OHMAHONI-L Archives

From: Jerry Zollars <>
Subject: [OHMAHONI] WELSH Surname
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 08:55:18 -0600

Last week, Shari Welsh Bare sent the following message:

-------------------
"NAME: Shari Welsh Bare
EMAIL:
DATE: Apr 01 2000
URL: http://
QRYTEXT: I am looking for any information on my great grandparents. Their
names where John Welsh and Mary Kearny. They resided in Youngstown, Ohio in
Mahoning Co in the early 1900's. My father is deceased so I have no way of
getting any additional information. Thank you for any information.."
---------------------------

My wife's family, the Shoemakers' of O'Neill, Nebraska, has a story of one
of her Great Grandfather's emigration to the Youngstown, OH area that
includes some men named Welsh. Here is the story:

"It was a kind Providence that led the families that later merged to form
the JOYCE and WELSH families, some of the earliest to be a part of the
founding of O'Neill, Holt County, Nebraska. The JOYCE, STANTON, and WELSH
families migrated first to Stirling, Scotland.

Stirling is an interesting river port city and county on the south side of
the River Forth, 29 miles northeast of Glasgow. The city occupies a
commanding site, Castle Hill. Stirling Castle is of great historical
interest. It was of great interest to the JOYCE children later as they
listened the stories their grandmother, Nancy Whalen STANTON, told in the
little sod cabin on the Nebraska prairie.

Stirling, Scotland was a lifeline, a steppingstone to the Irish Catholic
settlement. Jobs were good enough in Scotland for those days and our
forbearers were able to build a surplus sufficient to make it possible to
arrange for passage to their great dream -- American and the opening
frontier with its promise of patent rights to land of their own with
friends who would be waiting for them in Scranton, Pennsylvania and in
Youngstown, Ohio, the bustling industrial town.

We have no way of knowing positively, but it seems that the young JOYCEs:
Pat, Mary, James, WILLIAM, and Steve were orphaned in Ireland during the
frugal years there. They seem to have clung to each other, however, and
followed close family friends to Stirling, Scotland, where better times,
basic education, and religious freedom awaited. There obviously was a
close family bond until the great exodus from Stirling. During several of
the Scotland years, WILLIAM JOYCE was employed by a wealthy Scottish
farmer, with whom he worked and learned a great deal about farming and
animal care.

Patrick JOYCE and Martin WELSH were the first to venture. They landed in
the 1860's and found employment in the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio.
They followed with keen interest the series of enactments of Congress that
began with the Homestead Act of May, 1862. Every entryman was required to
expend at least $ 125 per acre in permanent improvements. To this goal
Patrick JOYCE and Martin WELSH applied themselves, while urging the
families back in Scotland to follow them to America. Steven JOYCE,
however, found passage to Australia and was never heard from again.

Mrs. Nancy Whalen STANTON and her daughters set out with a contingent from
Scotland and joined friends briefly in Pittsburg, PA and then went on to
Youngstown where they remained a few years. The STANTON daughters were:
Ann (MRS. WILLIAM JOYCE), Peggy, (MRS. MARTIN WELSH), Honore (MRS. PATRICK
JOYCE), and Bridget (MRS. MULROY).

All had married in Youngstown at St. Columbkille's Church, except Peggy
WELSH. Martin and Peggy WELSH had four children on arriving in America.
The children were Myles, Bea, Jack, and Mary Welsh McCann. Four other
children were born in America: Margaret, Steve, Will and Nell Welsh
GRAMLICH. Bridget STANTON MULROY did not come to Nebraska but remained in
Ohio. Her daughter, Mary, however, married Barney MCGREEVY, one of the
Holt County teachers. Mrs. Thomas Naughton was Barney MCGREEVY's sister, Bea.

WILLIAM JOYCE and an equally venturesome friend, Thomas CONNOLLY, followed
with keen interest the news of the great agricultural opportunities opening
up in the new State of Nebraska. Irish Catholic papers carried news of the
homestead possibilities and the efforts of Bishop Spalding of Peoria,
Illinois, and Bishop O'Connor of Omaha, Nebraska to establish colonies and
to build on those already forming.

So it was that in 1875, WILLIAM JOYCE and THOMAS CONNOLLY gathered needed
belongings and tools and bade their young families goodbye and set out to
homestead in Nebraska. Part of the long trip was by ox team and part by
the emerging railways. When they got as far as Wisnor, Nebraska, they
looked the land situation over but decided against making claim there
because they could acquire adjoining claims. So it was westward movement
again to Neligh, NE by ox team. Some inner force seems to have driven them
on until they joined the O'Neill colony. Here they settled in due course
on bordering claims, put up temporary "soddies" and homesteaded in
preparation to building log houses before bringing their families when the
time was ripe.

Sometime early in 1878, MRS. WILLIAM JOYCE; her mother, Mrs. Nancy
STANTON, two children (Nellie and Mary), Mr. and Mrs. Patrick JOYCE and
daughter MaryAnn; Mr. and Mrs. Martin WELSH and their five children, Myles,
Bridget, Jack, Mary, and Margaret; and the Tom CONNOLLY family came from
Ohio. By this time there were railroad connections to Neligh, NE. Wagon
trains took them and their possessions the reminder of the way."

Maybe there is a connection with this WELSH family. Let me know.




Jerry Zollars
Santa Fe, NM

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