Hi Rob, yes, people do name places after their hometowns in other states. There's a Belfast in Maine. A politican I once 'met' on the Internet in Northern Ireland regaled her listeners' with her close brush with death due to laughter. She found a sign in New Hampshire that has "Derry" in one direction and "Londonderry" in the other! I am always finding places in Western PA named after places in Eastern. I also heard of a guy who was making a pilgrimage to all the places in the USA named Dublin. LOTS of Dublins all the way to the Pacific. It's a good clue where your ancestors came from. What does this say about the settlers of the town of Mars, I wonder???? Linda -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Rob Hilliard" <rhilliard@mackinengineering.com> > 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. >