Finding our Ancestors in Ballyduff, North Kerry
This is our blog detailing our research http://ballyduffodonoghue.blogspot.co.uk/2012_08_31_archive.html We are looking for O'Donoghues, Boyles, Flahive, Ferris, Nelan, Dee, Ryle and then of course there are the (O’)Connors! It is relatively recently, after over twenty years of research, that I discovered that my ggggrandparents were James Donoghue and Juliana Boyle from Ballyduff; my gggrandparents were Thomas Donoghue (b.1806) and Ellen Connor (b.1808). In March I spent hours pulling all the references to Donoghue, Boyle and Connor in Ballyduff and the townland in which it lies, Benmore, off the online parish records on irelandgenealogy.ie. I laid out the probable siblings for my ancestors and their related families. The earliest records are for 1782 but they are missing for 1786 to 1806. I have now learnt that the parish priest for those years had the habit of writing disparaging remarks against some of his parishioners, such as drunkard, layabout etc. When he was leaving he regretted his actions and his solution was to burn the parish register! I recorded all entries up to 1851 when Thomas and Ellen left for London.In April my sister, two sons and I set off to follow the trail. One of the pilots for a new initiative called Ireland Reaching Out was North Kerry (see http://www.northkerryreachingout.com/). I have firsthand experience of their excellent support. They introduced me to two local Ballyduff historians, one of whom spent a whole day with us and the other half a day. Many thanksRod and Davina O'Donoghue