The Large Family Tree - Yancey Family Genealogy



[This document has been scanned in and “OCR’ed”. I apologize for any errors that were introduced as a result. Margaret Barnicle]

As described below, there are no records (that I know of) of what the Larges did before 1800. There are, however, some interesting, but conflicting, theories. Here is a summary of the current theories on where the Large family came from:

The Larges were originally French (try to imagine saying the name with a French pronunciation - soft 'g' and an 'e' that sounds like an ‘a’ (i.e., Lar jay’) (4) .

This theory revolves around the fact that in France during the 16th century there were some Protestants called Huguenots, who were severely persecuted for their deviant religious beliefs. France at the time was Catholic, and had little time for these people who developed out of the Protestant reformation which was started by Luther in Germany in 1517.

In 1685 Louis XIV restricted the rights of the Huguenots, and as a result approximately 250,000 Protestants left France for England, Holland, and America.

Some of these people may have settled in Port Arlington, which was a French community, and some of them may have been Larges.

In my research in Ireland, I looked through the records of the churches in Port Arlington, but found no records of any Larges. Incidentally the records of Port Arlington go back considerably farther then 1800.) I do not have much faith in this theory, and in fact do not know who started it.

The Larges were originally English. This theory is described in a letter from Samuel J. Large to Helen C. Large, dated September 27, 1922. According to this letter, Samuel "opened up correspondence with a branch of the family long resident at Athy, Kildare Co., Ireland. This was about thirty years ago." So this may be very good information.

He goes on to say, "The family has been traced back to 1438 when William Caxton was apprenticed to Robert Large, a wealthy mercer of London. This Robert Large became Mayor of London 1439-1440, and died in 1441.11 Samuel goes on to say that Robert Large, just before he died, paid for Caxton to go to the lowlands to learn the art of printing. Caxton apparently came back and taught the Larges about the printing business.

According to Samuel, "The Large family continued to trade in London and as far as I know are there yet. About 1735 a branch of the family engaged in the leather and saddle trade sent a member of the family, one Richard, to Dublin to establish trade there. Concerning the success of this business venture I am not clearly informed, but it was from this source that our immediate ancestors sprang."

"From Dublin the family branched into other parts of Ireland, particularly Kildare, Kings and Queens Counties and also into Canada."

"Two brothers of father, emigrated to Australia - Henry and James about 1840 and one to Ohio. [MMB: JB and I believe James is the one who came to Ohio.] I have not yet succeeded in getting in touch with the descendants of these uncles as yet, but expect to accomplish this in time.

These seems like a very likely scenario, and his information about one brother moving to Ohio (James, per JB) seems to fit quite well.

1.0 William and Rachel Large

My records of William and Rachel are incomplete. I have no marriage or birth, records for them. It is my understanding that all church records for Church of Ireland (Anglican) births and deaths and marriages prior to 1800 were moved from the individual parishes to a central location in Dublin for storage. Later this storage location burned down destroying all of the records. Therefore, there are no records of this type prior to 1800 (that I have been able to find). There may be records such as land ownership, wills, and other legal documents that still exist. However, seeing as the large family appeared to be rather poor, I would not expect to find many documents of this type.

There should be death records for Wm. and Rachel which have not been destroyed. In my research, I discovered Wm. and Rachel near the end of my stay. I was going through some records which were older then I had previously been looking through when I discovered the birth records of their children. I did not have time to go back to the earlier documents to search through the death records for some indication of Wm. and Rachel. I did find a death record of a William Large on Feb. 3, 1829, three days after William and Rachel's last child (Samuel) was born (which makes a reasonable amount of sense). However, my records indicate that this William Large was 60 years old when he died, which seems rather old for having children and I am not sure this makes a lot of sense.

So there is still some information that is probably available in existing records in the Mountmellick area. Also, it would be interesting to see if there is information in the U.S. that was destroyed by the Dublin fire. For example, the Mormon Church, or perhaps in Cincinnati, or Illinois (where James Large's family settled originally) there may be some records.

