Donegon Discovers Her Irish Ancestry

WAITSBURG – "Richard Irvine from Hill Campbell married Eliza Hay from Horn Head." This one short line, in a tome of family history, was the lone clue that led Waitsburg resident Susan Donegan on a recent quest to Ireland in search of details to her maternal ancestry.

After countless hours of research, Susan traveled to Ireland last month to see what she could learn firsthand. Within hours of arriving on the peninsula of Horn Head, through the kindnesses of a series of strangers, Susan had visited the homesteads of both her great-great-great grandfather and great-great-great grandmother.

"It still gives me chills to think about. When you spend so much time studying and researching, it's hard to describe how meaningful it is to finally stand where your ancestors actually lived," Susan said.

Susan's mother had done fairly extensive research on her husband's side of the family, but had never looked into her own. After Susan retired, last fall, she decided to investigate her mother's side of the family.

"That's something I wanted to give to her while she's still alive and sharp," Donegan said. "The problem with researching family history is that once you get started it's kind of like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. You get sucked in and you don't come up for hours," she added.

The one concise line recording the marriage of Richard Irvine to Eliza Hay was the only maternal link to Ireland that Susan had.

"Ireland has provinces, counties, towns, cities, parishes, and baronies, which makes research very difficult. They also have 'townlands' which can be a group of three or four houses," she said.

Susan learned that Horn Head – where her third great grandmother was from – is a little peninsula near the town of Dunfanaghy, in county Donegall, in the north of the Republic of Ireland. She arranged a trip in October.

Susan said her first stroke of luck was finding an Airbnb cottage rental on Horn Head. She arrived in Dunfanaghy too early to check in so she stopped in at a museum. When she asked the docent if they had any family history records she was told no, but that the docent knew who she should talk to.

"I asked for his number and she called him herself. Ten minutes later he was sitting with me in a café asking who my family was. When I said I was looking for the Hays from Horn Head he told me just where the house was, described the setting, and said I'd have no trouble finding it," Susan said.

Susan then asked about Richard from Hill Campbell. She had searched relentlessly and had been unable to find any such place. However, she knew enough Gaelic to know that "kill" means graveyard or cemetery. She asked if there was any chance that there was a Kill Campbell nearby.

"Well, yeah. Right up that hill," the gentleman said.

The Irvines had lived in a townland called Kill Campbell, just below a church and cemetery. Susan was able to find the graves of the last two Irvines who lived in the area; one died in 1953 and one in 1972. The others had emigrated to the Marietta, Ohio area to farm the hilly, rocky land that mimicked Irish pastureland they were used to.

"I can't even describe the feeling of what it's like to find one tiny piece of the puzzle after you've been looking for such a long time," Susan said. But that wasn't the end of her discoveries.

After checking into her cottage, Susan's hostess, Ursulla, asked about her family history and said she had a friend who was a history buff. Thirty minutes later, Thomas arrived at the cottage.

He knew exactly where they Hay family lived because he had grown up in the house next door! He drove them to three cottages (once stone, but now plastered over), lined up in a row, overlooking the water, with pasture running down to the sea.

"It was spectacular! Then he took me to meet a woman who had grown up in the house and whose grandmother was a Hay," Susan said. "It was just an amazing case of serendipity. Thanks to a few strangers who were willing to drop everything and help I was able to see where both of my maternal great-great-great grandparents were raised and grew up."

Susan says that exploring family ancestry is an amazing hobby but warns that it can be addictive and extremely time consuming. She said that Ancestry.com is a good place to start but warns against adding information that doesn't include source citations.

The site allows for the inclusion of photos, such as censuses and ship's logs, as well as links to other sites. Individuals can also purchase a DNA ethnicity breakdown for $99.

Susan said another helpful research site is findagrave.com where photos and information from headstones from cemeteries around the world is shared.

Susan said her first goal was to research each family line to its arrival in the United States. She learned that her Dongan relative, who arrived in 1636, was the first Baptist minister in Pennsylvania and mentored under William Penn.

Susan said her mother has always hoped to find a relative who could verify that she was eligible to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Since she began researching, Susan has found proof of four ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. She has applied for membership and once she's approved, her mother will be able to use those records to apply as well.

"That's her Christmas gift!" Susan said. "It's just a lot of fun."