Rob - It happened a lot in Maryland because of the happy practice of patentee's giving names to their land tracts. All of the original tracts surveyed in Maryland in colonial times, be they 50 or 5000 acres, were given a name by the person requesting the survey. There are thousands and thousands of these with an endless variety of names chosen, some humorous (Fat Arse Quarter, Eunochs Delight, James Triumph over his Adversary, Franklins Oyster Haven, Bite Me Slyly, Bugs Hole Marsh), some descriptive (Flat Land, White Oak Swamp, Rattlesnake Ridge, Prickly Pear Island, Between the Branches), some philosophical (Batchelors Folly, Littleworth, Beginning of Sorrow (six years after, and next to, Beginning of Content), Laws Last Chance, Worst is Past, Purgatory). The foregoing all come just from Somerset County, Maryland, which is my main concentration. Among them there was also a good scattering of names that harken back to the settler's origin in the ould country, be it England, Scotland or Wales. There are Corks, Dublins, Belfasts and Derrys, and Coleraine and Glasgow, but many minor townlands as well. I mentioned some Ulter-Scot names in an earlier note - Ballybugin, Castle Finn, Ballendrait, Dennigal, Clonlett and Ballyshannon. My own family's first tracts were Polks Folly and Forlorne Hope, found in the area of Damn Quarter, in the lee of Devils Island. These didn't seem to portend well for their future prospects. Surprisingly - apropos the issue of Ulsterites heading to the South of Ireland - two of the next generation Polks chose the names Clonmel and Ballyhack for the first lands that they patented. These are in the South of Ireland, not Cork, but in nearby Waterford, and seems to indicate that the family had a sojourn there after leaving Donegal, but before heading for America. My conjecture is that the sons were born in those places and chose the names for that reason, but for now this is just an unanswered question. There was a thriving colony of Huguenots in Clonmel and there was a natural affinity between the Presbyterian Ulster Scots and the Huguenots, so it makes sense. John Polk > [Original Message] > From: Rob Hilliard <rhilliard@mackinengineering.com> > To: <Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com> > Date: 3/29/2006 7:52:58 AM > Subject: RE: [Sc-Ir] Calhoun: Letterkenny, Donegal > PA > Ohio > > Linda's note below brings up an interesting situation that can be seen > repeated all over Pennsylvania (no, not the link between chewing tobacco > and cancer, although that might be worth looking into too). Her source > says: > "[William Cohoun] was born in Donegal, Ireland 4 miles from > "Letter-Keeney" [Letterkenny]." > > Then: > "He left in 1818, sailing from Londonderry on May 7 for Quebec. > His destination was Chambersburg, PA. He had 2 uncles there who had > built and operated a paper mill and a store, where he hoped to find > employment." > > Now the rest of the story is that there was a small village called > Letterkenny, located just outside of Chambersburg, PA. It's now the > site of the Letterkenny Army Depot. > > Clearly this is not a coincidence. There are lots of examples of this > around the state so apparently it was a somewhat common practice, when a > group of folks from one particular town relocated together to PA, to > take the name of the Old Home Town with them and use it here. There are > dozens of Ulster town names scattered all over PA, but principally in > the south-central and western part of the state where most of the SI > first settled. > > I mention this because it may be a useful clue when trying to track down > your ancestors on either side of the pond. I'm curious, do folks see > this frequently in other states as well? > > Rob > > -----Original Message----- > From: Linda Merle [mailto:merle@fea.net] > Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 5:20 PM > To: Scotch-Irish-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: [Sc-Ir] Calhoun: Letterkenny, Donegal > PA > Ohio > > Hi folks, I found this doing other research and hope someone finds this > in the archives some day. In any case, he was quite a man! The > archetypal Ulsterman. His siblings did not emigrate so perhaps his > family survives in Ireland. He was related to several prominant > families: CLARK and CULBERTSON. > > I found it at the free resource > > http://digital.library.pitt.edu/ > > The Old and New Mongehela > p, 42 contains the life of William Cohoun. A lot of his experiences are > rather typical. > > He was born in Donegal, Ireland 4 miles from "Letter-Keeney" > [Letterkenny] 10 Jun 1796, the son of Andrew who had been born, lived, > and died in the house. Only William emigrated. > > He left in 1818, sailing from Londonderry on May 7 for Quebec. > His destination was Chambersburg, PA. He had 2 uncles there who had > built and operated a paper mill and a store, where he hoped to find > employment. Since there were no large vessels sailing for Philly for 2 > or 3 weeks, he took what was available, to Quebec, with 3 others, on a > schooner. It's rather typical that he would take what was available. > --- John Polk --- Havre de Grace MD --- jfpolk@earthlink.net