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Dennis Devine (Duane) and Ellen Shea

Kerry

Based on my own research and Ancestry DNA results I am 99.9% certain that Dennis and Ellen were my 4th gret grandparents. The information I have on them is as follows: Marriage 23 Feb 1805, Castlemaine, Kerry (church record shows Ellen as being from Boolteens but Dennis's residence is shown as NR). Baptisms records of four children were as follows

DateYearHome AddressBaptism/MarriagePrimary PersonParentsWitnesses

December 8, 18051805BoolteensBaptismMichael DuaneDenis Duane, Ellen SheaJohn Shea, Julia, Shea

May 4, 18071807BoolteensBaptismMargaret DuaneDenis Duane, Ellen SheaWilliam Shea, Catherine Foloue

November 12, 18081808BoolteensBaptismMary DuaneDenis Duane, Ellen SheaJohn Corcoran, Honora Cahalane

August 16, 18111811BoolteensBaptismMary DuaneDenis Duane, Ellen SheaMichael Brien, Margaret Folue

Michael was my 3rd great grandfather. He, Dennis and Margaret emigrated to Canada sometime between 1811 and 1835. I have no further information on Ellen other than that Dennis showed himself as a widower on the 1842 Canadian census. I have no further information on the 1808 Mary but DNA results and other family trees indicate the 1811 Mary was likely known as Bridgit. She reportedly married a Martin O'Sullivan in 1842 and emigrated to England.

The strongest DNA connection on the Shea side with a direct link to Kerry was with a descendant of an Ellen Shea, Birth 1835 Milltown, Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland, Death APRIL 28 1899 Brackhill, Milltown, Castlemaine, Kerry, Ireland. The descendant was shown as a good confidence DNA match to descendants of three different sons of Michael (descendants of James, Dennis and Michael Jr. respectively). The strongest DNA connection on the Devine side was with descendants of an Ellen Devine born in Ireland in 1823. Ellen emigrated to Canada and married here circa 1846. Her descendants identified her father as Patrick Devine (married to Catherine Perryman), but I have been unable to independently verify this information. However, the strength of the DNA result suggests Ellen's father was quite possibly a brother to my 4th great grandfather Dennis.

Long story short, I am looking for advice as to how I can take my search back another generation as I can't seem to find any birth record for Dennis or Ellen.

djdevine6@outl…

4 replies

David:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

The records for Castlemaine RC parish start in 1804 https://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0662 ; so there would not be a baptismal record for Ellen Shea and if Dennis was also from the parish, there would be no record for him either. I just checked the free site www.irishgenealogy.ie which has Co. Kerry church records and there were no Dennis Duane/Devine baptismal records before 1790. Maybe one of your matches now or in the future will have info on the names of the parents of Dennis and Ellen.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks Roger. The information I found from Ireland came from the Irish Genealogy site so that makes sense. I found records of other Devine (Duane) baptisms in Castlemaine from the same era so I suspect the Devine parents/sponsors were likely immediate family members. Are you saying that if they were from Castlemaine Parish there would be no pre-1804 records anywhere? Clearly I am lucky my 4th great grandparent's marriage and 3rd great grandfather's baptism occurred in just after 1804 or I would not have gotten as far as I did.

djdevine6@outl…

Hi David so many more records coming to light almost daily now; I thought that you might be interested in another query that we had for Mary Duane born 1808 from Bob Sheehy. also from the same area of Castlemaine. You might like to reach out to each other to see if there is a link that you could help each other. I have found numerous Mary Duane from around this time and from the Kerry side although records of one shows the father as Denis but the mother as Eliz Colloty, the baptismal was 20.8.1809. 

You might find more data in Ancestry, although there is a charge for this and of course Roots.ie is updating data constantly. There is another programe that may lead you to others looking for the same family "My Heritage"

We would love to know how you get on and wish you Good Luck,

Jennifer Jean

Volunteer:- Killeedy, Tournafulla, Co.Limerick

Killeedy1 LimerickIrelandXO Volunteer

Thanks for this reply. I have communicated with Bob Sheehy as he reached out to me by email. I am very confident his Mary and mine are different as I developed good information on Mary that was validated through DNA testing. As for Roots Ireland, I was seriously looking for that but it is cost prohibitive when the Euro rate is converted to CAD, especially on top of what I pay for Ancestry. My attention lately has been directed toward my 3ed great grandmother, Rose Gaynor, born circa 1820. Based on information collected via DNA matches I strongly suspect she was from Meath/Westmeath, but I can't find any record in Ancestry that appears to match and without a Parish I don't really have a starting point to check NLI records. Her father was Owen and mother Leticia and two siblings were Owen and James. Cheers! Dave

djdevine6@outl…

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