Appendices to ‘The STRONGs of Ulster, Ireland’.
… section 3

The "STRONG Family" section of this site is divided into 12 sections and 9 appendices. Please read in sequence by following the links at the bottom of each page or use the "Quick Nav" at top right. If you wish to select individual chapters, please click on the top left link to the "Sitemap" page. Note that the chapters develop the story of our family and the appendices contain supporting data… for example the Descendancy Report in Appendix 1 with BDM records and photos of family members.

Contents of this Website are subject to Copyright © by Philip Strong, & allow fair academic use. See here.

Do you have information, opinion or a question relating to either this site’s contents or its copyright? Please use the e-mail link available at the bottom of each page. I look forward to corresponding with you.

… note that this page contains section 3, and that there is a separate page for each section of the appendix.

  1. Appendices Section 1: Miscellaneous
    1. Appendix 1: A Descendant Report of the STRONG Family— BDM records + photos
    2. Appendix 2: Internet sites that have been useful in researching this site
    3. Appendix 3: Some thoughts on the use of DNA technology
    4. Appendix 4: 'Similar'. Speculation concerning photograph identification
  2. Appendices Section 2: Belfast Records
    1. Appendix 5: 'Stayed in Belfast'. What if Robert STRONG had brothers who remained in Belfast and did not emigrate?
  3. Appendices Section 3: Hamilton STRONG in the USA … this page
    1. Appendix 6: ‘The search for Hamilton STRONG’ Did he emigrate to the United States?
  4. Appendices Section 4: Further Biographical Details
    1. Appendix 7: Obituary of John Burgess MACKAY.
  5. Appendices Section 5: Holywood Records
    1. Appendix 8: Accumulated data relating to the STRONGs and SLOAN(E)s of Holywood Parish & Knocknagoney Townland.
  6. Appendices Section 6: CALLAGHANs… the family next door.
    1. Appendix 9: CALLAGHANs lived next door to David STRONG. The two families were significant to each other and David's son Edward STRONG married Ruby CALLAGHAN.

Appendix 6: The search for Hamilton STRONG

Introduction:

What if Hamilton STRONG had emigrated to the United States? The search began when Brian STRONG of New Zealand tells me that he heard from the old people in our family… one of Robert STRONG (Jnr)’s sons emigrated to the USA!

The vanished son:

We knew what happened to all of Robert's children, except for Hamilton. The family bible tells us that he was born on 21 May 1864 (in Belfast Ireland). His father, Robert kept meticulous details of births and deaths in the bible, even to the extent of 5 year censuses of the family when they lived in New Zealand… significantly, Robert makes no subsequent record of Hamilton after his birth. A ten year old Hamilton was not listed in the 1875 passenger list of his family's emigration ship. He was not as living in his father’s 1910 death certificate. The question could then be refined: "Did Hamilton emigrate to the USA?"

Suggestions and conjecture:

It seems unlikely that Hamilton died and the event was not recorded in the bible. Why didn’t Hamilton emigrate with his parents? Possibilities include that he:

Distinctive Name

Hamilton might have named after his g-grandfather, Hamilton SLOANE. Perhaps the names of either or both Hamilton and his g-grandfather were derived from a loyalist Scot-Irish reference to Sir James Hamilton, lst Lord Clandeboye, who received his Holywood lands in 1606 in the Irish Plantation. We are fortunate in our search, that Hamilton STRONG is an unusual name, both in Ireland and the USA. Perhaps there were many people named Hamilton with a link to Holywood, Ireland?

In the USA?

Not many Hamilton STRONGs turned up in ancestry.com and familysearch.org searches for USA and North America.

People in these search results who are not our Hamilton STRONG, could be eliminated using the following data:

Using these criteria, together with data from a search of the Rockingham Co. courthouse North Carolina, we regretfully discarded all people in the search results:

John Taylor then e-mailed me that he had STRONG relations who looked almost identical to our Robert and David STRONG. His Strong's are in the Appalachian Mountains located in the state of Kentucky and Tennessee, and came into Kentucky from Scott County, Virginia in 1800. Note that Rockingham Co. is just on the other side of the Appalachian mountains to Kentucky and Tennessee. See the comparison beneath between (from left) our David b.1870, Jack STRONG from the Appalachians, our Robert b. 1830.

Appalachian ComparisonComparison of an Appalachian STRONG with the Belfast STRONGs.

Perhaps, even if we haven’t found Hamilton who might have emigrated to the USA to live with previously emigrated relatives, at least we might have found descendants of these relatives?

Who could have been Hamilton's possible relatives in USA? I received an e-mail from Judy Kunz who said: "I am trying to locate my John STRONG [of Drumbo] that was involved in the rebellion of 1798 and fled to the Pennsylvania, USA about 1799." Two significant points here:

Perhaps one of the Appalachian STRONGs might volunteer for a DNA test to see if there is a link with my sample. Unfortunately Judy Kunz has no male STRONGs who might volunteer.

On the other hand, I am not necessarily holding my breath for a DNA match. David STRONG's website has the details of my DNA results… scroll down to the heading "Tynan Abbey" haplotype and my Kit# 6256 is placed in this group. You will note the lack of an exact match between my kit and the others, showing that if there was a common ancestor, it would have been probably many generations ago. On this page you will see that David has grouped a family of STRONGs who migrated from New Kent Co. Virginia to Tennessee into his "Southern" haplotype which is distinct from my genotype. Perhaps the STRONGs from New Kent Co. have a different ancestry to the Appalachian STRONGs from Scott Co. Virginia? The physical similarity of some Appalachian STRONGs to my family might give hope for a possible genetic match with my family?

The final Word…

I received a definitive answer from Jim Rolff, the author of "Strong Family of Virginia and Other Southern States", who is about to publish a revised edition of his book. He said: "The only Hamilton Strong I know about is the one born in Rockingham Co., NC in 1851, and his father is well known. The Strongs of Scott Co., Va. you speak of are my own and they are the same family as the one of Rockingham Co., NC and earlier New Kent Co., Va. I checked all censuses in every state for Hamilton Strong, and found very few and not one that looked like yours."

It looks as if this search has reached a dead end!

The final final Word…

The definitive answer to what happened to Hamilton STRONG came as a complete surprise. I have retained the above material to illustrate the methodology of an unsuccessful but interesting search… a "wild goose chase" in USA.

I obtained a death certificate for Hamilton… he died at 4 Northumberland Street Belfast, on 10 Oct 1865, the same area as the the recorded STRONG addresses at that time (Alexander Street West, Ross St, Dover St etc). Why didn't his father Robert enter the death in his Family Bible, since he entered everything else? Who knows! Hamilton's certificate said he was the child of a carpenter, with the informant Jane STRONGE, of the same address. All this checks out! He died of diarrhoea and teething which had affected him over 1 month. Note that the family bible recorded his birth on 21 May 1864, which means that his age at death was 16 completed months, and his death certificate said he was aged 17 months… a common error using the fact that he was in his 17th month of life.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Gord Stronge who alerted me to Hamilton STRONGE's death index record, recently available on the <pilot.familysearch.org> website. This enabled me to apply for a certificate from GRONI.

The Story Continues