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Welcome to the Laird family website. This site contains the genealogies and biographical information on several Laird families from Londonderry Northern Ireland and County Donegal along with many inter-related families including the Hunter, Neely and Boggs families. It is the historical repository of my research and the work of other dedicated researchers who have spent countless hours in search of the lives and stories behind ordinary everyday people who no longer have a voice.

Our ancestors decisions and accomplishments echo across time and are a part of where and who we are today. I hope you will find the information interesting, and that you may be able to find other family members and help contribute to this rich history. Background: "Kilderry” is a civil registration district just outside the present day City of Londonderry. The district covers the Shantallow, Ballyarnett area within Northern Ireland and extends across the border into County Donegal encompassing the village and district of Muff, any birth in the District is shown as Kilderry.

Bogstown or Boggstown was built around 1698 and consisted of a farm house and farm buildings with a row of labourers cottages within a stone courtyard. It was situated in the townland of Shantallow on a small country road which leads to the village of Steelstown, the farm house had been the residence to a family of 17th century Scottish plantation settlers called Boggs.

From 1742-1753 it was the home of Joseph & Sarah Boggs, in 1797 Richard Laird died leaving Bogstown to his nephew James Laird and subsequent generations of Laird's lived at the Bogstown Farm until the early 1900's. On August 19th 1886 a grandson of James, Richard Laird at 20 years of age sailed from Tilbury docks in London on the SS Orient for Melbourne, Australia. He joined his older cousin John Laird Hunter who left Donegal and settled in Melbourne four years earlier. Richard's mother Ann Laird, sister Mary and elder brother Thomas remained at Bogstown where the family lived until about 1900. It was later sold in the late 1920's and rented,

Bogstown remained largely unchanged up to 1960. Around 1966 Bogstown was purchased by the Catholic Church, the buildings removed and a new Chapel built there in 1976, which is as it is today. The narrow country lane which led to both Bogstown and Steelstown called the Steelstown Lane was widened to become the Steelstown Road and throughout the 1950's and 1960's new private bungalows and houses were built which now line the road . Bruce Laird – March 2007

Elagh Laird's History by Alan Laird

Elagh is a townland to the North-West of Londonderry city in the parish of Templemore, Northern Ireland. [...]

EA50 Laird Family Headstone Restoration Project

 

 

After living in Singapore for 2 years now it has given me a much greater appreciation of  traditional Chinese culture.   A typical Chinese family will once a year visit and pay respects to their departed relatives for “grave sweeping” and have a deep belief that current day family prosperity and health is directly connected to their relatives grave.   Many cases [...]

1830's Life in Londonderry

A FASCINATING directory for the city of Londonderry – dating from the early nineteenth century – has been newly-published on the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) website, offering a rich insight into what it would have been like to live there one hundred and seventy years ago.

A New Directory [...]

1761 Laird & Breden Family connection

There appears to be a connection between the Bogstown Laird’s and the Breden/Bredin family from Ballynagard.  In 1886 William Bredin traveled with Richard Laird to Australia on the SS Orient and later married the widow Annie Rowe in Melbourne (the mother of Jean Absalom who married Richard in October 1889).    William Bredin was the son [...]

USA Laird History

The following is from “The Heritage of Blue Hill” (Nebraska) published in 1976. It has a number of biographies of early settlers there.

BIOGRAPHIES FROM THE HERITAGE OF BLUE HILL THE LAIRD FAMILY HISTORY
(Compiled by Bessie L. Fletcher)
    

The Laird family history must begin in Stevenson County, Illinois, with Colonel [...]

Carrygawley - Laird Family Flax Mill

Thanks to the generosity and support of the Wiley family during a previous visit  to Letterkenny I was able to locate and photograph the old Flax Mill that was on John Laird’s 68ac Carrygawley Flax farm.    This is the farm where Ann Laird and her sisters grew up and one of only two farms in the 128ac [...]

Canadian Bogstown Laird Found

Canadian Bogstown Laird Found: John Laird (b 14th August 1856 – Bogstown) at the age of 20 immigrated from Londonderry via Liverpool to Quebec on the Sarmatian in August 1876. The shipslog shows he was with a group from Londonderry that were going to Guelph which was a favored destination for Londonderry/Donegal Protestants.   John arrived [...]