Looking for relatives of Adelia/Bridget Kearney - My husbands great great grandmother born Ballyvoddy 1826
Adelis/Bridget/Delia Kearney married a British Soldier Charles William Watson in 1850. They are my husbands great great grandparents. .A copy of the marriage record for Charles William Watson, with address at the Royal Barracks, private, 31st Regiment, and Delia Kearney, servant, also with an address of Royal Barracks, was dated 21st October 1850. Charles William’s father was recorded as John Charles Watson, hairdresser, and Delia’s father was John Kearney, labourer. The marriage took place in St Paul’s Church of Ireland Church, in the Dublin parish of St Paul, North King Street.
Their first child was born in Fermoy in 1852. We have two baptismal certificiates for John Charles one in a catholic church and one in the church of Ireland in Fermoy. Charles Willian was at that time a Sergeant in the 59th Regiment.
We have searched for a Bridget Kearney, given the date parameters of her marriage and average age at marriage of 21, I searched birth indexes on a vital record database.
Family information on Bridget was that she was from Fermoy Co. Cork Delia/Bridget was the daughter of a John Kearney (from her marriage record). The nearest birth match was for a Bridget Kearney, baptised on 23 June 1825, with address listed as ‘B Vaudy’ in the Roman Catholic parish of Kildorrery, Co. Cork. Her father was listed as John Kearney and mother Margaret Sheehan.
Kildorrery is in the Fermoy area and the address ‘B Vaudy’ is likely an abbreviation for the townland ‘Ballyvoddy’. Other children of John and Margaret Sheehan were found:
Margaret (b1828); Denis (b 1830); Daniel (b 1833); Catherine (b 1835); Ellen (b 1837); John (b 1841), and Cornelius (b1844).
The 3 males: Denis, Daniel, and Cornelius were confirmed as being baptised in the same parish as Bridget, and the address matched. Daniel’s was given as Rockmills which is a village in the same area.
In searching the 1901 and 1911 Irish Census returns I found a Denis O’Kearney aged 41 (estimated birth year of 1860) with his wife and children in the townland of Ballyvoddy, Derryvillane D.E.D. Co. Cork, in 1901. Also in the household was his mother Ellen aged 70, a widow. He was listed as a farmer. By 1911 he was deceased but his mother, wife and children were still in the same townland.
It is possible that Denis is a relative of Bridget Kearney. He may have been her nephew. His mother Ellen was listed as aged 70 in 1901 therefore her birth year could be estimated as 1831 which would mean she was of the same generation as Bridget.
None of the other male siblings could be traced in the area in the Census records.
From the Griffiths Primary Valuation search, the townland of Ballyvoddy, where John Kearney and Margaret Sheehan lived at the time of their children’s births, had no entry in that name as ‘occupier’/tenant of house, offices and land in the townland, however, there was a John Kearney in the townland of Ballynahalisk in which the village of Rockmills is situated. In this townland John Kearney was the tenant of a T.B. Leader esq, occupying a house and yard with no land. This might be the correct family as he was listed as a labourer on Bridget/Delia’s marriage record.
Can anyone help us with this and find Irish decendents? We are well and truly stuck!!!