Searching for Foley ancestors from Eskine, Sneem, Kenmare, Kerry

Wow thank you for such a fast reply with such a wealth of information. It's a lot for me to digest. Let me study everything and I will get back to you if I have any more questions. I'm not too surprised that the tales of the “Irish Troubles” were a bit of colorful Blarney passed along from father to child.

I do have an immediate set of related questions I hope you might be able to help me with. I have been researching the feasibility of applying to become an Irish citizen. I found the Embassy of Ireland-Great Britain website it included a section entitled "Foreign Births Registration - Guidelines for Applicants Resident in Great Britain". The website says “You can become an Irish citizen if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland. . .” It describes several eligibility options. One of the options listed is to claim through a parent who is an Irish citizen through "A parent born in Ireland".

So first question, from the section title should I assume only people residing in Great Britain would be eligible to apply? Does it mean as a citizen of and/or residing in the US I would not be eligible to apply regardless my parentage? Is there perhaps another website that covers eligibility for people of or residing in other countries?

Second if there is a path to Irish citizenship for a US citizen through parentage how could I confirm whether I would be eligible? If I am to track down documentation for my grandfather's birth in Ireland would his son, my father, who was born in New York have been considered an Irish citizen at birth?

Just for fun, I've uploaded a couple of photos one is of my dad as a baby with John and Sarah and older brother Timothy (1923) and one of my dad 1945 in New York home on leave from the Air Force and there is one more picture of my dad on the World War II Monument website https://goo.gl/P3ZEH0  Maybe someone in Ireland will recognize his likeness in a friend or family member in Kerry. The last photo I uploaded is of me with my dad and mom; it was taken Christmas 2006. My dad passed away 4 months later at 85; my mom at 96 is still going stong.

Hi Chris, I am also related to this Foley family, too.  Hello Foley cousin! 

My father's grandmother in NY was Bridget Marie Foley who married Thomas McGovern.  Both were immigrants, and Bridget was from a Foley family in Eskine Sneem.  I need to go back to my tree and look at all of the information that was posted here, and if I am lucky that you find this post these several years later, I would love to hear from you and whether you found family in Ireland. 

The Catherine Sullivan mentioned in these posts, appears to be the reason that there are people who are related via both of my great grandparents' families.  I believe that her first husband died and she remarried and had additional children.  I don't have full proof yet, but I suspect that my two Catherine Sullivans in Sneem are the same person, and that descendants from both of her offspring families eventually married, connecting the families full-circle many generations later.

My great grandmother, Bridget Marie Foley was born ~ 1870 and her parents were Timothy Foley and Catherine Sullivan, b. ~1838 and ~1846, respectively.  Timothy's father was Darby Foley and his mother was Catherine Cleary.

If you receive this and would like to compare notes, please feel free to reach out: Colleen.GenRes@gmail.com.  I will post/share a photo with you of Bridget that I have handy.

Hi Chris & Colleen,

My father in law, Thomas Fitzgerald was the son of Annie Foley.  Her parents were Timothy Foley and Catherine Sullivan. I'd love to compare notes.   i don't have much info.      

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

Nice to meet a cousin (married in, it looks like)! I will share below what I have found on this branch of the family.  If you have more on the Fitzgerald side, please let me know. While I do not have a lot of time in recent years for my ancestry research, do not hesitate to email me at Colleen.GenRes@gmail.com. I will eventually get back to you there, as well. 

Note that much of the following was found online, and I am trusting resources from Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org, as well as family trees that exist within those platforms. In some situations, I feel the  need to revisit and confirm some details. Note that dates being off a bit is not a huge concern if all else lines up, as often our Irish immigrants were illiterate to the degree of not knowing their birthdates, and sometimes, just like names, they changed them for reasons appropriate to their time and circumstances. 

A man named Patrick Terry posted the attached photos of Fitzgerald and Foley on Ancestry.com about 10 years ago.

The children I have found for Timothy Foley and Catherine Sullivan:

Birth record for Ann Foley from Family Search.