O'Connell Cousins

Hi Susan, Roger, the original massage had a "?" In the title so it was hard to track this message down. (I find this website difficult to navigate! ).

It is lovely to hear back from you Susan. Mum still lives in kerry and I was speaking to her on the phone this PM. She was so happy to hear that we had been in touch. Bridget Dowling was really a mum to my mother. Mum speaks so highly of her. As far as I know Bridget was around 70 years old when she moved in with her son Patrick (my mum's Dad) and my mum and my aunt Mary (6mths and approx 2 years old at the time) after their mother died. Mum loved her grandmother and her father to bits. They were a very close family. Though they had all died by the time I was born in 1967, I feel like I knew all of mums uncles (Daniel, John (aka JD), Peter, Maurice and James). She had two aunts, Norah and Mary (I think that was her name). Along with mums father, Patrick, that made 8 children and there were two others who died as young children, Simon and another who's name escapes me just now. They had a v colourful history! Patrick took over the family farm at Acres. This was sold by my mum and her sister Mary when their father died. Her uncle JD was the county solicitor (attorney) and lived in Tralee. He, along with Peter and Maurice were very involved with the "old" IRA and Irelands fight for independence. Many of JDs papers are archived nationally. Maurice , Peter and Dan lived in the USA. James lived in south Africa, where he had been a police man. Norah and mary stayed in kerry as far as I know. Mum is coming to stay with me next week so I will try and get some more information from her re your grandmother. Mum did say that Bridget had two sisters who lived in the US. Was one of them married to an O'Sullivan? I can feel that same sense of family being important to you. Mums family meant everything to her. They were so close yet they were all outward looking and open minded. They were very special people I think. I'll try and found out more re the Dowlings from mum and get back to you. Deirdre.

Hello Deirdre--Thank you very much for all this information.  I think the O'Sullivan sister was Ellen Dowling  O'Sullivan who, I don't think, came to the US.  She's listed as a surviving sister  in my grandmother's obituary  in 1928, along with Bridget O'Connell and Thomas Dowling, all "of Ireland."  I know my grandmother had an older sister, Nora, who came to the US and died here in 1902 at age 26.  I have a copy of her death certificate which lists her parents as John Dowling and Hanora Walsh.

That's how I connected her with my grandmother.  Those were my grandmother's parents also.  And on the ship's manifest of my grandmother's voyage yo the US, it's listed that she's going to live with a sister, Nora, in Lawrence, Massachusetts.No other sibilings  came to the US as far as I know.  My grandmother's obituary lists two nieces, Katherine and Bridget O'Sullivan who attended her funeral and were living in Springfield, Massachusetts at the time.  They must have been the daughters of Ellen O'Sulliavn I think.. It would be wonderful if you could ask your Mum what else she knows about the family.  I sent Mick Dowling a message that you had responded to my post, and he said "Oh, yes, Bridie O'Connell married Eugene Stuart and she came to my Dad's funeral."  I think that was 2004.  But I've asked him before about other cousins, and he's never given me any concrete information.  He said  "there must be other cousins around."  Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that he's a man!!

Thank you again for all this information.  I love putting together the family story puzzle piece by piece.  My Dad would love this also if he were here to share all these discoveries.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you again when you have time.

Best,

Susan