Lawrence Bailey

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