KELLY or HEENAN in TIPPERARY

Hi, Col, and thank you once again. These ancestors just refuse to be found, I think!

I did find several John Kelly arrivals in Canada, but have been unable to connect any particular one with my family. The same applies to Thomas Kelly in Nenagh, and several other Kellys around the area. And while there are a great many Heenans, Bridget does not appear.

Also the name, Thomas, doesn't appear anywhere else in the family, where most names seem to repeat from earlier generations. The names include: John, Roderick, William, James, Richard, Bridget, Catherine, and Margaret.

If we've learned anything at all from this saga, I suspect it's that we should give our children unusual names!

I do appreciate all you've done.

Frances

I am looking for Kellys in Borrisokane. My great grandmother Catherine Maria Kelly was born in and baptised there on 14 July 1845. Her parents were Edward Kelly and Bridget McNamara. The Godparents were Peter Tuohy and Elizabeth Tuohy. Her sister Mary (Eliza) was also born/baptised there on 18 September 1842 and her Godparents were Thomas Hogan and Catherine Hogan. Perhaps the Tuohys and Hogans were related to the Kellys.
The sisters came to Australia but I can't find any shipping records for them, but they were here by the 8 June 1863 when Mary Eliza married Patrick Kennedy in Brisbane. Catherine Maria married Thomas Page in Rockhampton on 12 June 1865. ( Qld Registers says 1863 but 1865 and Catholic Church records are more likely to be correct.) Between 1866 and 1874 she had six sons, four of whom died before or soon after her death from TB on 27 MAY 1874.
Meanwhile her parents had also come to Rockhampton where Bridget Kelly died on 6 February 1868. On her Death Certificate it says her husband Edward Kelly was the informant, the only official record I have of him being in Australia. It also says that Edward and Bridget were married in Borrisokane when Bridget was 20 i e c 1842/3 and that they had two living daughters and one deceased. (There should be a baptismal record for her in Borrisokane.)
Bridget's parents were Timothy McNamara (a Miller) and Mary Norton who most likely lived in Co Clare because Bridget was born there.
I have her shipping record but Edward wasn't with her.
I can't find these Kellys on the list of people who emigrated from Borrisokane but have a vague recollection of being told they went to England before coming to Australia.
All I know of my great grandmother is that she had a beautiful singing voice which some of her descendants inherited. My grandfather had ten daughters and one son but the other surviving brother didn't marry. MY GF also started to go bald at 28, another characteristic that is still alive and well in his male descendants.
Basically, I am searching for Edward Kelly in Borrisokane. born before 1822. I can't find a death certificate for him anywhere in Australia. I have found other Kellys born in Borrisokane living in Australia but no bald headed ones.

I know of at least one family of Heenans in Australia and of another who went to the USA. whose ancestors came from Borrisokane .

If it is useful all six sons had two Christian names, few of which were Page names. Were they called after their relatives back in Borrisokane?

Thomas Page was born in Parsontown (Birr) in Offally in 1833 or so, His parents were Edward Page and Catherine Slattery. He died in 1877 not long after his wife and sons.

With thanks,

Mary Round

Before I add more about my Kellys from Borrisokane, I'd like to comment on the previous post, the one from Frances Sheldrick. She asked about the Heenans and Kellys from Borrisokane. I haven't gone into her names and dates but would like to point her in the direction of the Heenans who emigrated to Australia and settled in Laidley in Queensland where they increased and multiplied.

I do know that they had connection to some Heenans in America because I went rooting around in Ancestry.com/. It started from the fact that the former bishop of Rockhampton was Brian Heenan and I wondered if he was related to my mother's friend Mrs Isabella Heenan. Isabella had lived in Brisbane Qld but went to the USA ( Nebraska) as a War Bride after she married a serviceman during WWII. (John Charles Heenan, son of John Charles, son of John Charles, son of Dennis Heenan b in Borrisokane and emigrated to Canada then Nebraska USA.)   John and Isabella returned to Australia where he died in 1959.   + Brian said, although his ancestors lived in Laidley, he didn't know his family tree well and didn't recognise Isabella's name. It was only after he retired that I discovered that the connection went back to Borrisokane. 

I found the Laidley Heenans when searching for other Queenslanders who were born in Borrisokane and was told by a friend from that area that the Heenans were related to some Kellys not far from them. She knew because her husband was connected to both families.

There's a wealth of information about those Heenans in Australia on Ancestry.com/

Now for my Kellys whose details I have described in my previous post.

I found an article from the Roscommon Messenger from 6th April 1850 copied from the Nenagh Guardian about a home invasion at the house of Edward Kelly near Borrisokane. Their dog was shot but the family survived because one of the daughters managed to barricade the door. I wonder how many Edward Kellys could fit this description but I do know that mine had three daughters, one of who had died before 1868.

Hello, Mary Round!

I think you may be onto a connection, here. First off, I wonder if you've had your DNA tested? I had mine done by ancestry.com, and by ftdna.com. Results are on both, and also uploaded to GEDMatch.com.  Second, if you have an ancestry.com world membership, feel free to check my tree (USA) and see if anything matches your findings.

It's interesting that you have several of the same surnames that I've encountered. My great aunt, after emigigrating to the upstate New York from Canada, used to travel to Boston to visit a Kennedy family who were supposedly cousins. There were also Kennedys who settled in the same area of Nepean, Ontario, Canada, as the Kellys. Additionally, when my great uncle was living in British Columbia, Canada, he had a close friend//doctor and ultimately, executor of his will, who was named William Kennedy. We've always assumed he, too, was a cousin.

I think I may have mentioned before, but the names in my grandmother's family were: Bridget, Margaret, John, William, Roderick, Richard, James and Catherine. I believe Margaret, William,Richard and Catherine came from the maternal (Luther) side of the family, so the others are likely Kelly names. Roderick (Roderick John, John Roderick, Roger), in particular, seems to be prevalent.

I'm excited to learn that some branch of the family may have emigrated to Australia. Hopefully, we can work together to solve this great mystery! 

Frances

 So do I, Frances!

No I haven't had my DNA done but will seriously consider it now.

I have been trying to find you on ancestry but havinfg no success, decided to reply to you first. I didn't save the Heenans I researched so need to go back to them. ( Somewhere on the web is an account of Borrisokane written by a Carmeite priest, I think. He mentions Bishop Brian Heenan in Rockhampton as a descendant of Heenans in Borrisokane.)

My Ancestry tree is CARROLL-ROUND, but rather than trying to communicate through Ireland Reaching Out or Ancestry, would you rather use email? Mine is marybround@bigpond.com/  It would be easier to send photos and records that way. (We could still keep our Borrosokane friends up to date with our findings.)

The only other Kelly descendant apart from my own family that I know, is a descendant of Mary Eliza Kelly, sister of my Kitty Kelly, and she lives here ie about 250 miles away. I'll ask her if she has had her DNA done. It was Mary Eliza who married Patrick Kennedy, straight off the boat so I wouldn't be surprised if he had come from Borrisokane. I was told that Patrick was a steward on a ship but not the one Mary Eliza and/or Catherine Catherine came on. I haven't been able to verify which one it was. The Marriage Records have no details. ( Patrick Kennedy died a few years after the marriage and if I obtain his Death Certificate, there should be some useful information on it.)

My Maria Catherine Kelly may have been named after her grandmother who just might have been the Catherine Kelly who married a Heenan or vice versa. Oh dear, I am getting tired and hence getting confused.

Best wishes, Mary