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Discussions with some genealogy pros in Northern Ireland were not very fruitful. They stated that most of the records of the period before 1750 were burned by many of the marauding armies moving through in the mid 1600's. Ship records are poor until the mid 1800's. Of the 7000 armed defenders of Londonderry (against King James) only about 1600 are known. One is Andrew Darragh, of County Tyrone, adjacent to Londonderry. Almost all of the Darrahs in Northern Ireland use the Darragh form, and it is likely that the "g" was dropped by those coming through Massachusetts as well as referring to themselves as "Ulster
Scots". It is well known that the English settlers (who had been there over 100 years when Charles Darrah and his sons arrived about 1730) looked down upon any Irish. Even my Aunts (born in 1880s) referred to their ancestors as "coming from New Hampshire and Scotland" even tho they spent several generations in Northern Ireland. Coincidentally, One of them, Grace Darrah, is featured in this forum a few messages back by Joe Bott. Those arriving in Philadelphia might not have suffered the same scorn and retained the "g" and it is possible that Thomas Darragh and Charles Darrah are brothers.
Some further pieces of info: After Litchfield became a part of NH (formerly in MA) and received a town charter from King George II, Robert Darrah( m. 1: Jean McKean and 2. Eunice Blood) was appointed a "tithingman" and later a "Selectman". Many of his entries are in the town records. Arthur Darrah was appointed to a number of posts in Litchfield. Charles Darrah built a house in 1746 which stood until 1922 as the oldest surviving house in Litchfield. He was likely buried in the cemetary by the river which was totally destroyed in a flood when the river changed course. Some of the gravestones were recovered and vertically stacked in a new cemetary, formerly known as South Cemetary, where Robert is buried next to Eunice. Jean McKean is also buried in that same cemetary. Both unions produced several children, documented elsewhere in this forum. Robert was also on the "Committee of Public Safety" in 1775, an organization designed to take over the government roles after the British Governors were kicked out. Sorry about the rambling, but there are probably not many contributors whose greatgrandfather (RobertII) was born in the 1700's.
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