The Doris Family of Lettermacaward.

Who are the Doris family of Lettermacaward? At some stage in the early 19th. century, a member of the Doris family (or perhaps more than one) settled in the southern end of the Rosses in County Donegal.

As far as we can tell, they came from the Ballygawley area in Tyrone via County Mayo, where a branch of the Doris family was also established in the late 18th. century in the area around Westport.

We first get some clear information about the Donegal family in the middle of the 19th. century, when a Condy Doris (often given as Condy Doran or Condy McEldore in records) lived in the townland of Dooey in the parish of Lettermacaward. Condy was married twice, once to Anne McShane of Ranny and then later to Catherine Melly of Ranny. He had a number of children by these two wives. We know of quite a few of these children because of their marriage, census and death records in Ireland and Scotland, but we do not have an exhaustive list.

My great-grandfather was his youngest son, Thomas Doris, who was born in Dooey in 1864. His father Condy died just two years later, in 1866. Most of the children of Condy Doris ended up in Greenock, a small town on the Clyde near Glasgow. Here they worked on tugboats and ships. Many of them were recorded in Scottish records as Dorans or Dorins instead of Doris and many of them emigrated from Scotland to the United States, especially New York and New Jersey. There are hundreds of descendants of Condy Doris alive today in many countries.