On Tuesday 17th September, at midnight, Kathy Hochul (born Kathleen Courtney), New York’s first female governor, will take office. Kathy will be moving into the Governor’s Mansion in Albany New York – it has housed governors and their families since 1875. It is at some remove from where the Courtney/Cournane family lived in Ireland in […]
Kerry Girls in the White House 1930
On St Patrick’s Day 1930 there were eleven residents in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. Of those eleven, five were Irish. Herbert Hoover, his wife Lou Henry, their son Allan Henry Hoover and eight staff are recorded occupants of the White House, in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census in April of that year. The place of […]
Killarney Lying-in Institution
Last month I was perplexed by a query I received from a descendant whose ancestor had been born in the ‘Killarney Lying-in Institution’. I had never heard of it and set off to research it. I was able to access a print-out from Civil Registration of the actual birth of Richard Byrne in April 1870. […]
Tralee Traders in 1856
I have been been reading through that interesting History of Kerry by M.F. Cusack, published ‘by subscription’ in 1871. While it is very descriptive and gives great insight to some of our more historic times, Mary Frances comes over as autocratic and someone not to be trifled with. She explains in her Preface that ‘the […]