Hi,

Per RootsIreland (paid subscription), Julia Sullivan and John Healy had the following children in Tuosist.

Jeremiah 1871, Johanna 1872, Margaret 1874, Daniel 1878, Catherine 1882, Sarah 1882 all show address Gurtavallig, Tuosist

Honora 1885 and Ann 1887, address Ardea, Tuosist.

What was your grandmother's name? Note sometimes RootsIreland does not have all the records.

Regards- Mary

Per Irishgenealogy (free website), Church records Julia and John had a son John born in 1869 in Gurtavallig, Tuosist.

Regards- Mary

1901 Census Ireland

Residents of a house 17 in Ardea (Ardea, Kerry)

1911 Census John still shown as farmer

Residents of a house 19 in Ardea (Ardea, Kerry)

Show all information

Welcome to Irish Genealogy - Irish Genealogy

Maybe John Healy's death record- 1915, age 84, farmer, in Ardea, witness Julia Healy. Not sure why he is identified as widower?

4465331.pdf

Daniel's Marriage found on Irish Genealogy- 1912 in Kenmare. Julia mentioned on John's death record might have been Daniel's wife.

Ann was married to John Driscoll in 1912.

5601235.pdf

Regards- Mary

On Irishgenealogy, I found the following information

Children of Daniel Healy (farmer) and Julia McCarthy born in Ardea, Tuosist, Kenmore

John 1913, Daniel 1914, Mary 1917, Margaret 1919, Julia 1921

Children of John Driscoll (farmer) and Annie Healy born in Lauragh, Tuosist, Kenmore

Kate 1912, Mary 1916, Michael 1818, Annie 1920, John 1922

Mary

Per Irishgenealogy, CIVIL RECORDS

Daniel Healy (farmer), married, might have died in 1962, age 85, in Lauragh, Kenmare. Son John was witness.

John Driscoll (farmer), married, died in 1964 age 82 in Upper Lauragh, Kenmare. Son Michael was witness.

Annie died in 1966 in the hospital in Kenmare.

Mary

The Townlands of Tuosist Civil Parish

From Ancestry-

I assume this is Johanna and Honora

Johanna's Naturalization Record

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

1950 US Census

NameJohanna Boody

Age77

Birth Dateabt 1873

GenderFemale

RaceWhite

Birth PlaceSouthern Ireland

Marital StatusWidowed

Relation to Head of HouseHead

Residence Date1950

Home in 1950New York, New York, New York, USAStreet Name88th St Bet 1stFarmNoAcresNo

CitizenshipYes

Occupation Keeping House

Do you know which siblings left Ireland and where they went? By the way Johanna's naturalization papers identify her living in Ardea, Tuosist before she left Ireland.

Mary

Hi Mary TV - Thank you for responding to me! It all went into my SPAM and it was just lucky that I look at SPAM before I put it into trash LOL! I have to get out my resources to answer some of your more pointed questions. I definitely have more info..... I can't tell you how much this means to me to have some more family information. My Dad was not forthcoming about his family history and so this fills in so many gaps for me. Like I said, I filled out all the paperwork to become an EU citizen and it should come thru in the next several months. And when it does I will be visiting. Give me a few days to extract some more from my records and , with your help, it will augment some of the family history .

Many thanks ~

Nancy Brewster Friedman

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Hi Mary - sorry I haven't been in touch for a bit........we were affected by the wildfires here in California, in Los Angeles and so it has been tough. I know that Ireland got battered by that hurricane last month too.....

So I found a birth certificate for my grandmother....Julia Healy. It says she was born in Gortavallig. My Dad noted her exact birthdate as 9-15-1881 (September 15, 1881). However the "official" birth certificate I got noted her birthday to be 29 January so there is a bit of a discrepancy.... Her father was John Healy and her mother was Julia Sullivan. According to the records Julia came to the US in 1899 and again, permanently, in 1906. I know Julia had sisters that also came to the US and I wonder if you can locate them as well. She DEFINITELY had a brother named Jeremiah and a sister named Nora and, I believe, another sister named Margaret. They all emigrated to the US. Can you determine anything from this? By the way, the "Official Birth Certificate " has a registration number of 8910386........I don't know if this helps but I thought I would share it. The birth was registered in "Kenmare"...Thank you in advance for any further information you can share. Kind regards, Nancy Brewster Friedman Feb 20, 2025

Hi Mary - I worked through all your documentation and I was able to fill in SO MANY blanks on my Ancestry DNA site. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I am so appreciative of your time and effort! I don't think my father knew ANY of this with respect to his mother's family. May I contact you in the future for further information? I applied for my Irish citizenship and so far it looks like it will be approved and I expect to have it by September 2025. It would be amazing to see some of the descendants of these people. I do have, however, another historical question. I wonder how the Beara peninsula survived during the Great Famine. I see John Healy was born abt. 1840. What was life like in the Beara during these ghastly times I wonder.......Was the famine worse on the east coast , e.g., Wicklow? Was wondering if you had any info you could share about this. Kind regards, Nancy

Hi Nancy,

Im from Tuosist

From our Tuosist Family history data: 

Dan Healy of Gortavallig, 1878, brother of your grandmother, married into the Julia McCarthy farm in Ardea.  Danny and Julia had a number of children, some of whom remained on the farm.  Sean Healy died in Ardea in 2000 without descendants and his brother Danny died in 2003 in Ardea.  Danny had a daughter Mary, who lived in Ardea when her parents were elderly.   The Healy residence, with spectacular views of Kenmare Bay may have been recently sold. Mary and family live in the UK now. I have contact details. You could find me, and other Tuosist genealogy fans, on the Tuosist Genealogy Facebook Page.

Regarding the famine in Tuosist, it was devastating, much more so than the east coast.   Most locals all had large families on small mountain farms, and depended very much on the potato as their main form of food, with no alternatives and no means to purchase anything else.  By my calculation the population of the parish dropped from about 8000 in 1846 to about 4000 in 1851, due to starvation, disease and emigration.  There are some horrenduous tales of individual suffering.  But I suppose you could also say that 50% of the population, including my ancestors, survived through it.   The book "Kenmare History and Survial -  Fr John O Sullivan" by Colum Kenny is a good description of the circumstances in the area at the time.

• Mike Riney