Cunningham Family

The Cunningham Family

Sections:

Immigrants to the USA:

2.  Cunningham’s Arrival in America, Two Generations…………….............. p. 6

3.  O’Donnell Family (Eleanor O’Donnell Cunningham)

                                 (Wife of Charles Cunningham)……………………………...........................………. p. 10

4.  Conmy Family (Anna Conmy Cunningham)

                                (Wife of Peter Cunningham)……………...................…………………. ..p. 15   

5. Peter and Anna Cunningham Starting a Family…………..............………..p. 16

                                 Kinney Family………………………………….......................….p. 24

                                Stubbs/Shovlin Families…………………………...................p. 35

                             Peter Cunningham Jr. Family………………...............……p. 50

                                 Hale Family……………………………......................…………..p. 56

                              Andrew Cunningham Family………………..................…….p. 68

Mildred McGraw Family……..p.74

John Cunningham Family…p.74

Mary Hassard Family….……p.86

Kathleen McDermott Family.p.88

Ann Martin Family………….p.81

Helen McDermott Family….p.83

Eddie Cunningham Family..p.85

                                Joseph Cunningham Family……………..............……….…p. 87

                           Edward Cunningham………………………................………p. 90

                            Frank Cunningham Family………………………................p. 92

                             Anna Reese Family……………………………...................…….p. 96

6. Peter and Anna Cunningham’s son John starting a family……….......p. 103

Anna Smith Family………….p. 109

Margaret Thomas Family…..p. 112

Edith Montague Family…….p. 114

James Cunningham Family….p. 114

Helen Cunningham…………..p. 117

Rose Powers Family………….p. 117

Ciel Gotfried Family…………p. 120

Mary Rohme………………….p. 121

                                                                                   John Cunningham………..….p. 124

                                                                               Elizabeth Cunningham……...p. 124

7. How the Cunningham and Montague Families Are Related……..........p. 125

8. Charles and Eleanor Cunningham’s Daughter Julia Cunningham

Comiskey and the Comiskey Family……………………………...............….p. 125

Mary Agnes Schrode Family…..p.128

 Nellie Gill Family…………...…..p.137

John Comiskey………………....…p.145

                                                                            Margaret Merkle Family……...p.145

                                                                              Catherine Callahan Family…...p.154

                                                                            Charles Comiskey…………..….p.158

Edward Comiskey………………p.158

9. The Kensella Family (Cassie Cunningham Kensella)…………...............p.158

10. The Cunningham Family, a Look Back………………….….................…. p. 161

 

CAUTION:  Between the brogues of our ancestors and the literacy/education level of reporters/recorders may of the names are misspelled to the point that they are sometimes very difficult to relate to.  For instance, Conway is recorded as Conmy, Cunningham is spelled with an o, many variations of Comiskey etc. 


If your name is Binker, Burrier, Conmy, Cominsky, Flynn, Kinsella, Garvin, Kinney, Gottfried, McDonald,  Smith, Rohme, Thomas, Moore, Powers, Gibbons, Stubbs, Shovlin, Hale, Zimmerman, Novakowski, McGraw, Williams, Hassard, Burke, Nolan, McDermott, Reese, McCormick, Martin, Shutz, Bonnert, Briandi, Brennan, Rhome, Muldowney, Montague, Meehan, Bruzell, Sheridan, McCole, O'Connor, Foster, Nicholson, Fisher, Morton, Turner, Costanza, we may be related!

 Section 1.  Charles Cunningham’s and Related Families in Ireland

The Cunningham’s and O’Donnell’s hail from County Donegal in the northwest corner of Ireland.  The O’Donnell’s hail from Killybegs in Donegal; we are not sure exactly where the Cunningham’s come from in Donegal. A brief history of the Cunningham Clan looks like this:

“The name Cunningham, taken from the place of the same name near Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, was brought to Ireland by settlers from Scotland who arrived in Ulster during the 17th century Plantation of Ulster.  The Scottish Cunningham’s came to Ireland around the year 1610. In that year King James I gave the orders for the Plantation of Ulster and issued land rights to the ‘Grantee’ persons and organizations for huge areas of Irish land confiscated from Irish owners who had participated in military action against English/British interests.

The Grantee for 20,000 acres of Land in Donegal County was Ludovic Lennox, the Duke of Lennox, who was not only a Scottish nobleman but also had the good fortune to be a close relative of King James. The land was known as the Precinct of Portlough and was described as being part of the Barony of Raphoe; Raphoe being the regional centre at that time. The Episcopal Bishops of this area are still known as the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe. 

