Ghost of Arthur Crown

Until recently, I haven't fully realized just how much history I was going to learn as a result of studying DNA matches. This time, I've spotted two matches to a Crown family who lived in the area of Meshoppen, PA starting in early 1830s, which predates the Great Famine.  So why did this Crown family leave Ireland to settle in a forested region 160 miles from NY or Philadelphia, which were the likeliest ports of arrival?

The answer is almost certainly Jobs. From 1828-1856, the North Branch Canal was built along the Susquehanna River for 169 miles between southern New York and north central Pennsylvania. But work was paused for about 10 years around 1840, and the workers, many if not most of them Irish, had to make a home.  So a handful of Irish settlers acquired land in/around what is today called Stowell, and which would become known as the Irish Settlement.

Although the Crowns are not listed among the early settlers of the Irish Settlement, Richard Crown and his wife Jane Gallagher lived in Meshoppen, 12 miles distant.  They had at least five children up through 1880. One of those children, Arthur Joseph Crown, 1837-1919, had descendants whose DNA is matching me as well as several other testers in my Crown family group.  I think it's fair to say these Meshoppen Crowns fit into our family tree some how, and maybe the very name of Arthur can give us a clue.

The earliest Irish record set I have found that applies to our Crowns is the Ireland Tithe Applotment Books.  There, in 1833 and 1835, an Arthur Crown was tithed in the Killasnet civil parish in the townland of Killymeehin, two miles from where Richard Crown lived in Pollboy.  However, by the time of the 1857 Griffith's Valuation, there was no trace of any Arthur Crown, nor is that name found again in subsequent record searches of that area of Ireland. Poof, gone. Who was Arthur Crown?

The disappearance of one Arthur Crown from Killymeehin in 1835, and the appearance of one Richard Crown in Pennsylvania about the same time could be a coincidence. But then subsequently, what are the odds that Richard Crown living in Pennsylvania would name a son Arthur?  What are the odds that DNA from descendants of Arthur Crown born in Pennsylvania would match descendants of Richard Crown and Sarah Meehan of Pollboy?  Odds are not my thing.  And DNA-matching, which happily lead us to this post, can be crazy-making when we consider the random nature of which and how much DNA is passed to each tester.  But history has a pliable framework in time and space, which, even for all the missing records, echoes.  To the listening ear, it facilitates imagining all the answers to our questions about the past. Perhaps Arthur Crown Sr. and Richard Crown, my ancestor, were brothers. Perhaps Arthur Sr. died in Ireland shortly after being tithed there, and his son, Richard, named for my ancestor, left Ireland for America. Perhaps once in America, Richard named his son for his father, Arthur. This could be one explanation for the evidence we have so far, but it is hardly the only possible explanation and we are light years away from any genealogical proof. But something tells me that the ghost of Arthur Crown who was tithed in Killymeehin in 1835 is following this story now.