John Williams of Kingwilliamstown, County Cork
I am trying to trace the earlier family of John Williams, who married Julia Murphy in Millstreet Co. Cork in 1859, and immediately settled in Kingwilliamstown (now Ballydesmond). The marriage record says he was from Ahane and she was from Millstreet, but I can find no Williams in any Ahane records. I do not know where he was born and raised, but I found him in a local census in Nov-1850 in Kingwilliamstown, living with his sister widowed Eliza OBrien and her Williams niece and nephew (probably not John's children). In another local census, in 1852, 54-yr old Eliza OBrien is in Kingwilliamstown as the head of a family including her mother 82-yr old Johanna and her brother 31-yr old John and various Hennessy and Williams nieces and nephews. I have been unable to find what happened to the Hennessys, though I think their parents were Everidge Hennessy and Johanna "Ann" Williams. Based on naming traditions, I assume John's parents were George and Johanna Williams. I have a suspicion George may have gone to prison (possibly in Australia) because I can find no trace of him. Various families in the area have similar naming patterns, especially Francis Checkley Williams, postman of Newmarket, who lived ~1807-1870. I have been evaluating all local Williams and tracing their descendants to find DNA matches to try to find siblings. John's wife Julia, died as a married woman in 1875, but I have not yet found his death. Based on the info provided by two of his daughters in their Queensland Australia marriages, John was both a stone mason and a farmer. I suspect, the dispensary leased by Eliza OBrien in 1852 Kingwilliamstown was transferred to John and it became his son George's bakery/grocery (and later George's widow's grandson's Joe O'Leary's gas station). I could not find any Williams (John or his wife Julia, or his son George) graves in the area when I visited in 2024. I've exhausted all my online sources.
