Ireland Research Trip - Richey Family

17 February 17, 2008 10:31 PM

Dear Richey Cousins,

First of all, let me apologize in advance if I have sent this to you and it is not of interest to you.

Linda and I spent a month in Ireland last fall checking out Richey family history leads. Specifically, I was interested to see if I could establish any DNA links to Richeys still in Ireland plus setting eyes on the area where we know they left from in Ireland was of great interest to me.

We have put together a brief recap of our findings with pictures and a map which is attached to this email in .pdf format.

If you have any questions on this, please let me know. This is a summary of what we believe to be the most pertinent information. Also please feel free to forward this on to any cousins that you know would be interested as we do not have a very complete email list.

Love to all,

Robin and Linda Richey

Ireland Research Trip - Richey Family

What I (Robin Leigh Richey) learned of Richey Family History in Ireland Sept/Oct 2007:

There are not many people with the Richey surname presently living in
Ireland. Most of those we met are all related to each other. We very
much enjoyed our visits with them, but it does not appear that they are
related to me as I will explain in more detail later.

With fair certainty, our Richey ancestors lived in County Antrim prior
to leaving Ireland. The evidence to support this comes from the
Griffith's Evaluation records during the mid 1800s.

There were over a hundred Richey families listed in this evaluation.
Most of them lived in the northern parts of Ireland in some fairly
localized areas. Many of these were in the area served at one time or
another by Reverend William Martin who organized the emigration group
that our Richey family left Ireland with. In particular, there were
several Richey families listed in Griffith's that lived within just a
couple of miles of the church where we believe Martin preached.

We looked at the parishes and located where they lived on the survey
maps used in the Griffith's Evaluation. An 1830 survey map in PRONI
[The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)] had
the church labeled as "Covenanters Church" which is another name used by
the Reformed Presbyterian Church (We met with the librarian of the
Presbyterian Church in Belfast and learned that most "Covenanters" were
of Scottish descent). This church building is still there and in use
now by a Presbyterian congregation, the Eskylane Presbyterian Church.
Eskylane is the name of the "Townland" where it is located and is a
small historical survey area within the parish or barony area. Pictures
of this church and the map showing it are attached. It is modernized
and very nice. It is also in a totally rural setting, there being only
one or two houses close by, the nearest community being Kells about 2
miles away which interestingly also has a Reformed Presbyterian church
that we are certain that Reverend Martin also preached at and was
probably his headquarters. It is still called the Kellswater Reformed
Presbyterian church.

The distinction between Kells and the name of the church is that the
church is on the outskirts of town but is actually on the banks of the
Kellswater River which runs through the town as well as right past the
church. Pictures of this church are also attached. It was common for a
minister to have several congregations that he took care of and he would
travel between them to preach at their meetings. These two churches are
probably at the most three miles apart.

There are other churches in Kells and Connor area besides the little
Kellswater Reformed church. Connor is a village that is right next to
Kells and these two villages are really the same community being less
than a mile apart. Both Kells and Connor are reasonably small towns
with very little retail business activity unlike Ballymena which is much
larger and at present contains quite a bit of business activity.
Unfortunately the Ballymena Museum was in the process of moving, so we
were unable to locate any local historical information.

Realizing that John Richey sailed with his family in 1772, what is the
relevance of information in the 1800's? As there were not a lot of
Richeys in the 1772 expedition, it would seem quite realistic that there
would be family left behind—uncles, cousins or nephews, who did not want
or need to move away. The Griffith's evaluation for County.Antrim was
done in 1856-7.

This was 84 years after John Richey's family sailed to America. It was
certainly possible and even likely that there was family still in the
area where our Richeys left from, particularly when the Richeys in
Ireland in 1850 are still mostly in the northern area no more than 50
miles away from Lough Neagh, the big lake by Belfast. Kells, Eskylane
and even Ballymena are all within this area. So it would make sense
that if most of the Richeys lived in an area in 1856 and our Richeys
left with a congregation that was within that area in 1772 and that
there were Richeys within walking distance of where the congregation
went to church, then it is very likely that our Richeys lived within
walking distance as well and were also most likely related. Since there
are at present no known records which would give marriage, birth or
death information prior to 1772 for our Richeys, that is the best we can
do until some other information surfaces. We scoured the public records
at PRONI, the historical library in Belfast and did locate some early
1800's records that establish the existence of Richeys in the proximate
area but that is still too late to establish any relationships with our
Richeys.

For those who believe in coincidences, we were driving out in the
country looking for the Eskylane Church and some nice people stopped to
ask if we were lost and promptly directed us to the location of the
church about a mile away. We drove into the church parking lot on a
Monday morning and right behind us drove in the sexton who was meeting
someone else for building maintenance. She told us what she knew about
the church and that there were no historical church records that she
knew about. We had a much, much harder time finding the Kellswater
church we were looking for. But armed with the information she gave us,
we persisted until we found it.

Another genealogical source which is currently developing are the DNA
studies which are based on the fact that certain DNA markers are passed
identically from father to son and only from father to son. There are
several groups which are compiling databases on these studies and are
available to anyone interested in joining. Some are fee based such as
the National Geographic genome project and DNA Heritage. Others such as
the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (www.smgf.com) are free. I
have joined both the National Geographic project and the Sorenson
project. While in Ireland, I was very impressed to discover that the
late father of Ruth Richey who presently lives in Enniskillen, County
Fermanagh, Ireland, had joined the DNA Heritage project. In comparing
his DNA markers with mine, we are not closely related. This was a
disappointment but there could be valid reasons such as adoption, prior
marriages, etc., for this in both his and my paternal pedigrees. It
would be interesting for other USA male Richey cousins, who are brave
enough, to find out what their DNA has to say. The DNA collection is
very simple-usually a saliva sample either collected with a swab or
mouthwash.

As part of my DNA participation, there are two groups which have formed
that are of interest. One is a surname Richey group which so far has
presented no closely related matches to me. The other is a DNA cousins
group of those who have similar DNA to me. So far no other Richeys have
shown up in this group. However, it seems that many in the DNA cousins
group are of Scotch-Irish descent (Scotland is only 12 miles away, sea
coast to sea coast) but with no Richeys in their pedigrees and with any
estimated common ancestor being 600-800 years previous, it may predate
the use of surnames and certainly any present pedigree information.

This is the Eskylane Presbyterian Church which was formerly known as
"Covenanter Church" near Kells, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

This is the Kellswater Reformed Presbyterian Church on the banks of the
Kellswater River in Kells, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

It consists of 2 separate buildings separated by a small burial ground.

The plaques are on the different buildings.

Page Created 27 March, 2008

Page updated: 26 February, 2009