John Getty was born about 1788 in the Townland of Ballynafie In The Parish of Portglenone, in what is now Northern Ireland. We do not know the name of his parents.

He was married to Elizabeth "Eliza" who was born about 1782 and died November 3, 1848.

They had four children.

1. James A. Getty, Sr

2. Elizabeth (Getty) Anderson

3. Jane Getty

4. John Grant Getty, Sr.

John died on March 27, 1853 in Ireland at about 65 years of age. He was buried in Grave 7 G Craigs Parish Cemetery, Ballynafie, County Antrim, Northern Ireland .
 

Using Ancestry.com and other sources, we have not been able to find information on John and Eliza Getty. Irish records are very incomplete in many cases. So, we have used the publication, "A Bit O' Yesterday", A Legend of the Getty Family by Monita Fergus (right) as the basis for using John and Eliza as the originating family. We do not know where she got her original information.

Since they had a son named John Grant Getty, we at first assumed that would make the original John as John, Sr. However, in future generations, we found the son of John Grant Getty listed as John Grant Getty, Jr and his son was John Grant Getty, III in his obituary. So, we have left the original John Getty without a suffix title.

"John and Elizabeth (Eliza or Betty) Getty of Craigs were the parents of James, Elizabeth, Jane and John, and probably more children. It appears that Eliza was married to another Getty before she married John and had at least one child with him, named William. William was born in 1804, emigrated to the United States in approximately 1849, and settled in Athens, Ohio, in 1850.

John was from the Townland of Ballynafie in the Parish of Portglenone. He and Eliza were married sometime prior to the birth of their son, James, in 1810, but all efforts to locate their marriage record were in vain."