Nehill/Blackall

I maintain a database of the Blackall names from Co. Clare, along with my cousin, Paddy Waldron, and a friend Megan Townsend-Flanagan, especially those who migrated to Cattaraugus Co. New York, having done a ton of research into this group several years ago.  Anne Blackall Nehill is the daughter of John Blackall and Mary Falsey (not Falrey, someone could not read the handwriting!).  Falsey and its variant Fallihee are fairly endemic to Co. Clare.  The Blackall and Falsey group were from the Doonbeg area of Co. Clare, Killard civil parish.  Holy Name of Mary parish records in Ellicottville, Cattaraugus, NY indicates that Ann's sister, Catherine was baptised in Doonbeg in Nov 1829.  Ann is fairly consistently listing herself as older than Catherine in census returns, so we have tentatively gone with that parameter.  Unfortunately, no parish records exist for this area prior to roughly 1855, so putting together lines from the area has been mostly done by oral history and other lesser genealogical methods.  We believe Ann and Catherine emigrated from Ireland together, but varying oral history and census returns have given us a wide variety of dates, ranging from 1845 to 1854.  Some stories indicate that Ann and her husband were on the same boat and he indicates he arrived in the US in 1845.  Based on land records, we know that the earliest Blackall families arrived in Cattaraugus circa 1852 and the last one arrived in 1860, so more a mass arrival rather than a pattern of chain migration.  There are a number of John Blackalls (under a variety of spellings) located in Killard civil parish, or the area, in the time of the Tithe Applotments (roughly 1825 in this area).  I'm fairly comfortable in ruling out one of them as their father, simply based on the size of the holding (30 acres) as I believe this one to be John McMahon Blackall.  As I believe all stories passed down have something of a grain of truth in them, my gut feeling is that the John Blackall in Killard townland, with one acre of 1st quality land is probably the John you need.  You can view the actual Tithe entry at

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004625670/00….

I feel this is the correct John because you will notice a Pat Nehill listed immediately below the entry for John.  So while I think it unlikely that Ann and Michael Nehill "met on the boat", I firmly believe they knew each other in Co. Clare.  I did not find the marriage of Michael and Ann, though the census returns are consistent with their oldest child, a daughter Elizabeth, having been born in New York, so I tend to think they did marry in New York.  Their next daughter, Mary, is listed as having been born in Cuba, Allegany Co., NY and this is consistent with other Blackall families, who appear to have briefly lived in other areas of NY prior to winding up in the Ellicottville area.  Their daughter Catherine was born in Ellicottville in 1861 as we found her baptism in Holy Name of Mary records.  Catherine's baptismal sponsors were the final Blackall couple to arrive in Ellicottville, Michael Blackall and his wife Bridget Marrinan Blackall. 

We did not find entries for John Blackall in the Primary Valuation in Clare, 1855, and I rather suspect he is deceased by this time, providing some of the impetus for the girls to leave Clare.  I notice you refer to her as Nancy Ann Blackall.  Please note that Nancy is a nickname for Ann.  Other variants of the name to keep in mind are Hanora, Hannah and Johanna.  Makes the search all the more difficult.

Please feel free to contact me at cwood91262@aol.com (put the name Blackall in the subject line, please) if you want any other information.  I have 7 known children for the Blackall/Nehill family, 2 of whome died fairly young and unmarried.  I've never found anythng further about their daughter Elizabeth or their son John, but I have descendancy for Mary, Catherine and Ellen.  How do you fit in?

Cindy Wood