So, with that in mind, the following is what I know about William and Rachel Large and their children. I have photographs of some of the documents that support this information. For most of the birth records it was difficult to tell if the date represented the date of birth or the date of baptism. I list all dates as birth dates unless I am sure it is a baptism.

I have tried to footnote, where possible, the source of my information. Most of my information was obtained on a trip to Europe in the winter and spring of 1986. In most cases I was reading from records which were quite old (obviously) and hand written. In some cases the writing was difficult to read. The symbol (sp?) indicates that I am unsure about the spelling.

Although the records are associated with a particular parish in a particular town, the individuals involved usually lived in other "places". These places where typically no more then an intersection of a couple of roads or perhaps a hill or dale, or whatever they have over there. When that information was available I have included it. For example, John Large was born on Feb. 17, 1818, in Skaph. I believe this means that their family resided in Skaph when John was born. For anyone interested in where these places are, I have a very detailed map of Leix (Laoighis (sp?) County.

According to records from the Parish of St. Manman, William and Rachel had the following children (1):

Anne Large, baptized Dec 26, 1808 in Parish of Geaskill at this time William and Rachel lived in Garryhinch

(1.1) James Large, baptized Jan 1, 1811 in Parish of Geaskill at this time William and Rachel lived in Garryhinch

(1.2) Richard Large, baptized June 5, 1814

John Large, born Feb. 17, 1818, in Skaph (sp?)

(1.3) Samuel Large, born Jan. 31, 1829 in Dangins

1.1 James Large Line

James was baptized Jan 1, 1811 (perhaps was born as early as 1803). in parish of Geaskill which is north of Mountmellick.

He married Maria Todd of Rosenalis (west of Mountmellick) on Jan 3, 1835 and was married in the church at Rosenalis (it appears). At the time James is listed as living in Coolbanaugher(sp?). I did not find much information on Maria Todd, but there were other Todds mentioned in the records so I presume there was a Todd family around there at that time. Perhaps this an area for future research.

It is my understanding that William Abraham was quite religious(4), so I presume that James and Maria were also fairly religious.

He came to the U.S. in 1858 bringing all his children with him, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, then in 1861 moved to Christian County, Illinois and settled on a farm on Buckeye Prairie. Later he moved to a farm 1 mile south of Owaneco (between Taylorville and Pana) (2).

James died on Dec 12, 1866, Maria died July 22, 1879, both in Christian County, Illinois.

Their children were as follows:

Mary Ann, born May 31, 1853, baptized June 15, 1853, family lived in Coolagh, according to the original records, the "baptism solemnized in the Parish of Clonaslee in the county of Queens".

(1.1.1) William, born Feb 29, 1844, baptized Dec. 1, 1844, he is not referred to as William Abraham in the original church records.

Richard (2)

Joseph (2)

George (2)

James(2)

According to Harriet Large, the following children were born to James and Maria: John Henry (b. 1846), Joseph Samuel (b. 1846?), William Abraham (b. 1848), Mary Ann (b. 1852), George, and Richard. My information from Ireland has no records of any children except William (Abraham) and Mary Ann.

1.1.1 William Abraham

William came to the U.S. in 1858, with his parents. He married Sara Angeline Boyce (I currently have no records of when and where this marriage occurred although it most certainly occurred in the Taylorville area of Illinois). Sara was born April 4, 1853, in Mount Auburn, Illinois, and died on Nov 14, 1896 in Illinois(2).

William and Sara had the following children (all in the Taylorville, Illinois area, I believe):

1.1.1.1 Jesse Viola

1.1.1.2 Elisha

1.1.1.3 Francis

Richard

George

James

Mary Ann

William moved to Washington on Jan 1, 1898, after Sara's death, and lived in the Chahalis area. William remarried Mary Manning and they had the following children:

1.1.1.4 Ruth, born July 15, 1902

1.1.1.1 Jesse Viola Large

Jesse married Austin McFee (a character worth a book just on his own) and had one daughter:

Dorothy, born April 15, 1913.

