Matrilineal Monday: How the Larimers Came to America

From "Our Larimer Family" by John Clarence Work

The Larimer line of my mother-in-law's family made the leap to America in 1740, with a tale that's still told by descendants today. It's recounted in the Larimer booklet written by John Clarence Work (hubby's 2d cousin, 3x removed).

John did his genealogy research in the 1950s and 1960s, relying partly on information reported by the families and partly on primary documents he painstakingly discovered in local repositories. Not all of the dates in his booklet are correct (I checked) but John included every descendant he could track down or learn about through letters to relatives. He had hoped to find a connection to any Larimer ancestor who served in the American Revolution, but discovered only 1812 service among Larimer men in the family.

John's more than 60 pages of Larimer research starts with the saga of patriarch Robert Larimer setting sail from the North of Ireland with a chest of Irish linen in 1740, getting shipwrecked, being rescued, and then winding up indentured to the captain of the rescue vessel for the cost of his rescue.

After untold years of service, Robert Larimer walked away from this near-slavery, went to the "Kishocoquillas Valley" of interior Pennsylvania, and married Mary Gallagher (or O'Gallagher). She died in Pennsylvania in 1800 and the Larimer family soon moved to Ohio (ca 1801-2). Wiseman's History of Fairfield County (Ohio) indicates that Robert Larimer was the first resident of the area to die, John says (citing his sources, of course, page number and all).

Robert Larimer and his wife Mary were hubby's fifth great-grandparents, on his mother's side. Thank you to John Clarence Work for this head-start on Larimer genealogy!