Page 188 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

Republic of Ireland. We also knew from documents
that they were listed in the 1830 Flax growers list.
We didn’t know how long they had farmed the land; if
they had arrived in the early 1800s or during the Ulster
Plantation movement designed to flood the area with
immigrants from England and Scotland beginning in
1610.
The last we knew of the family was that our great-
great-grandfather George had immigrated from Derry-
Londonderry to Philadelphia in January 1852 on the
passenger ship Creole, leaving his father, Robert and
older brother Rankin to run the farm. We couldn’t find
any earlier records that might show where the family
originally came from and when.
Over the cup of tea, Mitchell shared some good
news and bad news. He had found a death notice
dated 1892 for Rankin James, meaning he had lived
a long life; the bad news was that he died in a work-
house in the city. Mitchell also speculated that the
family had originally come from Scotland because we
knew that our great-grandmother x 2 Anne Warr was
buried in a nearby Presbyterian cemetery call the Old
Burt. Mitchell also guessed that Rankin’s name was
most likely a Scottish surname, likely on the maternal
side of the family tree.
We were a bit relieved when Mitchell explained that
workhouses at that time we not just for the destitute
but for people too sick to fend for themselves. There
was actually little work done in the workhouses then
and in the late 1800s, the facilities were training medi-
cal staffs to care for patients.
So now we knew a bit about the family after our
branch of the family left Ireland. We also knew that
the family likely was Scotch-Irish, which jived with
family lore. But we also had more questions. Did
Rankin have a family, did it live on in Ireland and are
there any descendants there today? And what hap-
pened to the farm. Perhaps we could learn more if
we interviewed the owners of the property where the
James family once farmed.

In the pouring rain Denis driving us
through the narrow paths to find the
family farm. Right: Mary and Ron go
through the wrong gate to get to the
wrong house where they got the right
directions.

188 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018