Hi Linda, You have me interested in the line of Johnstons and wondered if you have seen any records that had marriages to Flemings. I have relatives John and James Fleming who married sisters Mary and Margaret Johnston I believe.........when I was in NI and my cousin took us to the hometown of my Flemings he said a relative from the US came over looking for connections.......he didnt know where they lived or anything else.. Surely the lines have mention of double cousins and relatives. Anyone know these Johnstons??? Appreciate any help. Sarah

Hi Sarah, nope, don't recall any, but I was looking only in Catholic records in two specific areas for people name Constantine and Thomas. I may have seen other marriages but as I was being paid to see marriages of Constantine and Thomas, they didn't register at all. These particular Johnstons migrated in such a way as to preserve their religion, first to Baltimore and then to the area close to the St. Vincent mission in Westmoreland County. The area came to have a sizable Catholic population -- some Irish and some German -- and they intermarried. St. Martins was built in New Derry and then my client's ancestors attended church there. Burials for St. Martins are on line: http://noel.mcn.org/StMartin%27sCemetery.htm . I don't recall finding St. Vincent's records on line but they are published. Another early misson, serviced out of St. Vincents was the Buffalo settlement (on Buffalo Creek). Many of them were from Donegal, leaving in 1795 on the Eliza. More info on my website. Viewing the St. Vincent's records I could see many marriages amongst the people living to the south near St. Vincents. They were a close knit group. The Buffalo or Sugar Creek congregation are the founders of the first diocese west of the Allegheny Mountains. The petition requesting a priest was signed by both Presbyterians and Catholics for this was a mixed religious settlement in both Ireland and America and quite United Irish in their sentiments: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~merle/Butler/index.htm . I think some of my ancestors married women from the Sugar Creek group as my ancestor Frances Anderson lived close by. All the Catholic families that I have encountered from these groups have remained staunch Catholics because of efforts made by the ancestors to live in areas where they could take the sacraments and live as Catholics. So unless your family tradition is Catholic I doubt you are associated with them. They are a very interesting group to research. But unless your family was Catholic this is of no help to you. You can learn a lot about early Catholic migration here: http://noel.mcn.org/MigrationC.htm You can see that they cluster. Former Catholics who didn't live in the indicated areas know are known as "Scotch-Irish". Seriously! In the early 1800s a priest from Ireland toured through the highlands of VIrginia and the Carolinas. He noted many with Irish surnames. When queried the bearers said yes that they were of Irish ancestry -- but they'd all been Baptist or Methodist for generations. They'd assimilated. Those who made sure that their children would be raised as Catholics lived in the areas indicated and didn't assimilate. Linda Merle ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sarah" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 8:01:45 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: [S-I] Johnstons in PA Hi Linda, You have me interested in the line of Johnstons and wondered if you have seen any records that had marriages to Flemings. I have relatives John and James Fleming who married sisters Mary and Margaret Johnston I believe.........when I was in NI and my cousin took us to the hometown of my Flemings he said a relative from the US came over looking for connections.......he didnt know where they lived or anything else.. Surely the lines have mention of double cousins and relatives. Anyone know these Johnstons??? Appreciate any help. Sarah ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message