Top o' the Morning to all my fellow HCGS researchers. Although I have some Irish ancestry, it's proving to be more elusive than I thought it would be to trace it back to the old sod. Anyone up for sharing their Irish ancestry today? Let's see - I do have the COURTNEYS and BODLEYS who are ancestors of my DENNISONS. Thomas Courtney was born in Northern Ireland. Was he one of the Orangemen? I don't know but he and his were buried in a Methodist cemetery in Monongalia County. I grew up hearing the romantic story of how Patrick Dennison had eloped with the daughter of Lord Courtney who was the mayor of Dublin. No one has found any factual evidence to this. However, since there is a Courtney line that married into the Dennisons (Isabella Courtney and Charles MATHES' daugher Mary Jane Mathes married John Dennison in 1851) and a couple of the Courtney descendants went back to Ireland to try to claim some property, it's easy to see how the story could get confused. Add to this that there was a Patrick Dennison, an Irish immigrant, that was living in Wood County in the late 1800's. I can just imagine some of his family meeting up with some of my line and thinking that they were somehow related. And the COSTELLO line is supposedly Irish. However, no one has traced anyone back to Ireland. I have the surnames FERRELL and MAGEE - both Irish sounding. I'm sure that there are a few others but I don't have my notes with me. Maybe if Mom gets online later, she can add more. It appears that I'm not as Irish as I originally thought. I'm wearing green and preparing a traditional Irish dinner anyway! My daughter, however, has a grandmother that was pure Irish-American. Annie's great-great grandparents didn't get here until 1888. The surnames I have for her are KELLY and LANGAN who were both from County Galway. Her great-grandmother was a CARNEY. That family was here slightly earlier. They probably immigrated around the time of the famine. I'm determined to get to Garrett County, MD this summer and see if I can find more on them. May you find a pot of genealogical gold sometime in the near future! Patricia

Top o' the Morning to all Patricia and anyone else with these hard to find Irish ancestors, mention dates you think they may have come over and if known section of Irish. You can always check the Irish surname book by McLaught or something like that (think Waldomere has it) and it will tell you areas that surname is most common and I think the meaning of the name. Barbara