Reference: Note from Sharyn Wisely Anderson <sanderson@nwaluminum.com> dated 29 July 1999 regarding Dunboe, Wisely ancestors, and requesting information on Abraham Fulton and Maragret Guthrie Anderson, Sharyn" wrote:> > Dear Roberta, > I am so glad you wrote back to me. I was at 1st Dunboe Church last month > with my grown daughter, researching my family, the Wisely family, of > Ballywildrick... Dear Sharyn, Glad to hear that your visit in Dunboe was so rewarding when you searched the church registers. The Rev. James McCaughan and his wife Alison at Dunboe are such gracious hosts. I highly recommend reading Alison A. McCaughan's book HEATH, HEARTH AND HEART, The Story of Dunboe & the Meeting House at Articlave, Coleraine Printing Co, Londonderry, NI, 1988. She gives a wonderful analysis of the historical times that influenced the community at Dunboe. I have a copy of the first two chapters that covers 1603-1800 and can start a "Round Robin" exchange for those who are interested. Unfortunately the book is out of print. You mentioned about a Rev. Fulton was the founding pastor of the First Dunboe and that his descendants pretty much owned one of the townlands. In the pamphlet "First Dunboe An Historical Sketch" by the Rev James Mark, privately published 1936, on page 6 he lists a Thomas Fulton 1656, not a James, as the first Presbyterian minister of Dunboe. He states that the descendants of Thomas Fulton owned the townland of Ballywoolen which rests on the River Bann where it flows into the ocean. He says they were tillers of the soil until the year 1772, when they migrated to America and that the farms once owned by the Fultons now belong to four families named Dugan. Some researchers who have analyzed Thomas Fulton's will feel that he had no living children because his will (of which there is an extract in P.R.O.N.I. - T808 4776) does not mention any descendants, only his brother William and sisters Barbara and Margaret. Perhaps Abraham Fulton and Margaret Guthrie were a collateral branch to Thomas' line. Returning to Rev Mark's pamphlet, on page 7 he comments, "It is interesting to record some of the names of old families in Dunboe connected with the Presbyterian Church in 1663 and who are still represented in the parish and connected with our Church - Hazlett, Fulton, Morrison, Blair, Hyndman, Cunningham, Anderson, M'Clelland, Barr, Henry, and Jeffers." > Do you know anything about the above reference [Abraham Fulton > and Margaret Guthrie]? He suggests that I look for > Wiselys in the Derry Presbyterian Church history. On the Fulton discussion list archives there is a great deal of information on Abraham Fulton/Margaret Guthrie lines. ROOTSWEB has now provided on menu-driven interface to search the archives of the discussion lists. It can be reached at: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl Specify Fulton-L and search for Guthrie. I am not familar with the Wisely family. I will :cc the Fulton discussion list in case someone on the list can offer you more information. It does not appear in the index of the book the Fulton Family of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania by Ernest Craighead, but keep in mind that indexes are rarely complete. It sounds as though you feel that your Wisely family must have been in Pennsylvania. Genealogical "How-to" books recommend start with what you know and work backwards. Check the neighbors of Wiselys in the area in the U.S where you know they lived. Also, since you know where your Wisely's were located in Dunboe, check out their neighbors' surnames. Did any of them migrate ? That may give you leads as to where your Wiselys first settled. Do you know when the immigrant ancestor arrived in America ? From the book, The Presbytery of Coleraine, by Julia E. Mullin, Belfast, 1979 on page 79 it states: "Descendants of Mr. Fulton farmed at Ballywoolen on the river Bann until 1772 when Abraham Fulton and his wife Margaret (nee Guthrie of Exorna) and their children James, Robert, Abraham, Henry, Joseph and Margaret emigrated to America. The Fulton family were given a certificate from Dunboe church before they left Ireland - it was dated 26 May 1772 and signed by the Rev Wm Knox, minister of Dunboe at that time. A number of families emigrated from Dunboe at this time including Wm and John Guthrie, and John Boyd and his wife who was a daughter of Abraham and Margaret Fulton. They landed at Baltimore and penetrated into western Pennsylvania as far a Westmoreland County, which was just opening up for settlers, and established a hamlet which they called Derry and which is now a flourishing town in Pennsylvania. During the American war of Independence the emigrants from Dunboe fought against the home country and served in the Westmoreland County Militia in support of Washington. John Boyd was paymaster and Wm and John Guthri, Abraham, James, Robert, Joseph, and Henry Fulton were all privates. After the war, the emigrants built a church in Derry called "Old Salem Presbyterian Church" and John Boyd was an elder in this church. Four of his sons became ministers - Abraham of Bull Creek Presbyterian Church, Pennsylvania, John of several churches in Pennsylvania, Benjamin and James of churches in Ohio." Dunboe was instrumental in "populating" numerous other areas in America. You may want to focus on some of the primary ones, although this is not an efficient way of researching and should only be used after you have exhausted all your resources in the areas that you definitely know your folks were living in. Rev. Marks mentioned that Dunboe folks settled in Casco Bay, Maine and Londonderry, New Hampshire, Derry, Westmoreland, PA, and Mauch Chunk, Carbon Co, PA In Rev. Mark's booklet pages 24-25 he mentions his trip to America in 1926 to raise money for the Dunboe church and he visited churches at Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill and Catasauqua, PA all of which were started by emigrants from the First Dunboe. He also found "kinsfolk" in Bethlehem. In the book, GENEALOGIES, NECROLOGY, and REMINISCENCES of the IRISH SETTLEMENT or A Record of those Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Families who were First Settlers in the "Forks of Delaware," now Northampton county Pennsylvania - A Sequel to the History of the Allen Township Presbyterian Church, by Rev. John C. Clyde, A.M. Whose Ancestry have been identified with the Settlement from its Infancy, publ by the author,1879, it discusses early settlers in an area not far from Catasauqua, PA. There are no Wisely or Fultons listed in the Index. On page 16 it states, "John Boyd was born in or near Edinburg, Scotland, in sixteen hundred and ninety. He removed thence, with his father's family, to Antrim, Ireland, in seventeen hundred. From thence he removed to America, when twenty-four years of age, in seventeen hundred and fourteen settling in Philad'a. In seventeen hundred and fifteen, he married 2 jane Craig, sister to 3 Thomas Craig. She was born in Scotland, in sixteen hundred and ninety-five. John and 2 Jane Boyd removed, with Col Thomas Craig and other families, from Phil'a, about seventeen hundred and twenty-eight, and formed what was afterwards known as the Irish Settlement in Northamptom County, Pa." Even though the above quote does not provide us any specific information on Wisely or Fulton, is does nicely document the migration pattern we see for so many of our families: from Scotland, to Northern Ireland, to America. Roberta R. (Fulton) Hirth Harriman, New York 10926 FULTON web page at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~elisa96/hirth/fulton.htm