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Harts and McKinneys of Shanvalley, Castlefin, County Donegal
I recently received a copy of a poem that was written about my 4th-great-grandfather and his family as they prepared to leave Ireland for America in the early 1830s. It was written by a friend of the family, a teacher named McKinney. Shanvalley is mentioned twice as the family's home, and I was able to narrow it down to Shanvalley/Magherashanvalley in Castlefin, Donaghmore, Donegal, with the help of marriage records, all from neighboring parishes slightly before or after (since one of the children left Ireland 8 years after the others) the rough date of the poem.
Shanvalley once the pride of all these parts,
And flourish’d long beneath the Race of Harts
As if in sorrow at their going away,
Now clouded seems, and falling to decay.
The fertile fields and meads so gay so green,
Where winter’s withered face could scarce be seen,
A different aspect here of late assumes
All of their verdant beauties clad in gloom.
Here oft the needy and the neighboring poor
Found sure relief and still an open door;
The stranger too benighted sought the road,
To Mr. Hart’s of Shanvalley’s abode.
But now no more the sprightly dance or songs,
In blameless mirth, goes round the cheerful throng.
No more at setting sun or rising moon,
We hear the Viol’s brisk enlivening tune.
The Mr. Hart in question is Samuel Hart (abt 1789-1857). The poem goes on, with all of the children getting about a stanza each. Samuel was married in St. Columb's Parish, Co. Derry, in 1807 to Charlotte Marrow. On the 1826 Tithe Applotment for Donaghmore, Samuel appears in Magherashanvalley, as does a James Hart (I'm assuming a brother), and a Thomas Hart is listed next, living in Corcullien (I'm assuming his father, since his eldest son is named Thomas, and his third son is named Samuel Jr, which follows the traditional naming patterns). A newspaper article from 1925 about a family reunion held by Samuel's grandchildren in Michigan mentions that the family traced its lineage back to Scotland, where it emigrated from in 1785 - with Samuel being born in 1789 or so, his father would've been born in Scotland, and though I've seen a dozen or so Thomas Harts on the records in Scotland prior to 1785, I haven't found any other documents to help narrow it down, or to link anyone else to Samuel, and I've found no birth/baptism records for Samuel or any of his children.
With all of that said, I'm interested in finding any information on Shanvalley, any of the three Harts listed on the Donaghmore Tithe Applotment, as well as any information about teachers in that area and time period named McKinney. The copy of the poem I received is a copy of a copy of a typed copy that Samuel's son, Moses, had made sometime from the original before his death in 1896, possibly before they left New York for Michigan in 1856. Of Samuel's nine children, I've talked to descendants of five of them, and we've each spent at least several years of researching to get back as far as we have.
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Originally Posted by ZiggyZipgun
