Kerry Landlords – Browne Lord K...
The title Earl of Kenmare (Lord Kenmare) was created in 1801. Long before this, around 1555, Sir Valentine Browne was granted over 6000 acres in county Kerry after the Desmond Rebellion. The Brownes were a Catholic family and like all Irish Catholic families their fortunes and the size of their estates fluctuated over the centuries […]
Kerry Landlords
Kerry landlords for over 700 years, up to the land Acts of the late 1890s, ruled the lives of our Kerry ancestors. From the Fitgerald/Fitzmaurice Normans arrival, through the Plantation of Munster and the Cromwellian re-conquest, landlords, their middlemen and agents, were the major influence on day to day life for the vast majority of […]
John Grenham’s Blog
John Grenham’s blog of Oct 22nd, titled We’re a post-imperial rounding error was so true, so incisive that I urge you to log on and read it in its entirety. In our day-to-day dealings in the genealogy world, we are often asked by Irish descendants ‘what is going on’? Why do the British want to leave the […]
Kerry Births Marriages & Deaths
Researching Kerry Births, Marriages and Deaths can be problematic. The most frustrating queries I get both personally on MyKerryAncestors.com and at my work on the Genealogy Advisory Service at the National Library are the sincere and sometimes emotion laden requests to trace ancestors with little or no information on dates or even locations. To find […]
Killarney yesterday and 1861
Yesterday we visited Killarney for a walk. This time we choose the Fossa Way which starts just inside the gate of Killarney National Park (Knockreer Estate entrance). A notice at the gate alerted us to the Deer Rut which happens in the Park at this time every year. This walk is a loop walk with […]
Emigration Valentia 1883
This is the story of mass emigration from the Iveragh Peninsula in 1883. Two ships were chartered and assisted passage was provided to take entire families away from South Kerry to New York in this case. 1,200 in total left. ‘There were 253 pupils in the Ballyhearney National School before the 2nd ship sailed. The […]
Kerry Emigration 1851 -1906
The enumeration of emigrants from Irish Ports did not start until 1st May 1851. From that time onward to 1906, we have a list of the numbers leaving the country, unfortunately neither their names, the ports they left from nor their destinations have been included. The figures below show that 113,237 males and 113,827 females, […]
Kerry Emigration May Day 1857
If your ancestor sailed from Blennerville, the Port of Tralee in May 1857, you will be glad to know that he/she was of ‘superior class’. That is according to the Kerry Evening Post. The paper goes on to tell us that a ‘dozen fine young peasants‘ left for Melbourne – apologies to Australian descendants for […]
O’Sullivan-Glannie Kerry
I get a lot of email queries asking about different branches of the O’Sullivan (Sullivan) families in Kerry. See an earlier blog with an overall summary. To-day I have a first hand account of a number of the O’Sullivan branch names from the Kilgarvan area and their home locations from Sean O’Sullivan of Tuosist The […]
Kerry Conflicting Info or Fake News?
‘Fake News’ , ‘alternative facts’, conflicting genealogical evidence, whatever title you use, how do you apply it when researching your Kerry ancestors? In other words, what ‘facts’ can you believe in? Just because you are on a certain genealogy website, and you find a name exactly or similar to your ancestor who lived at […]
Kay Caball is a qualified Genealogist certified by the University of Limerick. A native of Kerry, Kay specialises in Kerry based local family history and genealogy. She studied History of the Family & Genealogical Methods at the University of Limerick with her research conducted in primary and secondary sources for the County of Kerry.
Kay is also a member of the Eneclann & Ancestor Network panel of genealogy advisers at the National Library of Ireland.
