Research Update – The McDonald’s and Other Ancestors

I realize it has been quite some time since I last posted a research update. Over the last year I had several positives when starting to research the McDonald family.

Census Records

Once I knew exactly where the McDonald’s were living in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to Virginia Geary McDonald, I was able to dig in and pull census records for the family. I was able to locate David McDonald, my 4^th great grandfather, as far back as 1840 and several of his children including – Michael McDonald [my 3rd great grandfather] and his brothers, my 3^rd great-grand uncles James McDonald, Andrew McDonald, David McDonald, and Peter McDonald.

Locating the census records provided insights to the wives and children of Michael McDonald’s brothers.

The Haggerty family was also located in the census records. I was able to locate Robert Haggerty, my 4th great grandfather, as far back as 1850 and his sons - Thomas and James Haggerty, my 3^rd great-grand uncles.

Visit to St. Mary’s Church – Crown, Pennsylvania

Last July I took a day to visit Clarion, Pennsylvania with my father and my aunt. We were able to visit the cemetery of St. Mary’s Church. At the cemetery we located several graves of our ancestors including Michael McDonald & Anne Haggerty, my 3rd great grandparents as well as several other family members. In future blog posts I will include provide more details from this visit.

A New Connection

By publishing this family tree blog I came connected with another cousin, Benjamin Norris, who is related through the Haggerty side. He has a lot of firsthand knowledge of McDonald and Haggerty ancestors. He also has a lot of knowledge of Vowinckel and Farmington Township.  The information that Benjamin has been able to provide has filled in holes in my research and added details that previously would have been unknown.

New Lines in the Family Tree

Through some family trees located at Rootsweb and information provided by Benjamin Norris I was able to locate two new family tree lines that extend from the Haggerty Line. The research on these lines is preliminary but promising. These lines include:

• The Easly line extends back  9 generations. This line starts with Rebecca M. Easly, my 4^th great grandmother, and wife of Robert H. Haggerty. The oldest ancestor in this line is Blasius Easly, my 6^th great grandfather, born in 1711.


• The Kuhn line extends back 12 generations. This line starts with Elizbeth Kuhn, my 5^th great grandmother, and wife of Andrew Easly. The oldest ancestor in this line is John Kuhn, my 9^th great grandfather.


• The Adam line is currently a minor line that extends back 13 generations. This line starts with Anna Barbara Adam my 8^th great grandmother. The oldest ancestor in this line is Christian A. Adam, my 10^th great grandfather born about 1650 married to an unknown Christina born approximately February 1674/1675.

The definition I have used for generations starts with the children of my cousins, our families youngest generation, to the oldest known generation. If this preliminary research is accurate these lines are the oldest in the Murosky family tree to date.