It was a condition of being a Grantee that the land granted must be settled with British farmers and secured against possible repossession by the original Irish inhabitants. The Duke looked to his own people in and around Ayrshire in Scotland the predominant clan in that area being the Cunningham’s. He needed ambitious and hardworking individuals and amongst those that he chose were Sir James Cunningham, who was granted 2,000 acres, and John Cunningham, Cuthbert Cunningham and another James Cunningham who was the uncle of Sir James, who each received 1,000 acres.  Cuthbert was greatly criticized for his lack of activity in developing his portion but John Cunningham on the other hand seems to have been very active indeed and it is believed that at one stage he acted as local agent for the Duke. An Alexander Cunningham also received a grant of 1,000 acres further west in another precinct. All these men were from Ayrshire.

James Cunningham’s 2000 acres were in the lands of Machrimore, which is an Anglicization of the Gaelic ‘Machair Mor’, meaning ‘Large plain’ in English. The area was, and still is, prime farmland close to the shore of Lough Swilly and he was charged with tenanting his lands with loyal settlers, the establishment of a manor, and with organizing the defense of the lands.  He brought in landless but capable people from the home area so by 1614 there were 29 tenants on the land and in 1622 over 50 tenants were recorded. He also took over a long-abandoned castle, rebuilt it, and added a bawn wall around it to create a place of safety for all in case of attack.  This has been referred to as Fort Cunningham and as Castle Cunningham but I do not think that it was ever put to use as the area was not attacked during the 1641 rebellion. A manor house was built close to the castle and local services established with the arrival of blacksmiths and others. This central settlement lives on today as Manor Cunningham though there seems to be no trace of the original buildings. The original native Gaelic forms of the name were first written as O’Cunnigan and Mac Cuinneagain. Later under the influence of three centuries of British occupation, many old Gaelic families dropped the O or Mac and adopted Cunningham as the anglicized version of their names. There is hardly another surname in Ireland which appears under so many different guises. Among these are Coonaghan, Counihan, Cunnighan, Kinningham, Kinighan, Kinagam, Kinnegan and MacCunnigan in Ulster, while Conaghan and Kinaghan are two of the many variants elsewhere.”  

 

Well, are we descendants of Cuthbert Cunningham? John Cunningham? James Cunningham?  Alexander Cunningham?  We simply don’t know, nor do we know where in County Donegal our Cunningham’s are from.  Before moving on, here is a map of County Donegal for reference.   You can see Killybegs in the southwest corner clearly identified—that would be the bottom left to those of us who are directionally challenged:

And what about Killibegs? “Killybegs (Irish: Na Cealla Beaga) is a town in County Donegal. It is the largest fishing port in the country. It is located on the south coast of the county, north of Donegal Bay, near Donegal Town. The town is situated at the head of a scenic harbor and at the base of a vast mountainous tract extending northward.  As of 2016[update], the population was 1,236.”

We are missing 200 years of genealogical history from the plantation of Ulster to the birth of Charles Cunningham in 1822. 

 

Here is a graphic depiction of what the Charles Cunningham family looked like in Ireland as they were preparing for departure to the USA:

Our Cunningham’s decided to leave Ireland aboard the S.S. England.  She departed Liverpoool England on April 6, 1869.  The ship had a clipper stem, one funnel, and three masts rigged for sail. She had a single screw and a speed of 10 knots. There was accommodation for 80 first class passengers and 800 steerage passengers. She would have taken about 18 days to sail from Liverpool to Castle Garden in New York City.  The Cunningham family spent those 18 days in Steerage accommodations.  Those were not the most pleasant accommodations.  

 What encouraged the Cunningham’s to leave Ireland?  Certainly it was a very risky move to put 2 generations including young children on a ship bound to an unknown land.  Or perhaps it wasn’t so unknown?

Eleanor O’Donnell Cunningham’s brother Cornelius had sailed to America 20 years earlier in 1849.  That appears to be the lynchpin.  Cornelius settled in Sugar Notch PA.  Today, Sugar Notch is a borough in the state of Pennsylvania that has a population of less than 1000.  It became a borough in 1867.  It was a popular coal mining community in the 1800’s and had a rail head.  Charles and Eleanor first lived in Sugar Notch and later moved to Parsons and Miners Mills, PA.  Sugar Notch is located about 10 miles from where Charles and his family would permanently settle in Miners Mills, PA. If only we had the letters Cornelius wrote back home!