More Martins - Livingston Co, NY

 

The obituary of Thomas Martin of Lima, NY, seen at left, states that his brother was "Malachi Martin, late of this town [Livonia]."

I've been tracing Malachi Martin's family because his daughter Mary married into my Powell family, and as the mother of John Powell (see last week's post "Finding John Powell - 1 possibility down").

The Martin families are Irish Catholics. Thomas Martin, according to his obituary, came to the United States in 1834. I can narrow down Malachi's immigration date to abt 1848, based on church histories in the local county history.

This is a completely different group for me to research. The Irish immigrants on my mother's side are from Northern Ireland and are Presbyterian. Probably they will end up going back to Scotland, if I can figure out their townlands in Ireland. (That's a whole other kettle of fish.)

It has been super interesting to follow these families of Thomases, Williams, Marys, Anns, and Margarets. The Martin family appears to have come from the far northwest of County Tipperary in Ireland. I've been able to find some records for them in Tipperary before coming to America via the irish Family History Foundation website (http://www.rootsireland.ie), though the records there are all extracts, unfortunately.

The town the family is from is at the extreme northwest of County Tipperary. However, when most people think of Tipperary they think of Cashel (well, at least I do.) I love these photos that I took when I was in Ireland. One is of the Rock of Cashel and one is the view from the Rock of Cashel.

I'm having a bit more luck once the family moved to America as there are Roman Catholic church records for the family in Livingston Co, New York. This is my first time working with Roman Catholic records; I can't think of one family that have been RC in my direct line except one, and that one has not been confirmed by records.

Here is an example: the burial record for Mary (Martin) Powell Tone, daughter of Malachi Martin:

19 August 1908: "Mrs Michael Tone was buried in Livonia this morning. She died on the 15th aged about 84 years."

There are a large number of related families in these church records - I've already noticed the ones I know are related to the Malachi Martin family. The Thomas Martin family lived in Lima, and that town's church records are, of course, on another roll of film....

[Citations available upon request.]