http://footprints.blankslate.net/2006/06/11/the-first-footprint/ A record of my genealogical research Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:19:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 http://footprints.blankslate.net/2006/06/11/the-first-footprint/#comment-2991 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:56:19 +0000 http://footprints.blankslate.net/2006/06/11/the-first-footprint/#comment-2991 Hello Ben, I happen to come across your comments and queries relating to your Shanks connection back in the early 1800s. I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but my grandfather was born and bred in Poyntzpass, Co Down , Ulster, The family had been there as farmers since the late 1600s- early 1700s (Scots planters). You mentioned a brother of "Robert Shanks", his name was John and " he fought the British". All the Shankss were Presbterians and in 1798 there was a rebellion in Ireland against the English due to restriction of worship for non episcopalians. I noticed an excerpt a few years back in the Poyntzpass Historical Society journal. This referred to ( within an article for the "Newry Reporter" a newspaper) to a John Shanks who was a "United Irishman" . He was one of the "Fourtowns Boys", (Fourtowns was/is a Presbyterian Church in the Poyntzpass area) who was arrested in 1797 after hiding and being burnt out of a turf stack by the Welch fencibles. It's too long an excerpt for here, but in a nutshell, he escaped and went to Baltimore USA and returned in 1807 to marry a young woman called Ringland. Maybe this is your Robert Shanks's birthplace.My Shanks townland in Poyntzpass is called Lisnabrague, beside a small lake called Lough Shark or Acton Lake. I think you must consider yourself to be Scotch Irish/Ulster Scots as well as the other interesting mix. Good luck Patrick Shanks Hello Ben,
I happen to come across your comments and queries relating to your Shanks connection back in the early 1800s.
I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but my grandfather was born and bred in Poyntzpass, Co Down , Ulster, The family had been there as farmers since the late 1600s- early 1700s (Scots planters).
You mentioned a brother of “Robert Shanks”, his name was John and ” he fought the British”. All the Shankss were Presbterians and in 1798 there was a rebellion in Ireland against the English due to restriction of worship for non episcopalians. I noticed an excerpt a few years back in the Poyntzpass Historical Society journal. This referred to ( within an article for the “Newry Reporter” a newspaper) to a John Shanks who was a “United Irishman” . He was one of the “Fourtowns Boys”, (Fourtowns was/is a Presbyterian Church in the Poyntzpass area) who was arrested in 1797 after hiding and being burnt out of a turf stack by the Welch fencibles. It’s too long an excerpt for here, but in a nutshell, he escaped and went to Baltimore USA and returned in 1807 to marry a young woman called Ringland. Maybe this is your Robert Shanks’s birthplace.My Shanks townland in Poyntzpass is called Lisnabrague, beside a small lake called Lough Shark or Acton Lake.
I think you must consider yourself to be Scotch Irish/Ulster Scots as well as the other interesting mix.
Good luck
Patrick Shanks

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