Page 193 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

Postscript:

After our trip to Ireland, we learned a bit more about
the fate of the James family in Ireland. With a lot
of help from folks on the Facebook page for Derry-
Londonderry, we found an advertisement in the city
newspaper offering the Rankin James Farm for sale.
The ad mentioned its 46 acres, which was quite large
for a farm in those days and listed the livestock and
produce raised on.

They also found a classified ad placed years later
that asked if anyone had any information on Rankin
James’ wife and daughter Margaret. So we now know
that Rankin married and had a child. While working
on this story, I happened to run across the list of flax
growers in Londonderry in 1796, and there was a farm
owned by Anne James, who would be the mother of
Robert and the oldest James ancestor that we know
of. Oddly enough we don’t know Anne’s husband’s first
name which is another mystery to solve. The 1796
date puts the James family in Ireland at a time that
connects them to the original Plantation movement in
the 1600s.

One way to visit the farm is to use
Google maps shown here from two
viewpoints.

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