Seeking Hernan descendants from Donegal

Good Morning, just found your post here in Ireland, I believe we may be long distant cousins!! My great grandparents are Neil Loughrey & Mary Margaret Ryan aka Polly. He was a lighthouse keeper as were many of the family on both sides. those who were not were on the Foyle as Pilots. My gggrandfather went back to sea after he retired with his cousin Leo Hernan and I know he visited family in Melbourne on his travels. There are a lot of relations here from the Loughrey side all over the Island. Regards

Brigid Downes (Bibi) look forward to hearing from you.

Hello Bibi,

Are you still looking for the descendents of Charles Hernan, formerly of Donegal?

According to our family history I am his direct descendent, first son born to Ray Hernan. We are a small enclave of the Hernan family living in Tasmania, Australia which is about as far away for Donegal as I suppose you can get! I have a son named Aiden, although his surname is that of his mother, Kemp.

My father's wife (my stepmother) is Jean Hernan. My sister is a neo-natal intensive care nurse, Samantha Hernan, (who visited Donegal in the mid nineteen nineties and lobbed up on the front door of the local Donegal Hernan relations, (much to their surprise!). Samantha has a daughter named Nita-May Hernan.

My brother is Peter Hernan and he has two children, Hudson and Zali. He's currently divorcing their mother. Peter runs a building and repairs business and I am a writer, artist and cleaner, (but mainly a cleaner). My father's only other sibling is his sister, Toni Hernan and she has two children, Cameron and Melinda. Toni lives also in Tasmania in the north of the state in a small town called Latrobe. The rest of us live in the south, except for Cameron and Melinda who live in Victoria and Qeensland.

Neither of my grandparents are sadly still alive. They kived into their 90's.  Their names were Noel and Nita Hernan and both lived their lives in Melbourne, Victoria. My brother, sister and I were all born in Melbourne but arrived in Tasmania to live on Saturday, 8th October, 1977. (It was also the same day that the Tasman Bridge repened after a center span was knocked down by a drunken sea captain in what was known as the 'Tasman Bridge Disaster' in 1975.)

Hudson, Zali, Nita-May and Aiden are the first of the Hernan family to be born in Tasmania. We have some relations around our ages in Western Australia, however we have never met them.

It's funny, in reading some of the comments made here, I noted with great interest the information regarding members of the family being lighthouse keepers. When I was a boy I often used to get myself to fall sleep at night by imagining that I was a lighthouse keeper, secluded on an island far away from others and the trappings of 'civilisation' as I listened to a recording of sea waves and other sound effects of the seaside playing on a cassette tape beside my bed! Too bad I missed out on that profession!

I hope you are well and look forward to hearing back from you, or any other Hernans who might be reading, especially those descended from Charles Hernan from Donegal, should they take an interest.

Take care.

Brett Anthony Hernan