- Along road
- Sloptown Road
- Eras
- Irish eraModern era
- Concepts
- heritageirish-arranmorecommunitydemography
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The Boyle family of Sloptown Road is a documented Beaver Island family cluster associated with a farm near Piper's Corner and Sloptown Road. A February 2026 interview identifies Dan P. Boyle (“Turner”) and Maggie Boyle as the maternal grandparents of Eleanor Gallagher McDonough. It also reports a memorial stone at the corner and says the property was then held by descendants of the late Morris Boyle.
The interview spells the road “Sloatown,” while the Beaver Island Historical Society, township planning records, and current map data use Sloptown Road. This article uses the latter as the canonical road name and retains “Sloatown” as a source-qualified variant rather than treating it as a distinct road.
Evidence and scope
The scope here is the one Boyle branch and the one place relationship the interview reports. It is not a claim about every Boyle on Beaver Island, and it does not turn the reported descendant relationship into a family tree. The source supplies no dates of birth or marriage, no land-patent numbers, and no surveyed boundary for the farm.
The family connects the Irish-settlement history to Piper’s Corner as a place islanders still name, and to modern family memory. Dan P. Boyle and Maggie Boyle appear here as the maternal grandparents the source names for Eleanor, not as a complete Boyle pedigree. The memorial stone is a physical lead, not by itself proof of its inscription or of legal ownership.
Open questions
- What land and census records identify Dan P. Boyle, Maggie Boyle, and Morris Boyle and connect the farm to a surveyed parcel?
- What does the memorial stone say, and when was it placed?
- Can earlier island newspapers or parish records establish the family’s Arranmore origin without relying on surname inference?
See also
Sources
- Michelle LaFreniere, "On the Front Porch with Eleanor McDonough," *Northern Islander*, February 2026.The interview identifies Dan P. Boyle ("Turner") and Maggie Boyle as Eleanor's maternal grandparents, places their farm on “Sloatown Road” near Piper's Corner, records a memorial stone at the corner, and says the property is held by descendants of the late Morris Boyle. The source spelling is preserved; current mapped and historical-society sources call the road Sloptown Road. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
- Uses Sloptown Road for Protar’s cabin location. This corroborates the current road-name form, not the location or ownership of the Boyle farm.
Added 31 July 2026 · revised 2 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Boyle family of Sloptown Road”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/families/boyle-family-sloatown-road/, accessed [date], citing Michelle LaFreniere, "On the Front Porch with Eleanor McDonough," *Northern Islander*, February 2026. (and 1 further source listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-02. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
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