Hillbillies and Rednecks: Yes

(Draft)

All my patrilineal kin have long been at least vaguely aware of our rural mid-south mountain past.  I think we can now add something approaching actual information to the suspicion that we are the droppings of mountain folk all the way back to colonial years.

Recent wanderings through the thin family records and general histories of the times and places  persuade me our early Farrells, freshly arrived from Ireland after 1763 and before 1779,  rather quickly built their log cabins somewhere in the Piedmont country.  Plausibly, they took up ground -- probably squatted as was was common -- near the Shenandoah Valley.  By 1783, just after the Revolution, they had trekked further west,  to the environs of Boonsboro, along the Kentucky River. I have spent time around there, and it is a land of hills and dense forests, not overburdened with good roads and trails even in the 21st Century.

The Shenandoah Valley from east to west is a narrow corridor, a few dozen miles wide.  From north to south it stretches a few hundred miles. In its northern reaches it includes Augusta County, Virginia where a source or two say John's military company was raised. It isn't much to go on, but it is the best we have at present.  It is consistent with a social/economic argument Jim Webb makes: Our Scots-Irish people, with their protestantism and small assets,  were unwelcome along the sea coast -- tidewater country. The coast was a bastion of wealthy, or relatively so, English aristocrats, and Anglicism was the state church.

As Webb has it, the Presbyterians from the Scotland-England border lowlands and northern Ireland were encouraged to move inland fast for two main reasons. One was the simple snobbery of the earlier and monied colonists loyal to King George. The other was fear of Indian attacks in resistance to European encroachment.  Maurading natives still raised frequent scares among the coastal elites who reasoned that a line of truculent white settlers with a fighting tradition -- namely us -- along the mountain ridges to westward might absorb the fury of Indian raiders.

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Direct Line Ancestors

(Incomplete. Stay tuned.)




1. ...  John Farrell born Kilkinney, Ireland 1763, died 1824 near Boonsboro, Kentucky. In 1789 he married Cristina Pursley. who was born about 1770 in Virginia and died about 1830 near Boonsboro, Kentucky.

2. ... William Farrell born near Boonsboro, Kentucky on March 3, 1796 and died died in Monroe County, Missouri on October 1, 1874. About 1820 near Boonsboro, Kentucky he married Mariah Hayes  who was born about 1803 in  Oldham County, Kentucky and died January  14, 1872 in Monroe County, Missouri.

3 ... Richard FARRELL born September 6, 1826 in near Boonsboro, Kentucky and died May 13, 1888 in Monroe County, Missouri. On January 29, 1855 he married Minerva Grove (Graff) in Monroe  County, Missouri. They had several children.

4 ... John Richard Farrell born in Monroe County, Missouri in (about 1867) died Monroe
County, Missouri 1893. (Died of pneumonia after falling through ice while hunting).  He was the father of my Grandfather John Ray Farrell



5 ... John Ray Farrell  born August 11, 1893 in Monroe County, Missouri, died November 20, 1979 in a Webster City, Iowa nursing home.  He married Emma Allie Clark in Monroe Country, Missouri. They were parents of my dad, O.R. (Ott) Farrell.



6 ... Ottis Rollin Farrell -- Born May 8, 1916 in Monroe County, Missouri, died February 13, 2004 in Spirit Lake, Iowa.  In 1939 he married Norman LaVonne Dingman who was born February 25, 1913, near Lehigh, Iowa and died September 11, 2007 in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

7 ... James Ottis Farrell born September 22, 1940 at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Dodge, Iowa. In June 1965 he married Delphine LuRae Huebner who was born October 4, 1943 in Hawarden, Iowa and died in August 1990 in Victor, Iowa of complications of multiple sclerosis.

8. Jon Rollin Farrell born Dec. 4, 1965 in Cresco, Iowa. Married Kimberly van Syoc in Duneland Beach, Indiana.

8. Lisa S. Farrell, born Nov. 13, 1968 married David  Schwarz in 1993 in Wahpeton, Iowa.

9. Justin Rollin Farrell (son of Jon)

9. Ryan Michel Farrell  (Son of Jon)

Another research note

E-mail: lucius@hargray.com     Sat Jan 3 13:22:47 2004
Name: Wilbur Cross
Subject: John Farrell
Surnames: FARRELL, O'FARREL, O-MORE
Query: We are seeking family history about the Farrell's, who fought against Oliver Cromwell before moving to Ireland where several members sat in the Parliament of James II in 1699, and some intermarried with Chieftain Roy O'More of Ireland. There was also a mention of a chief residence in Longford. We'd appreciate knowing sources of informatioin on these subjects. 


Also:

from: https://www.myheritage.com/names/christina_pursley

Christina Farrell (born Pursley) was born in 1770, at birth place, Kentucky, to Benjamin Pursley and Pursley (born *Ann).

Benjamin was born in 1744, in Probably Hampshire County, Virginia now West Virginia.

Christina married John Farrell in 1789, at age 19 at marriage place, Kentucky.

John was born in 1763, in Kilkenny, Ireland.

They had one son: William C Farrell.

Christina lived in 1810, at address, Kentucky.

She lived in 1830, at address, Kentucky.

Christina passed away circa 1830, at age 60 at death place, Kentucky.

Mid-19th century marriages from Missouri genealogy trails


John Farrell Mariam Grouf 18 Feb 1846
Cristina Farrell Richard Farrell 4 Feb 1847
Richard Farrell Cristina Farrell 4 Feb 1847

William Farrell Angeline Holloway 27 Jun 1848

Research note (s) Farrell family

John Farrell 1763

 jimnail83 (View posts)

Posted: 24 Jan 2018 09:46PM

Classification: Query

Surnames: Farrell, Ferrall

Looking for the family of John Farrell, born in 1763, immigrated to Virginia, United States around 1773 and served in the Virginia Militia, then settled in Kentucky. Possibly immigrated from Kilkenny. Possibly a John Ferrall baptized 15 Aug 1763 in Longford county. I know this isn't much to go on but I have hit a complete dead end. Any help would be appreciated.

Baptism barely possibly refers to our John 1, but note variant spelling and in Longford vice Kilkinney.