The half-life of Henry Gibson

I've been thinking lately about my family history research, and how I haven't written in this blog for two months. I hate taking long breaks like that, makes it feel like I'm not keeping up on my research, identifying my family's heritage, and sharing it in a lasting way. I have also been trying to think of ways to pass on what I know about my ancestors to my kids. Learning and knowing about my ancestors is great for me, but a bigger part of the reason I do this is to bring their rediscovered stories to future generations so they don't get lost again. So I decided to try something - I want to commit to posting more regularly, and do a synopsis or brief life story of some of my direct ancestors. Hopefully this will be a good way to see what gaps I have in my own knowledge, and at the same time work as a quick way to give my kids an idea of who their ancestors were in a more digestible, less "listen to dad drone on and on for hours" sort of way.

I chose to start this with my earliest known Gibson ancestor, Henry Gibson. As I went through the documents I've accumulated over the years, I realized a couple things. First, he died relatively young at the age of 56. That might have seemed old to me once, but now that I'm in my early 40s, it doesn't sound that old at all. Second, the smattering of documents I have only covers the second half of his life - I don't have any documents on him at all before the age of 28. Hence the title of this post refers to the half of Henry's life that I do have some knowledge of.

The earliest mention I have of Henry is in the birth record of his oldest known child, a son named William born in Gortnagullion, County Fermanagh, Ireland, in 1844. Interestingly, he was the same age my dad and I both were, 28, when our first children were born. He worked as a farmer, but as far as I've been able to tell he didn't know any land, though maybe he rented or had some other arrangement. Just over a year later, a second child was born. I haven't seen a copy of the baptism record, but the person transcribing it couldn't read the name, so I don't know if it was a son or daughter. The child seems not to have lived long, as Henry and his family immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada in 1846, and the 1851 Canada census only names Henry, his wife Ann, and their son William as being born in Ireland. All their other children were born in Canada. I've often wondered if that second child died in Ireland, and if Henry and Ann had to bid the grave of their child farewell when they left to escape the potato famine.

Henry and Ann had seven more children in Canada - Thomas, John (my ancestor), James, Ann Jane, Sarah, Martha, and George. He worked as a laborer in Canada, making bricks and doing other jobs to support his family. In 1851, his family shared a home with three other families, making 21 people crammed into a single house. I can't imagine accommodations were super spacious, but they survived. They moved around a few times, and eventually lived in a home near Marsh Bridge in Saint John, New Brunswick. Henry likely died there on 4 April 1872. A funeral was held from his home two days later on 6 April. A local paper said he was a native of Pettigo in County Donegal, Ireland, the county northwest of Fermanagh. I haven't been able to confirm that yet, and hope to one day find out exactly where Henry came from.

That's really about all I know of Henry. He had a hard life - losing a child, probably losing other relatives in Ireland in the famine, leaving his homeland, and raising a large family in a new land. I'm grateful he did though, as it gave me and my family a chance to live in a great and free land, whereas they may not have even survived had they stayed in Ireland.

Genealogy Blog Party - April 2016: The Doctor and I

Elizabeth O'Neal recently suggested we have a genealogy blog party, and I thought it was a great idea! The theme of the part is this: after saving the universe with The Doctor (from Doctor Who), he offers to take me back to meet an ancestor of mine. Where do I go? Who do I visit? Do I disrupt the space-time continuum? The possibilities are pretty close to endless, but here's what and who I chose:

I would head to Gortnagullion, County Fermanagh, Ireland in 1844, where my 3rd-great-grandfather Henry Gibson and his wife Ann were living. I want to see what conditions were like for them in Ireland, and whether they chose to leave for more opportunity or just to survive. I would of course ask him who his ancestors were as far back as he knows, for himself and his wife, and whether he knows if his family originally came from Scotland or England. But I would also want to know more about him personally - what his goals were, what he wanted out of life for himself and his family, and what he felt about Ireland as a country. Was he proud to be Irish even though he ended up leaving? Would he want his descendants to remember where in Ireland they came from, or would that even matter to him?

