In 1661 Magdalene Tasker, (who was born at Cavanacor, County Donegal in 1634) married Captain Robert Bruce Pollock. They and their children emigrated to America and settled in Somerset County in Maryland where she died in 1726. In America the family shortened their name to Polk. James Knox Polk (born 1795), the great, great, great grandson of Magdalene Tasker Polk, became the 11th American President in 1845 and held the Presidency until his death in 1849.
Magdalene Tasker was the daughter of Colonel Roger Tasker, who was born in 1606 at Ballindrat, County Donegal, and was himself the son of Thomas Tasker (born about 1570) and Clara Seawell, who married about 1595 in Ireland.
Find out more about County Donegal at www.dun-na-ngall.com/cav.html