Samuel & Elizabeth Allen

OUR LINEAGE NOW TRACED FROM SAMUEL ALLEN BORN 1795 AND ELIZABETH McKINNEY BORN 1797

This link has opened up another generation….The “new” Samuel above is the father of Samuel JOHN Allen (Dec 1835-1919, 75 years old in the Irish Census 1901) married to Eliza Hartley (1834-1917). We have now discovered that Samuel JOHN had brothers and sisters, detailed below. One of those brothers is a direct link to Joseph Allen OBE, Auctioneer, Estate Agent and founder of ALLEN’S Salesyard, Cookstown in 1913! (It was Joseph Allen who was involved in the sale of Killymoon Demesne and the Castle to the entrepreneurial James Coulter Snr in 1922. Read details in the book, MY JOURNEY)

We are ALL the same Allen generated from Samuel Allen and his wife Elizabeth (nee McKinney)

In 1795 Samuel Allen was born. He married Elizabeth McKinney (born 1797) and had 8 children.

1. Margaret was born in 1817 and married William Crawford 1843

2. Joseph born 1821, married Margaret Russell 24 April 1844
They had 10 children:
Elizabeth 25 March, 1845….Samuel 29 February 1848….Sarah Jane 20 June1850
Margaret 12 May 1853….Joseph 30 May 1855….Sophia Anne 21 June 1857
Mary 5 August 1859….Rachel 8 March 1862-died 21 March 1864
William John 11 July 1864….Rachel 8 September 1866

3. Thomas James 1822, died August 1838
4. Samuel 1825 (did not belong to us, in the Church records....meaning perhaps that he had moved on!
5. Sally 1828, gone to America, Nov 48 (could she be the cousin referred to in Ameriacnwhom John’s 3 daughters went to in the Hockessin area of Delaware??)
6. Eliza 1832, married John McR ?
7. John 20 December 1835 (direct ancestor, my great great grandfather!))
8. William 20 Nov 1838

We now return to family nr 2 and to find son Joseph (dob 30 May 1855), checking him against the 1911 Irish Census!
Joseph, could not read/write, had married Sarah Anne (dob 1852), in 1878, could not read/write. They resided in 1911, at 45 Millburn St, Cookstown (known as the Oldtown)

They had 4 children:
Annie dob 1879….Joseph 1882….Margaret 1887….Robert John 1889.
Residing/visiting their home on the Census Day 1911 was William Rankin dob 1876, nephew and Solicitors Clerk.
The Census also tells us that Joseph was a Flesher (Butcher) and Contractor. His 2 sons, Joseph and Robert John were Flesher’s Assistants.

This Joseph dob 22 Dec 1882, is the JOSEPH ALLEN OBE, Auctioneer, Estate Agent and founder of ALLEN’S SALESYARD, COOKSTOWN in 1913.

Joseph’s son Junior Allen, is in his early 80’s, to day (Nov 2018) living in Co Down. Junior’s son, Joseph’s grandson Niall, lives in Scotland and as I understand runs a Public House.

Robert John Allen (dob 9 Sept 1889) known as Bobby, was a butcher with a shop in Molesworth Street, which I remember and is still trading to day, under new ownership. Researching Irishgeneology.ie I discovered an interesting link. Bobby married Sarah Anne Sinclair and had a family.

A son was born, named Sinclair Allen, who became the well known Chemist in Cookstown, in the 1960-1990’s. First photo below! Sinclair in turn had a son Darren born in the late 1960’s who continues to run the Pharmacy as well as other businesses.

Allen’s Chemist/Pharmacist whom we now know is related to Joseph Allen, is also our lineage!

Second photo below....Indra with Marie & Steven 2008.  ALLEN Estate Agents, in the background, yellow sign to the left of McLaughlin's (new premises after the sale and move from ALLEN'S Salesyard, to Philip Bryans, a long serving employee!)

The small blurred photo at the bottom.....the white shop sign on the right shows ALLEN'S Butchers, Molesworth Street, Cookstown, 1950's!

Third photo, to extreme right is observed the letters AL---  the Salesyard and the next to bottom photo is from the 1960's, not showing the full width of the Yard!

Extracted from the Mid Ulster Mail
Published: Thursday 12 December 2002
By Meena Chada

"THE cold breath of man and beast rose and mingled with the foggy air last Friday, the final day of Cookstown Livestock Mart. And there they were, just as their fathers before them, hats on head, hands in pockets, loth to say a word but only too aware of the “monumental occasion.” Loth to say a word, but all feeling a sense of “loss,” “sadness,” and “disappointment” as a long-standing tradition drew to a close.
A tradition spanning decades, and some would argue one which was the heart of Cookstown, a market town. And as for the beasts, ears tagged bright yellow, they mooed and lowed oblivious - the calm before the start of proceedings and that loud speaker. “I’ve been coming here a few years now,” said Austin Devlin of Ballinderry, a retired pig and cattle farmer. Brushing his reticence aside, he continued: “A lot of men are going to miss this mart. They’re going to have to make trips to Dungannon or Draperstown
“It’s a sad day for Cookstown and the town’s shopping centre.”
And Brendan Devlin, a store cattle farmer from Cookstown’s Cavanreagh Road said: “I’ve just come here to have a look around today. “I’ve been coming here for 20 years. The mart will be badly missed indeed. It’s closure will be a major inconvenience for the local farming community.” Owen Meenagh of Carrickmore echoed the sentiments, saying: “I’ve been coming here to sell cattle every week for 15 years. “The mart’s closure is a big disadvantage and another blow for the farming community, but we knew it was coming the way things were going.” And how were things going, what were the tell-tale signs?
Perhaps Niall Allen of Allen’s Sale Yard was best placed to describe and articulate what had brought Cookstown to this - and why. He explains that the family business was established by his grandfather Joseph Allen in 1913, and that live stock sales had been conducted in the premises, off Cookstown’s main street, since 1954. “This is a sad day for the livestock industry and for ourselves, as this has been a family business for nearly 90 years,” said Mr Allen. “But the decision had to be taken to close the mart for a culmination of reasons.” Key reasons, Mr Allen, points out are “a change in marketing patterns” and the fact that the farming industry is “still reeling from the effects of foot and mouth.”
“The mart was closed for six months last year,” he says. “Since the crisis, a number of new restrictions have been imposed by the Department of Agriculture which apply to all cattle. “The restrictions prevent farmers from bringing livestock to cattle markets as freely as before. Now, only one movement is permitted within a 30-day period, whereas there were no restrictions beforehand.” He adds that herd records are also much more stringent and must be kept up-to-date, in that the Department must be notified of herd numbers - births, deaths, sales and purchases - within a seven-day period. Highlighting another blight to the farming community - the BSE crisis of the 1990s - Mr Allen points out that Allens took over Magherafelt Market Yard on Rainey Street in 1994. “The market was badly affected by the BSE crisis around 1996 and eventually closed in 1998,” he said. “Magherafelt trade transferred to Cookstown and it really has been on the decline since then. “We used to have four sales a week in Cookstown, which gradually changed over the last 19 years. It just got smaller and smaller.” He also points out that there have been no pig sales at Cookstown Mart for two years, and that the local mart used to be “the biggest pig sale in the North of Ireland.” “This was a big change and took a long time to get used to.”
Mr Allen, who will continue to run the family’s property side of the business, adds: “I’ve been here for 22 years. It’s a big decision to sell up (part of the market yard) and conduct no further sales. “And it will be hard on the farming community as the nearest marts are in Dungannon and Draperstown, and a small one in Pomeroy. “Some of the farmers have been coming here for generations, young men with their fathers, who were probably here with their fathers before them.”