McNiff's from the Drumkeeran area

Death cert for a Myles McNiff of Moneenatieve, County Leitrim    1896

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Death of a Patrick McNiff, could this be your Patrick's dad?

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Hi Jack!

This will be a good test to make sure you are notified about my comments. You probably are aware that the RC records for Drumkeeran are sparse. Records are available for 1834-1839 and then a big gap until 1881. Civil registration did start in 1864 and the records are at the free site irishgenealogy.ie

Likely Patrick and Winifred were born 1825 or earlier and their children starting in 1846, so there would be no church records available.

There are 34 McNiff Griffiths Valuation records for Inishmagrath civil parish although some could be duplicates. Some of the townlands you mention in your message show up in the Griffiths. Do you have a specific townland?

Finally, have you taken a general DNA test?

Roger McDonnell

Death of a Winifred McNiff 1880, Note Michael McTernan present at death, husband of Bridget, daughter of Patrick.

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There are so many McNiff's in the areas you mention including all the names you list, it appears you come from a very large family so perhaps you should check out irishgenealogy.ie , it is a free government site.

Thank you Roger and Eileen.  

I'll look at the Irishgeneaology,ie site, in case I haven't already but the problem is, as Roger stated, online and church records from that period are sparse.  Prior to Patrick and Winifred leaving from Sligo, there is a "black hole".

That's why I was hoping a McNiff family in that area today might know based on family history or their Bible, that Patrick was born in in 1825-30, married and then disappeared.  That same family would likely have a Myles McNiff.  There are now 3 generations of Francis Myles McNiff's here in the US so it alone seems to be a big clue.  Lawrence also seems to be a relatively rare name amoung McNiff death recodes - the 256 of them I went through looking at date of death, age at death, and then subtracting the two to determine approximate years of birth. I only found two (2) Laurence (Lawrence) McNiffs in the 100 years (1800-1900) yet Patrick and Winifred named their last child Lawrence.  All their children were born here in the US.  Eileen, the Myles McNiff, who's daughter Bridget McTermon was the Informant, had a brother also by the name of Myles who married Catherine McTermon (b1844).  They lived in Drumduffy with children Francis, Kate, Myles and John, so that could be MY McNiff's based on family naming. (My McNiff's have no Williams, or Matthews or Daniels or Lizzie's.)

And yes, I've done both 23&Me over a decade ago and more recently, Ancestry DNA, which draws a circle in a 30-50 km radius around Drumkeeran saying this is where my DNA is from!  So I 'd like to believe that 7 generations later, there must still be some McNiff's there today with a Patrick that went to America, and an great-great uncle Lawrence and a couple Myles McNiff's.  I'm prepared to write snail-mail letters to each to solve this.  I just need to find that one or two McNiff's that really know their family trees.

Thank you both!!

Jack

Hi Jack, 

Howie McNiff from New York here.....My great, great grandfather was THOMAS MCNIFF from Aughterangh, County Leitrim.

He came to NYC around 1850 --- married Ellen Blake from Tipperary.  They had 4 kids but he died around 1858 leaving Ellen with 4 young kids.

His son was James McNiff who married in 1869.

His son Francis was born in NYC in 1907.  

One of his Francis's sons was my father, Howard born 1929.  He was an NYC Police Officer.

I was born 1955 and currently reside in Nanuet, NY

I have two sons, Brad, born 1988 and Stephen, born 1994.  

I'm not sure who we are related to back in Leitrim but I wouldn't mind sharing info.

Here's and interesting story --- Jimmy McNiff/Duffy was born in Leitrim, moved to Scotland and then Canada. 

He won the Boston Marathon in 1914 and then died in WW1 a year later fighting for Canada in France.

I didn't know anything about him when I ran the Boston Marathon in 1980 time of 2 hrs. 31 minutes.

Long lost cousins from the Drumkereen area of Leitrim???  Yes, I think so.