I would probably want to tell him who I am, that I am his descendant from 170 years in the future, but after seeing the Back to the Future movies, I would probably restrain myself for fear of creating a paradox and destroying the universe. I would like to tell him in general terms that his family survives and thrives in the new world, serving in the military, becoming doctors and nurses and many other honorable occupations. And maybe, just maybe, try to convince him to do a DNA test for me.

I am from Gortnagullion, Drumkeeran, Fermanagh

This is my first ever blog post that's not really about people; it's about a place. That specific place is the townland of Gortnagullion, in the civil parish of Drumkeeran, in County Fermanagh, Ireland. This is where my ancestors Henry and Ann Gibson were living when their first two children were born, and presumably where they were living when they left Ireland and immigrated to New Brunswick, Canada.

Map of Ireland in Google Earth

County Fermanagh (pronounced fer-MAN-uh) is in Northern Ireland, two counties south of the tip-top of Ireland (Londonderry and Tyrone are above it). County Fermanagh is circled in black in the map above. Finding this out was really interesting, as Henry and Ann's son John married Catherine Cain, whose father was from County Tyrone. The Gibsons and Cains wouldn't have exactly been neighbors in Ireland, but they wouldn't have been that far apart either. I wonder if that shared point of origin played into their getting married?

According to IrishTimes.com, English and Scottish settlers moved into County Fermanagh in the early 1600s. I have to wonder if that's when my Gibson line moved to Ireland. The Gibson name isn't a native Irish surname, and when I looked at my grandpa's Y-DNA results at the 12-marker level, for those matches that list country of origin, most of them are in England. Interesting to think about, but because of the lack of records, ultimately unknowable one way or the other.



Civil Parishes of County Fermanagh

The civil parish of Drumkeeran is the northernmost in the County (it's number 10 on the map above). It was originally part of Magheraculmoney parish (#18 above) but according to one website was split off around 1770.

I'm still trying to find more info on Gortnagullion itself, as it seems it's not longer extant as a town or townland. The nearest settlement seems to be Drumskinny. I'll keep researching to find out what I can about Gortnagullion.

It still amazes me that I have a place in Ireland that I can point to on a map and say "the Gibsons originated here!" I'm looking forward to learning all I can about my ancestral homeland, and hopefully seeing it in person one day.

Ireland bound! Well, eventually

Ireland, I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out, won't you take my hand?
I'm coming home, Ireland

"Ireland" by Garth Brooks
 

I've made a lot of discoveries in the last 16 years of genealogy research, but few as important to me as the one I made last week.

When I finally confirmed that Henry and Ann Gibson were John Gibson's parents, I went back to the County Fermanagh mailing list and asked for help in finding info on them in their (allegedly) native town of Pettigo. One of the suggestions that came back was to search the archives of the mailing list, as someone may have written about them already. So I did, and here's what I found:

Baptism records for two children of Henry - son William from wife Jane born in 1844, and another child with wife Ann born in 1845. This was hugely exciting for several reasons:
1. My Henry and Ann had a son named William, born in Ireland in 1844, listed with them on the 1851 New Brunswick census.
2. Henry and Ann had a daughter named Ann Jane listed with them in that same 1851 census.
3. The baptism records list the townland of residence for Henry and Ann - Gortnagullion in County Fermanagh, just a few miles east of Pettigo.

The confluence of names, ages, residences, and birthplaces all fits. I am convinced that these baptism records are my family! I have been searching and searching for this information for 16 years, and now that I finally have it, I can only think of one thing...

I'm going to Ireland!!!

Well, eventually. Probably not until sometime in 2017, giving me time to plot, plan, and most importantly, afford the trip. I've said for years that I wanted to postpone a vacation to Ireland until I knew where my people were from, so I could visit the place. But for now, even just knowing the name of village where they last lived before leaving Ireland, and the possibility that I'll be the first of their descendants to visit it since they left in 1846, is staggering and exciting. As Garth Brooks memorably sang, Ireland, I'm coming home!