Just returned from a month in France and reading old E mails - one from Alison Causton about her serach for a PRoNI guide to landed estates. I am interested to know about the Londonderry estates in IRL as I have some HARPERs who arrived in the NE England c 1850 from IRL - they came, I would think to work at the Londonderry coal mines so it is a reasonable supposition that they came from Londonderry estates in IRL , possibly a mining area. I have no idea where coal mines were to be found in N IRL particularly any owned by the Londonderrys - so would be very grateful if anyone you can tell me anything useful ...............I do find Irish genealogy v difficult - the records where they exist appear to be very closely guarded and mostly only accessible via professional genealogists or personal visit! So - where were the coal mines to be found and which ones were owned by the Londonderrys? Which townships were closest to these mines - or am I in the completely wrong county? Help please !!!!!!!!!!!!! Ann Lavery

I come from NI originally,and am not aware of any "coalfields'in Ireland.I am looking for Harpers too - brothers of my direct line - who appear to have gone to N England and Scotland.My Harpers worked for another big estate - Pelipar - which belonged to the Ogilby family,in Dungiven Co Derry.I know they moved their workers between their other estates. My direct line is - James Alexander HARPER[my late husband]son of Joseph Harper,son of James Harper [born Scotland but returned to Ireland] son of Joseph Harper and Mary Scott [m'd 1854 Scotland] Joseph b 1816[m'd M Scott] and his brothers may have been in Derby England but by no means certain. Betsy Harper ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 7:18 PM Subject: [Derry] Re: NIR-DERRY-D Digest V03 #97 > > Just returned from a month in France and reading old E mails - one from > Alison Causton about her serach for a PRoNI guide to landed estates. > > I am interested to know about the Londonderry estates in IRL as I have some > HARPERs who arrived in the NE England c 1850 from IRL - they came, I would > think to work at the Londonderry coal mines so it is a reasonable supposition that > they came from Londonderry estates in IRL , possibly a mining area. > > I have no idea where coal mines were to be found in N IRL particularly any > owned by the Londonderrys - so would be very grateful if anyone you can tell me > anything useful ...............I do find Irish genealogy v difficult - the > records where they exist appear to be very closely guarded and mostly only > accessible via professional genealogists or personal visit! > > So - where were the coal mines to be found and which ones were owned by the > Londonderrys? Which townships were closest to these mines - or am I in the > completely wrong county? Help please !!!!!!!!!!!!! > > Ann Lavery > > > ==== NIR-DERRY Mailing List ==== > Visited the *NEW* RootsWeb Message Boards yet? Take a tour soon & see > how time-saving "Gateway" messages can be compared to finding *new* > ones on your own. http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=main&r=rw . > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >