Overview of the Healan Family in the United States
With the unique spelling of “Healan,” it is both easy and difficult to do genealogy research for the name. Easy, if the name is spelled correctly in the records. Difficult, if numerous misspellings occur, which they usually do.
According to family history, my great, great grandfather, Michael Healan, was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1780. He probably came with family members to the US sometime in the mid- 1790s. By the time his name began to be recorded in official records, the misspelling of Healan occurred in many forms.
The first record I could find shows that he was in the Surry County, NC, tax lists of 1797. He is listed as Michael Helen. In the tax lists for 1799, his name is spelled correctly. When he bought land in Surry County in December 1800, his last name is spelled “Heland.” However, a survey of the 100-acre parcel in 1801 has the name spelled correctly. In Surry County court minutes dealing with road maintenance(years 1805-1809), Michael’s last name is spelled “Healing.”
The “Healing” misspelling occurs several times in census records, the last one in 1830. Michael died in early January 1831.
From family histories I learned that Michael married Elizabeth Langley. They had six children
- Frances
- Sarah
- Matthew Crosbie
- Liza Matilda
- James Langley
- Andrew Jackson
My great grandfather, Andrew Jackson Healan, married Sarah Dove Jennings. Some of their records are preserved through US census and Civil War documents.
The descendants of Mathew Crosbie Healan have researched the Healan family and have graciously shared their results with me.
Resources:
Family history http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/t/h/o/Jean-H-Thomason/GENE1-0001.html
North Carolina Office of Archives and History, State Archives http://www.history.ncdcr.gov/
Overview of census records in “Measuring America” article https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/measuringamerica.pdf