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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
‘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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 : […]
I would hope that the headline here does not give the wrong impression. Finding a grave in Kerry is not as easy as it may sound in this story. I get numerous requests asking if it is possible to find a grave in various locations in the county and there are two answers really. If […]
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.
