Aghalee-A map of the town in pictures and the main church.
The past couple of weeks I have been inputting all of the Hull family tree for the Aghalee, Antrim, Ireland area. I have used the information that I had previously collected through the Internet and visits to the area. I have also received great help from Cynthia in Australia who has made contact with a Ross Hull who lives down under and he is related to this same group and has sent us a couple of large files of family research with hundreds of names and information such as wills, research notes and genealogy. Rob Hull, our cousin from California, has compiled through research at the LA genealogical library, hundreds of names in lists of Baptisms, marriages and Burials. He sent this along with other great questions and written information that helps me to be able to link all or at least many of the names together in one big family tree.
Paul, our cousin in Belfast, newly connected to us through the DNA tests, has begun to collect names and data from this area because this is where his family originated in the early 1800s. With his added information it has helped me to clarify some of the lines and now I have almost 200 names in one big family tree for Aghalee. I haven't been able to connect Paul's line in yet but we will soon. From here we will need to continue to connect the 300 to 400 names available until we have it all mapped out and connected. This will then allow us to identify the lines that left and went to America, such as John Hull, BJ Hull and Thomas Hugh Hull and also my line that went off to Dungiven area of Ireland and then later immigrated to Idaho and Utah in the US. The Aghalee Hulls came from Lancashire, England from around Preston, just above Liverpool. We have already started to research this area and I have about 3500 Hull names that lived in this area recently and back to the 1600s or sooner.
It is believed that the Hulls came over from England to Soldiers Town, a place about 2 miles from Aghalee in the early 1600's.
We have only been able to accomplish this progression because of the DNA testing and the generous donations made by family members who gave on blind faith and now we are seeing the proof of their faith. We collected over $1800 for the testing and we will have exhausted this fund in the next few weeks and we still have 2 or 3 more $180 tests to do so if anyone can help please send the help to Carol Earl. She has an account set aside for this and she pays the DNA tests from this fund.
Paul Hull, Belfast, is going to help me find a Hull from Aghalee and also several from Blaris which is just across the fence into Down, Ireland. The Blaris Hulls and the Aghalee Hulls have lived next to each other for over 400 years and yet they may be separate, unrelated families. The DNA tests will prove it all out. Thanks again for your contributions and for your help in this research. Dan