Dorothy married William Borthen and they had one son:

James William, born Dec. 1, 1950 (that's me!).

1.1.1.2 Elisha Large

At this time (April, 1988), I have only a little information on Elisha. I have no specific dates an Elisha, but do know that he ran a small business in Eugene, Oregon, and was the mayor of that town for some time.

He had one son, Herb who currently lives in Eugene.

Herb has two children:

Lisa

Curtis

Herb grows great garlic!

1.1.1.3 Francis

There is information on Francis, but I have not found it yet.

1.2 Richard Large

Richard was born June 5, 1814. He married Catherine Westmore (I don't have any records on when and where). After Richard died Catherine came to the U.S.

They had the following children:

Rachel Anne, born Oct. 28, 1842.

Samuel, born May 2, 1845.

John, born Feb 12, 1849.

Richard, May 13, 1852.

James, April 16, 1854 -- Richard was a laborer living and working in Brittas. It is my understanding that Brittas was south of Clonaslee and was the estate of the man who was in charge of this area of the King's country (either Queen's county or some part of it including the Coolagh area). Apparently Richard worked on the estate.

1.2.1 William

George, born Oct 9, 1857, by now Richard was a farmer in Brittas.

Elizabeth, born Oct 9, 1857.

1.2.1 William Large

Married Letitia Mills.

They had the following children:

Kate

William

Edward

(1.2.1.1) Mary Ann

Margaret

Rachel

Richard

Letitia

Emily

(1.2.1.2) John

I have no other information on this branch (6).

1.2.1.1 Mary Ann Large

Married Joe Thornberg and had a son Joseph, and perhaps others.

1.2.1.2 John Large

Married Rebecca Thompson.

They had a daughter, Letitia She married Oliver Doherty, and they had John, Linda, and Noel (who were perhaps 8 to 14 years old in 1986). In 1986 they lived in a farming type area north of Clonaslee.

1.3 Samuel Large [This is the branch to which Margaret Barnicle is connected.]

Samuel was born Jan 31, 1829 and the family apparently lived in Dangis. He appears (from the records I saw in Ireland) to have married a woman named Bridget Cloonan.

According to my records, Samuel and Bridget had the following children:

Letitia born May 23, 1846.

(A name I was unable to read), born Feb. 17, 1849.

Maria, born Sept. 22, 1852.

Richard, Jan 14, 1855, Samuel was listed as a laborer living in Brittas (as was Samuel's brother Richard).

James, born April 28, 1857.

John, born Nov. 23, 1859, Samuel was now listed as a farmer living in Brittas.

Sarah Anne/Samuel born Feb 7, 1864.

As I understand it, Samuel's son, Samuel Jr., married a Catholic woman and hence had to change his religion. Samuel Jr. moved to the U.S. (I have conflicting information here. I was told he came to the U.S. in 1861(5), but of course, that was before he was born) and had children, among them: Bob (an engineer), and Frank.

Frank is the father of Betty Large, and Robert Large (now living in Kalamazoo, MI).

This branch of the family needs some input from Frank to make it more reliable.

Footnotes:

1) Parish of St. Manman, a Protestant church in Clonaslee According to an inscription over the door of this church, it was built in 1814. The records of the church are kept by a Mr. Jim Sweeny. He resides in Mountmellick and I believe he is a minister there. He has "branch" parishes at Rosenalis and Clonaslee which are under his jurisdiction, or are at least operated by the church in Mountmellick. He is a very nice man and he freely lets people like me look through these records.

2) According to information from letters by Elisha Large via Herb Large (I believe).

3) According to Harriet Large, James Large was born in 1820 (or perhaps 1826 - I could not make out her writing) in Coolagh. I am keeping with the information I obtained, as I feel it is very reliable. I have no idea where Harriet obtained her information. It could very possibly be correct.

4) From discussions with my mother Dorothy McFee

5) From telephone discussions with Robert Large of Kalamazoo, MI in 1988.

6) What little information I have on this branch comes from conversations with Letitia Large Doherty in Ireland.

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