Hi Connie... I've been meaning to comment on the below message a bit.... First, I agree that being "Irish bred", speaking with an Irish accent, and doing a mean Irish jig are no proof of being born in Ireland... although they are "strong" indicators of an Irish background... {:-)! (I well remember my OWN grandfather, also named James Strong, using some Irish pronunciation and dancing a "mean Irish jig"... once in the middle of a little bridge in Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, British Columbia. However, he was actually born in Ontario in ~1876, and HIS father came over from Ireland in 1842... some 30+ years previously.) Second, consider the possibility that your James and Prudence either came over to the US on the same ship, or came separately in a "chain migration" sequence from Ireland. Chain Migration was the phenomenon where first one or two persons would migrate to a particular area, become established to some extent... "learning the ropes"... and then later send info encouraging relatives, friends, neighbors in the "old sod" to emigrate to the same area in the new world. This happened repeatedly, ending with entire districts emptying in Ireland and transplanting themselves to a close locale in the new world. As a result, surnames and relationships which were in close conjunction in the old world recurr in the new world. The point behind this is that you should not give up on Donegal as being the point of origin for both James Strong and Prudence Elliott... {:-)! Also, I have been meaning to suggest to you that you might be smart to concentrate your research efforts in Donegal on Prudence Elliott, rather than James Strong. For one thing, Dale Strong pretty well mined the available info re the Strongs in Donegal, and we have put most of that info into the Irish Data Base... and James, like George, John, etc., is all too common a name, making it difficult to trace individuals.... Whereas Prudence is a good "marker" name, and might well appear in the Elliott lineage if it can be established. Also, there is always the possibility that Dale missed info involving Strongs because it appeared in records concerning the other common names in Donegal, such as Magee, Haron, Morrow, Elliott, Dudgeon, etc. I am copying this email to Tom Strong, Sr., with the suggestion that he put you in touch with Marge Carlson of Boston, MA, who may be able to give some insights into the Elliott and other lineages in Donegal.... Good Luck! David B. "Dave" Strong Email: [email protected] Website, "Researching Strong(e)s and Strang(e)s in Britain & Ireland" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/7530 *************************** -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, October 08, 1998 1:08 PM Subject: A little more info on James from Ireland > >Found some more of my g Aunt Kate Strong's notes. She says that James came to >New York with a brother whose name she didn't know. They got separated in NY >and James went on to West VA where he ran a pottery in or near Wheeling. He >lived, however, just across the border into Ohio. Thelma found a marriage >record for James STRONG and Prudence ELLIOT in Ohio just a few months before >John was born so I think that John was probably born in the US. Aunt Kate >states that she believes he was born in Ireland because he said he was Irish >bred, spoke with an Irish accent, and could do a mean Irish Jig. I hardly >think this is proof he was born in Ireland. As for the marriage of James and >Pridence, they could have had a lay marriage in Ireland and a church marriage >in the states (John could have been conceived in Ireland), or they may have >not even known each other prior to coming to the states. People got pregnant >out of wedlock then too. I just don't know which it is. The really frustrating >thing is that Aunt Kate notes that Sherman STRONG of Missouri (son of Finley >Ritchy STRONG, John's brother) had all of the documentation but she didn't >copy it all down! > >Is anyone out there looking into the Finley Ritchy STRONG (b. 1825, m. Orleans >WRIGHT) line? If so, you may have the info we need. > >That's all for now. > >Connie >[email protected] > > >==== STRONG Mailing List ==== >======================================================== >THE STRONG ROOTS DATABASE: >http://fly.hiwaay.net/~jgilbert/main/srd-toc.htm > >Strong Ancestor Charts, in GEDCOM to HTML format. >==========================================================