Reunited 105 years on

After over a century 57 Nesbitts from both sides of the Atlantic gathered under one roof celebrating their common heritage.

Among them was Kilfennan man Raymond Nesbitt, who was instrumental in organising the gathering of the clan, on Saturday in the City Hotel.

Raymond, who lives at Sutton Gardens, was in his element, tying loose ends together as he and other Nesbitts shared their connections to Samuel Nesbitt, who left Londonderry in September 1906 for a new life in the United States.

“Nobody really knows why he went, but it seems he just took a notion of having a new life. He sailed on the SS Columbia to New York, arriving on September 26. No contact was made home ever again,” said Raymond, of his grandfather’s brother.

“Then, back in February of this year I was toying about on the Donegal Genealogy site on the Internet, and there as lots of stuff on there about St Johnston and Taughboyne Parish, where the family came from, and it also had the 1901 Census on there as well, and I happened to look my family up and saw that somebody had been doing research in the States, and there was an email address and the name of Kenyon Nesbitt listed,” he said.

Describing his mounting excitement at the prospect of a strong lead, Raymond said he wired off an email explaining that the people Kenyon was researching were also his relatives, and asking if there was any way he could help him with his search.

“The next thing I have about 25 emails in my inbox that kenyon had sent with all sorts of information in them, including the passenger list, Sam’s birth certificate, the full 1901 Census...loads of stuff,” said Raymond with remembered excitement.

It transpired that Kenyon was Samuel’s great-grandson, while Raymond was Sam’s brother’s grandson.

Among the things that Raymond learned was that Kenyon, who was a gentleman in his 60’s, had done a family tree on the American side on Ancestry.com, and he asked Raymond to fill in the detail from this side of ‘The Pond’.

It was a simple task to complete as his cousin’s daughter, Jacqui Mitchell, had the contingent here already charted: “It was easy to add it to the main tree. There are now over 1,200 people on that family tree stretching back to 1780.

“Wayne Smith, a grandson of Samuel’s had asked Kenyon if he knew any relatives here, and Kenyon’s wife, Cathy (Smith) found me on Facebook back in April, and they said they had already booked a holiday in Ireland staying in Dublin and Galway and they would like to meet up and have dinner, and I thought it would be good to organiser a reunion dinner, and that took place on Saturday night,” he added.