An Tóramh or The Wake caught my eye on a friend’s FB page. Maurice Brick, a native of Na Gorta Dubha, Ballyferriter, is now a long-term resident of New Rochelle, New York. Maurice penned a memory from his childhood of local deaths, funerals, wakes in this marvelously evocative piece: The first wake I went to in […]
Lord Ventry’s tenant to NY Governor’s Ma
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 […]
Faith & Fury – Dingle & West Kerry 1825-
A most interesting book – for all those interested in history and genealogy in Kerry in the early half of the 19th century – was published this week. While we are aware of the campaign to evangelise or convert the Irish-speaking community in Kerry, to date we have very few exact details. This book […]
Killarney to Van Diemens Land 1837
This is an unusual blog. Together with an Australian PhD candidate, Margaret Coffey, I am trying to identify all or some of the Killarney families who were FREE emigrants to Van Diemens Land [Tasmania] in 1837. These families were not transported there; a number of the men were tradesmen and they obviously left Kerry in […]
Emigrant’s tale 1837- 1933
The following history of his family, written in the USA by Daniel E. Harrington over a three-year period from 1830 to 1933, gives an insight into the sad times and terrible hardships of emigrants in the 1800s. This letter appears in the Annals of Beara Vol 2 (Chapter 7). I would like to thank […]
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 […]
Kerry Emigrants to New Zealand
We are delighted this week to promote an important database of Kerry emigrants to New Zealand between 1860 and 1875. I have always been intrigued by the number of Kerry people who emigrated there in the first half of the twentieth century, a great number of them from the Ballymacelligott area. Why New Zealand? Who […]
Beara Baronies, Parishes & Townlands
Searching for Kerry ancestors in the Beara Peninsula? The Beara Peninsula is split between Counties Kerry and Cork. It can be problematic tracing ancestor’s vital records in this area – more so than usual. A complication arises that a number of the Beara Catholic Parishes in County Cork are in the Catholic Diocese of Kerry. […]
Fall of a Kerry Dynasty
One week after the launch of The Fall of the Fitzmaurices, I have got around to give my readers some details of the book that I started researching five years ago. This research took me from Kerry (Lixnaw and Kenmare) to Dublin, London and Paris, not to mention calling on a number of other Kerry […]
The Kerry Girls – Earl Grey Famine Schem
I was delighted to see the well-researched article in last Saturday’s Irish Independent (18th October 2020) on The Irish orphan girls who shaped Australia’s character. In the article, Clodagh Finn, the author has summarised the story of one of the Listowel Workhouse girls – Bridget Ryan, who wasn’t in fact an ‘orphan’ but had an […]