My great-granny Jane Agnew was the first-born child of eight born to her parents*, David and Jane “Jennie” (Erskine/Askin) Agnew. Jane’s sisters and brothers were Mary, Samuel, Margaret, Robert E., Martha, John and David E. Jane was born March 17, 1848, in Middle Division, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Times were difficult in those days because of the effects of the Great Potato Famine. Later, they moved to the Ballynarry Village Agnew farm when she and four of her siblings were young children. Her next three siblings were born at this farm. She grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by family and friends where they attended school and church together. The Loofbourrows that are related to Jane are through her daugther Mollie Barker, who, in 1897, married John Loofbourrow, the 2nd son of James Shanks Loofbourrow and Mary Catherine Syfert.
Read more and enjoy the many photos of the Northern Ireland area where she grew up and the Iowa farm where she was employed when she first came to America and where she eventually married and raised a familiy. There is even more information in our “Genealogy of Ancestors and Descendants” family history book, on pages 318-319.
* Although Jane’s parents, David and Jane “Jennie” Erskine Agnew, were born in County Antrim, N. Ireland, their parents came from Aryshire, Scotland, sometime in the early 1800’s. In 1839, David’s father, Samuel Agnew, has been documented as living in Ballynarry, County Antrim, and in the holding of an ancient stone column known as the Standing Stone. (The same property/farm where Cousin Sam Agnew currently lives.)
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