Aaron Carrol Boylan b 1675 d 1729 in Colerain, Ireland

According to FTDNA, Aaron Carrol Boylan is in Group 08:

... > R-L21 >> CTS4466 > S1115 > A212 >A7699 > BY66248 > BY575668

Clan OBoylan originated in Dartry, Monaghan, Oriel. Clan fortunes declined after the Norman invasion. Our lore blames Oliver Cromwell for much of the difficulties. Many Boylans left the Kingdom of Dartry between 1400 - 1600, some fled south to a new stronghold in Co. Kildare where they were able to remain Catholic. Others went to north to Colerain and have been Protestant for hundreds of years.

Three brothers: James I b;1700 and Aaron I b; 1710 and their older brother Roger were orphaned when their father Aaron Carrel Boylan b 1675, died in about 1729 near Colerain, North Ireland.

The wording orphaned implies helpless boys, however, James was 29 and Aaron was 19 at the time. Since the older bother Roger inherited and fully controlled Aaron Carrel Boylans estate - as was tradition in olden times, it was now time for the spare heirs James and Aaron either to become clergy or to join the Army or the Navy - Instead, the intrepid brothers bravely elected to emigrate to America.

The official story of the Atlantic crossing as passed on by William Montfort Boylan (paraphrased from the Somerset Country Historical Quarterly 1917 page 99 because these were not boys): Roger, James and Aaron O'Boylan were of Coleraine, in Ireland. Roger was prepared for the Church, did not preach but became a teacher of a classical school. The young men had been left orphans with considerable property in Ireland under the guardianship or control of their uncle, were unkindly treated and had run away. They hid on a ship and came to America as stowaways. There they were initially sold or indentured by the captain of the vessel, and their uncle in Ireland, afterwards hearing of it, sent money to redeem (free) them."

All of this clergy and classical school business of their elder brother Roger implies that Aaron Carrel Boylan must have been a man of some substance in Colerain.

James and Aaron must have been truly literate and presumably also well-versed in arithmetic. This was quite rare at the time. We have no reason to doubt that Roger withheld the benefits of their fathers estate from them in Colerain, The fact that they had no funds and had to leave by stowing away speaks for itself.

Their ship arrived in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, around 1732. After settling things with the captain, the two brothers settled in Annin´s Corner - now Liberty Corner, Somerset County NJ before 1743. Perhaps Roger sent a bit of start-up capital to assuage his feelings of guilt. With this and some diligent work, they soon became prosperous and founded a powerful Boylan Dynasty in the USA. Every son of James and Aaron who had sons for the first 3 or 4 generations named them James, Aaron, John and Samuel, causing no little confusion.

The rest of the story of James and Aaron has been pieced together from contributions from the following Honorable Clan Historians: George W. Boylan, Alonzo Boylan, Jean Christiansen, Carla Llewelyn and Fred Sasser as follows:

The story of James Boylans descendants pioneered IA and KS

The story of Aaron Boylans descendants in PA and NC

Other Boylans emigrated from Ireland to the US, notably William Boylan of Kildare, 70 years later, but as far as we know James and Aaron were the first Boylans in America.

James and Aaron built a Clan Stronghold in Somerset County New Jersey. Somerset was used as a staging area to pioneer the whole continent. The Somerset Quarterly Journal of 1917 wrote on page 98: ...the Boylan Family, which, while large in Revolutionary days, began to migrate afterwards, so that now scarcely any of the name now reside near their ancestral home,