Resources

Here are some useful links to other Web sites with information on the people and places mentioned in these pages.

The Foleys

Arnold Sprague's and Claudia Milstead's Genealogical Website has a wealth of well-organized and well-sourced information on the Foleys and many related families.

County Carlow, Ireland

John Foley, my great-great-grandfather, who brought the Foleys to America, was born in Bagenalstown, County Carlow, Ireland, in 1806.

County Carlow GenWeb Project

Bagenalstown (Muine Bheag)

Lanark County, Ontario

After emigrating from Ireland to Canada in 1822, John Foley chose Lanark County as the place where he would settle and establish a farm. He married there, in the town of Perth, to Johanna O'Brien (another Irish emigrant) and raised a family of twelve (including Timothy, Thomas, John, and Michael: the noted Foley Brothers). Here are some links to historical information about Lanark County.

Hints to Emigrants is the long and meticulously detailed account of another early settler, the Rev. William Bell, who came to Lanark County, and Perth, from Scotland, about five years before John Foley arrived from Ireland. It seems likely that there would have been many similarities in their experience.

The Rev. Bell has the eye of a novelist, and his recounting of his family's voyage across the North Atlantic to Quebec, their travels into the interior, the character and customs of the people they encounter, and the geography, economy, governance, and every-day reality of life in frontier Canada is fascinating and instructive.

Upper Canada Military Settlements of 1815-16 is a 1923 account of the Irish emigration to Lanark County in 1823, which included Timothy O'Brien and his daughter Johanna. This page links to Shipping Lists of the Hebe and Stakesby, which lists a Timothy O'Brien, 36, of Kanturk, Cork, very likely the same person.

"Ontario - A Wee Bit o’ Perth" is a nicely illustrated article about present-day Perth, "the prettiest town in Ontario."

Here is a little gallery of photos of the town of Perth, courtesy of Ontario East. For more photos and information, check the official Town of Perth Web Site.

Benton County, Minnesota

Michael, Thomas, Timothy and John Foley came from Lanark County in eastern Ontario to Benton County, Minnesota in the 1870's. They bought 80 acres of land in Gilman township, where they established the town of Foley.

Benton County History

Benton County Historical Society and Museum

Map of area

Historical and genealogical information from Minnesota GenWeb Project

Minnesota Local History and Genealogy Research Guide