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Searching for RC parish in Diocese of Kerry served by Father Long , 1840s; "Lestate"; Mahony (Mahoney) & Nash surnames

Kerry

Has anyone stumbled across a Father Long in any RC parish in the Diocese of Kerry during the mid-1840s? He could be a key to unlock the mystery of which civil parish, RC parish, and townland from which my great-great-grandparents, Thomas Mahon(e)y and Johanna Nash Mahon(e)y, emigrated in 1851.

In the U.S. Civil War pension file for my great-great grandfather Thomas Mahon(e)y (which has turned out to be every bit of a gold mine that I've heard these files are),in her deposition, Johanna Nash Mahoney said that she and Thomas Mahoney were married in February 1846 by a Father Long (corroborated by her sister, Margaret Nash Grob, also living in the U.S.).

I sent an email to the Kerry Diocese, asking if there were any records of 19th c. priests and where they were serving (and asking specifically about Father Long--I have no first name for him). Perhaps a month is too short a time to expect a reply, and though I prefer not to bother people (as unselfishly willing as they/you are to help others) if there's information I'm capable of finding on my own, I'm growing a bit impatient. So, I'm writing to the message board.

I've been going through the RC sacramental records available via NLI for any reference to a Father Long (as well as for any records on the Mahonys and Nashes), but haven't had any luck yet. I started with Tarbert/Kilnaughtin:while there was no Thomas Mahony in Kilnaughtin (specifically, Dooncaha) per Griffith's,there was a Thomas Nash. I learned that Thomas Nash was the name of Johanna Nash Mahony's father from the 1860 U.S. census (he emigrated around 1856 or 1857, per Johanna's pension file deposition). I wasn't surprised not to see a Thomas Mahony in Dooncaha because Kilnaughtin's valuation was finished in Oct 1851, and Thomas & Johanna had left Ireland in the Spring of 1851.

I also checked Kilmoyly (RC Ardfert) RC records because--before I'd seen the pension file--I'd found a Griffith's listingofa Thomas AND Johanna Mahoney on the same land in Banna West. Since there were also Nashes in the locality (though not a Thomas Nash), I thought/was hoping these were mine. However, using the same logic as I did re: Kilnaughtin above, since the Kilmoyly valuation was completed in November 1851--after they had migrated--I thought that it was far less likely that they were, in fact, mine. Still I needed to make the effort to look at the Ardfert records, especially because my logic may be faulty. I didn't find them or Father Long.

There's one last possible clue from Johanna's affidavit: she said that she had married Thomas Mahoney "at Lestate [sic], County of Keary [sic] in Ireland in Feby 1846--date not remembered." This was how it was recorded by whomever wrote down her testimony. Since "Kerry" was misspelled, I'm not surprised that I haven't found any "Lestate" in Kerry. Would anyone have any guesses or knowledge re: the place she was referring to?

Thank you in advance for any solutions to the mysteries in this "long" message.

Connie Ostrowski

Connie Ostrowski

5 replies

John Long, Parish Priest of the parish of Newtown Co. Kerry. Post town is Listowel - source Thom's Ecclesiastical Directory 1848. He's the only parish priest or curate I see listed in Kerry Diocese with surname Long in that year.  Fr. John Long is listed as the parish priest for Moyvane/Newtown back to the late 1830s at least, and there's no sign of him in any parish in the 1850 listing..

Newtown is short for "Newtown Sandes" and the RC parish is sometimes listed as "Moyvane, Newtownsandes and Knockanure". Images of the registers are included on the NLI website, but only include baptisms and marriage from the mid 1850s. The IrishGenealogy website has transcript of the parish records and includes records back to the 1830s, plus a small number of earlier records. 

There seems to be some gaps in the 1840s marriage records for the parish of Newtown/Moyvane - nothing showing up me for any surnames between 1845 and 1848.

I'm not seeing anything at the moment relating to a place named 'Lestate' in the area..

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Shanew147, thank you so much for the information about Fr. John Long from Thom's Ecclesiastical Directory 1848, and thank you for the link to it, as well.  I'll check Newtown Sandes in Griffith's and the Tithe Applotment sources.  

I had wondered if "Lestate" could be a horrible mangling of Listowel, but had nothing to back up that possibility.  This info about Fr. Long offers some support for it.

Connie Ostrowski

Connie Ostrowski

Shanew147 (and anyone else interested),

I noticed today on the Diocese of Kerry pages in Thom's Ecclesiastical Directory 1848  that, while the heading for Kerry's entry (on https://www.swilson.info/rcparishdir48.php?img=14) states that there were 45 parishes in the diocese in 1848, in the actual list (https://www.swilson.info/rcparishdir48.php?img=15) there were only 44 parishes: there was no reference to Tarbert/Kilnaughtin parish. That's the parish in which I found the Griffith's listing of Thomas Nash.

I wonder if the absence of Tarbert from the list was an error, or if it wasn't listed because it didn't have its own priest at the time. If the latter was the case, might Fr. John Long have been assigned Tarbert as well as Newtownsandes?

Thank you.

Connie Ostrowski

Connie Ostrowski

hi,

The parish which covered the area around Tarbert in the 1830s and 40s was Ballylongford, which had chapels at Ballylongford town, Tarbert and Asdee/Astee - see this link, the chapel locations are noted in the Catholic Directory of 1838.

The Catholic parish is also mentioned in the entry in Lewis 1837 for Kilnaughten civil parish, which covered the town of Tarbert, see the last paragraph "...union or district of Ballylongford, also called the district of Tarbert...".

The parish was later sub-divided into the parishes Ballylongford & Tarbert/Kilnaughten, going by the date of the registers possibly in the late 1850s.

Edited to add : that Thomas Nash you mentioned on Griffith's occupies a house in Dooncaha townland which is located  between the chapel at Tarbert and one the chapels for Newtown(Sandes)/Moyvane parish - see Placename Database entry for Dooncaha. The townland is located right at the border of the civil parish of Kilnaughten and Murher (part of Newtown/Moyvane RC parish) - see c1840 OSI map (the green line is the parish boundary), so certainly possible that the family attended Newtown chapel, particularly since the chapel at Tarbert was only built in the late 1830s. See the attached map image - Dooncaha is shown with the yellow marker, the red markers are chapels - the chapel search tool is located here.

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

shanew147,

Thank you for your reply of 25 June; I don't know why I didn't see it until today.  And thank you for the image you sent.

Yes, per Griffith's, Thomas Nash lived in Dooncaha and a Mary Mahony was listed for Tarmon West. Unfortunately, RC records at NLI for Newtownsandes/Moyvane don't start until 1855, by which time my great-great-grandfather Thomas Mahony and his wife, Johanna Nash Mahony, were in Indiana, US. So, vital records seems at the moment to be a dead end for researching them.

However, Griffith's has opened up a number of questions--which I'm putting in a new post/new thread, since it's a different topic from the Father Long one.

 

Connie Ostrowski

Connie Ostrowski

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