Our Parker Family History Table of Contents

The Family in Ulster; County Down

There are two major sources of Irish records of the 1850’s, compiled by and kept in England, that show evidence of Parker families in County Down. We can see Parkers in County Down in the “Ordnance Survey of Ireland,” taken beginning in 1824 by the British Army. Parkers are also seen in “Griffith’s Valuation of Irish Land” and other property made between 1846 and 1864. Both can be seen at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, at Ancestry.com, at Family Search.com, and several other Web sites.

The name Robert Parker was popular in several of the families of Newry Parish, County Down listed in Griffith’s Primary Valuation of Ireland. We find it in Ballinteggart, Curley, Saval More, Castle Enigan, and Clonduff Townlands. Although the official Griffith’s Valuation for County Down was published in 1864, after our Parkers emigrated, we know that the survey of a large county took many months to develop and record and publish, so it is very possible that relatives of our people are included in it.

According to Grandmother Bess, Our Robert Parker was born in 1805 or 1806. Other references state that he was born in 1800. We are certain that he and Susanna Lowery (or Lowry?) were married in 1827. Their eldest son, James, was born in 1829.

We know now, from baptism records of the Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church⁴, that our Parker ancestors lived from at least 1842 to 1857 in Ballinteggart Townland, Newry Parish, County Down, in what is now Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Seven children of Robert and Susanna are mentioned in those records; Matilda, Eliza (who must have been called Jeane Elizabeth,) Agnes 1^st (who died before 1857,) William⁵, Richard, Samuel, and Agnes 2^nd. There are also records of other branches of the Parker family in County Down.

The first baptism mentioned in the Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church records was of Matilda in 1842. She was, we think, the 7^th child of Robert and Susanna.

At present we do not know where the other children were baptized.

Ballinteggart, Newry, County Down

During the summer of 1845 a terrible blight struck Ireland. Potatoes were the common staple of diet among the mass of Irish people, for it was possible to raise many pounds of them on small tracts of land. Because most Irish farms were so small, there were no other crops that could sustain eight million Irish people. The average farm in Ireland was about 1.5 acres; a very large farm was 30 acres. The blight caused a great famine; more than three quarters of a million peopled died of starvation; another one million and a half left the country. The population of Ireland declined by about 30% in ten years! Here is a description of the causes and effects of the Great Famine⁶:

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm

The Great Famine was not so serious in northeastern Ireland, where Our Parkers lived in County Down. That area had other crops, such as flax, sheep and cattle, and a much larger industrial base producing linen, wool, meat and manufactured metal products which paid for food imported from England and Scotland. When our Parkers were there, few farmers owned the land they farmed – they leased or rented land that was owned by absentee landowners, most of whom lived in England. It was very difficult to buy land to increase the size of a farm. When the famine abated in the late 1850’s, many more Irish families had the resources to emigrate to the United States, Australia, and South America.

We have found some church records of baptism for children of Robert and Susanna Parker in the Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church between 1844 and 1857. Eliza, Agnes (1st,) William, Richard, Samuel and Agnes (2nd) are mentioned. During those years our Parkers lived in a townland called Ballinteggart which was just south of Loughbrickland and north of Newry. Before and after that period we have found no record of the residence of Robert or Susanna. We do know that Susanna’s last name was Lowery (or Lowry.) We think her father was named James, and her mother’s maiden name was McGaffey. The Parkers all said that their homeland was Newry, in County Down. Loughbrickland and Ballinteggart, as well as Saval More and Savalbeg and Curley and Donaghmore were townlands in Newry in those days. Families named Parker lived in all of them.²

Leaving Home

Moving to America was not a new idea to the Parkers in late 1861. Three of their sons, Isaac, Robert and David are shown in ship records of voyage in 1848, 1852, and 1854, respectively. We believe that Robert the father made a trip to America in 1860 or earlier 1861. It seems reasonable that he would have made plans for the journey of the rest of the family as a result of that trip.

Records of other families suggest that emigrating from County Down took some time to arrange and execute. A family of fourteen did not just pick up and leave their country to go 3,500 miles to a new home without planning the trip carefully. We can imagine that preparation was necessary for several weeks of travel, including saying goodbyes, arranging business affairs, packing clothes for 14 people, collecting and packing household goods for the new home, all of this took time and organization. Remember also that three sons of the family had already gone to America. Many families leaving County Down went to Belfast or Dublin, thence to Liverpool. Some traveled down the Newry Canal to the sea, thence to Liverpool. We don’t know which route was used by our Parkers; both routes took at least two days. Most Irish families went from home to Dublin, then by boat across the Irish Sea to Liverpool – this voyage took about 14 hours.

Liverpool was then the busiest English port from which Irish and Scotch emigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean on British ships. An article in the Cork Examiner, of Queenstown, County Cork, Ireland for December 19^th, 1861, states that “The screw steamer Etna, Captain Kennedy, arrived in Queenstown this morning, having left Liverpool at one o'clock yesterday. She leaves to-day for New York with 250 passengers, a full cargo, and the mails, which arrived from Cork at 3 o'clock, immediately after which the Etna steamed away.” Our Parkers were among the Etna passengers, which actually numbered 250. Here is a map showing the route of the Etna’s voyage. Points on it are:

1. 
   Liverpool, England, where they boarded the Etna.
   
2. 
   Queensland (now called Cobh,) County Cork, Ireland, where the Etna stopped on Dec. 18^th.
   
3. 
   New York, New York, USA, where Our Parkers landed on Dec. 31, 1861.
   

The Etna, built in 1855 in Glasgow, Scotland, was one of the fastest “Iron Screw Steamships” on the sea when she was built. Passage was often accomplished in less than two weeks, whereas even the fasted sailing ships required more than twice that time. The Inman Line brought more immigrants from northern Europe than any other line for many years. Inman catered to steerage passengers; their rates were lower and accommodations were better than on many other lines, and far better than on the sailing ships taken by most emigrants from Ireland during the Famine.