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CJ Max | all galleries >> Galleries >> JOHNSTON Family Album © 2005 > Map - Ireland - Co. Derry - Magherafelt - Glenburn & Wylie Cottage
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25-AUG-2008 Cliff. Johnston

Map - Ireland - Co. Derry - Magherafelt - Glenburn & Wylie Cottage

Pearland, Texas, U.S.A.

One of the puzzles that I'd been unable to solve until August of 2008 was the origin of the name of the cemetery in which many of my kin are buried including my grandfather, Cpl. Clifford Johnston. I spent considerable time searching Scotland to no avail. Then out of nowhere came Denver Boyd in IRELAND who lives about 7 miles from a stream called "Glenburn". He was kind enough to send me a map with the location of Glenburn marked on it in red. I took the map into Photoshop, modified his markings slightly and added the word "Glenburn" in red.

In the time of my ancestors in IRELAND, Glenburn had been a lovely, wee burn (stream) in a small valley with wildflowers growing on its banks - quiet and beautiful. Today it has been reduced to being enclosed in a culvert so that a street could be built over it and houses on both sides. Such is progress.

Several Methodist families from the Magherafelt area that were close to each other set out for UPPER CANADA in 2 ships, one in 1822 and another in 1832. Two of those families settled close to each other near the town of Pendleton, Prescott Co., Ontario, CANADA. Those families were Anderson & Wylie. Later the Derby family joined them. Others settled elsewhere giving old and familiar names to new places. Two Scots-Irish names of note in this area are Glenburn & Curran. In Co. Derry, IRELAND, Curran is a very small town due north of Magherafelt.

Half way between Curran and Magherafelt is Johnstons Hill which is named after an Irish, Celtic family who adopted the surname Johnston (we've been in contact with them, done the Y-DNA thing and confirmed this information as well as it can be confirmed).

Our Wylie branch of the family was from Coolshinny which is in the lower left-hand part of the map. The Wylie cottage is still standing. Cousin Harold Wylie visited his elderly Wylie cousins who were living in the cottage in the 1960's. In 2009 another cousin visited the elderly Alex Wylie who still lives in the same cottage. I've identified it too in red.


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Jo-Anne Stephens Hollander 26-Aug-2014 20:17
I am trying to find my second cousin Joanne Wylie. She was marries to a Lalonde. My grandmother was Margaret Brannon Stephens, daughter of Isabella Wylie Brannon.
Joan MacDonald 28-Aug-2008 20:29
May I make a small correction about the Anderson Farm?
It is (was) called Rockdale Farm.
I am a distant cousin on Frank and Fanny's branch
of the family tree. We visited the farm several years ago, when it had been sold to a MacDonald family(no relation) It was pretty well finished as a home, but it was nice to see where we all started from
Peggy Hesse (Johnston) 28-Aug-2008 01:43
Yahoo,,,,,,, Road Trip!!!!!!!
Guest 27-Aug-2008 02:18
Wonderful research - we should go there sometime. Many thanks to Denver Boyd and assistance finding this after so long.

Eileen Anderton Smerdon (Clifford Johnston's first cousin).