McDonough Family - Richmond, VA Settlement Mid 1800s- Background

Background

          Brothers John (1825-1866) and James (1826-1901) McDonough, immigrated to America from Ballymote, County Sligo, Ireland - James in 1950; John with son, Thomas Gilmore between spring of 1856 and sometime in 1857.  John's wife, Jane Hartnett and four children – Elizabeth who married a Lowry, Mary Jane, John Edward and James Vincent – arrived in New York from Ireland in 1859.  John and Jane had buried their first child, Mary, in Belfast in 1846.  Jane Hartnett McDonough gave birth in 1860 to a daughter, Louisa, in New York, and another son, Will, 1862, Richmond, VA.  Of the couple’s eight children, only four married and had descendants: Thomas, Elizabeth, John and James.

          John and James were the sons of Mary Ann (whose surname may have been Gilmore) of County Sligo and John McDonough of Ballymote, County Sligo.  Jane Hartnett was the daughter of Eliza Lee of Castlelyons, County Cork, Ire. and William Hartnett of Cork, Ire. 

          James married Mary Kent, a Virginian from Bedford County.  The couple had four children:  John Henry, Mary Ann McD Clifford, George and Michael I. McDonough.

          The two immigrant families, as well as their immigrant cousin, Roger "Dominick" McDonough, Sr, settled in Richmond, VA, in the Church Hill area. This Irish Catholic family worshipped first at St. Peter's, most moving their membership to St. Patrick's after it was established on 25th Street in Church Hill.  In the late 1800s or early 1900s, two of John's sons, Thomas G. and John E., moved most of their families to New York. Much of the family still live in Richmond, however, states such as Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, New York, Maryland, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina are places of residence for many known descendants of these three McDonough families.

          I have heard there may have been other brothers of John and James McDonough who emigrated from Ireland to America, but have yet to locate them.  Hopefully FTDNA will someday solve this mystery.