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 your […]
MY BLOG
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 […]
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 […]
Kerry Genealogy in Courts
Did your Kerry Ancestor pawn a coat, own a wandering pig, or ‘commit a breach of the Sabbath’? While Genealogy in its purest form is defined in the English Dictionary as ‘a line of descent of a person or family from earliest known ancestor’, my training in Family History and Genealogy goes much further. We […]
A Kerryman & the French Revolution
Conducting research into the papers of Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice 3rd Earl of Kerry in the French National Archivees is not an easy job. The actual volume of material, the overheated reading room, the identification of the French receipts all took their toll. My son Marc and I spent a number of days last week examining […]
Fr. Ferris’s Parish Histories
A fascinating book Fr. Ferris’s Parish Histories:BallymacElligott, Ballyseedy, O’Brennan and Nohoval will be launched next Thursday 7th June in Ballygarry House Hotel, Tralee, by Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne. This book edited by Brendan McCarthy after five year’s work on the original manuscript, will be of immense interest not alone to natives of the parishes […]
A Killorglin Emigrant
To-day I want to tell you about just one Kerryman and the search by his descendant Anne MacKay for information on his birthplace and wider family. There are a few ‘roadblocks’ and brick walls highlighted in this search and the solutions may help another descendant on your hunt for that elusive Kerry ancestor. Anne says : […]