My Y-DNA belongs to the R-Z255 haplogroup. This is a marker in my DNA that has been associated with the O’Byrne family of Leinster and includes both Byrne and Burns surnames.
My branch of the Burns family may well have arrived in the Markethill area from Ayrshire in Scotland around the mid 1700s along with many other families from the same area. This assumption is based on the fact that they and subsequent generations of the family were members of the Secessionist Presbyterian Church, they were weavers and lived in an area a few miles south of Markethill in townlands around Cladymilltown that were largely settled by Scottish families. The townlands listed in the early family records are Armaghbrague, Ballylane, Cladybeg, Cladymore, Enagh, Kilmachugh, Lisdrumchor.
The earliest recorded member of the Burns family is David Burns, who appears on a marriage certificate as the father of Samuel Burns of Cladybeg, who as a widower of 50 married Margaret Nicholl in Cladymore Presbyterian Church in 1859. Both men are described as weavers. David Burns would be my 4 X great grandfather
Samuel Burns was previously married to Abigail Kennedy in the 1830s and had seven sons and four daughters. It is only in the recent years thanks to research by Karin Kane and DNA matching that it has been possible to confirm this connection.
Samuel Burns appears on the marriage certificate as the father of William Burns who married Jane Locke on 9th May 1867 at Tullyvallen Meeting House in the Parish of Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh. The only details given are that he was a weaver, like his son William. William’s address is given as Cladymore in the Parish of Kilcluney, County Armagh.
The marriage brought William to the Newtownhamilton area to the townland of Corkley. They had seven children who were baptised in Tullyvallen Meeting House. Around 1890 with the children reaching a working age, the family moved to Bessbrook to find work in the linen industry there.
In the new century some of this generation married and sought their fortune in America, John left with his wife and young child in 1906, he was followed by William and his wife and young child in 1910, and eventually Jane went out to America in 1918 and found her husband out there. Minnie, James, Essie and Maggie remained in Bessbrook, James was the only one of these four to marry, he married Mary Ann Littlewood in 1900 and they had three children, he drowned in 1915 and his eldest son William also left for America in 1920. His second son David, my grandfather moved to Newry and married Elizabeth McCann in 1926. They also had three children and David drowned at sea in 1940. Their sister, Stella married Robert (Bobbie) Stewart, but they had no children.
Acknowledgements
In presenting this information on the Burns side of the family I am indebted to a number of people for their help. In particular my late second cousin Cathy Barber of Greenwich, New York, USA who provided the original inspiration for this research and a lot of the information. We have great grandparents in common in James Burns and Mary Anne Littlewood.
I am grateful to Karin Kane who did a lot of research on Samuel Burns and Abigail Kennedy and their children and to Laurie Deyoe my second cousin once removed who allowed me to manage her DNA kit which confirmed that all three of us are related, and Karin and I are fourth cousins.
I would also like to thank my second cousin once removed Samuel Hanna of Bessbrook, County Armagh who provided a lot of information on the family’s Bessbrook years. His great grandparents William Littlewood and Jane Acheson (pictured below) are my great great grandparents.
The earliest ancestor in the Burns family tree is, as mentioned above, David Burns possibly born around 1779, (see The Family of David Burns and ?).