County Kerry Genealogy Group Now on Facebook
Do you like to collaborate with people researching in the same areas your ancestors came from? Are you ancestors from County Kerry Ireland? Then come and join our Facebook community, County Kerry Genealogy where you will be able to interact with others researching their ancestors in County Kerry as well.
The groups mission and guidelines are as follows:
Mission: The goal of this group is to bring together genealogists researching in this specific county of Ireland. It should be utilized as another resource; a place to go to when you run out of ideas or a place to come together and see if your family is being researched by another person that you might be able to collaborate with.
Guidelines: We ask that all posts stay on topic to the county. It is understandable if you need to discuss a neighboring county; but topics such as DNA should be saved for the groups that are focused strictly on that.
When posting queries about your ancestors, please be specific with the question you are asking. Also, please give detailed information on them. The more information you post originally will hopefully keep the threads shorter. If possible, please include the date and place of birth (even if it is an estimate), any marriage information, their children (include as many as you know) and death specific information as well.
In the last 5 years I have discovered that 3 of my great-grandparents and (probably) 1 gg-grandparents are from Co. Kerry. The great-grandparents are Dennis Slattery (from Ballysheen, near Abbeydorney area), Michael Sullivan (from Listowel area) and Abigail Sheehan (from Ballytrasna, not too far from Killarney).
The one who is proving to be most elusive is (not surprisingly) Michael Sullivan. I have not been able to pin down his townland, in spite of countless hours spent searching the online Kerry baptismal records. Neither he nor his brother (mentioned below) are there. He was born around 1844 and his mother was Johanna Mulvihill. His father was also called Michael Sullivan. I do not know siblings’ names except for brother Patrick, born around 1846. They both left Ireland around 1856, as their father had died and their mother remarried. They ended up in upstate NY (Elmira area) or at least Michael did. Patrick seemed to have disappeared. Michael married Abigail Sheehan, they had one son in Elmira, and then moved to Galesville, WI around 1866/67. I will eventually make it to Elmira to see if I can dig up any records there, but in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas I would be most appreciative!
Colleen,
I certainly know the frustration of NOT finding the information you are seeking. The information for Michael Sullivan’s parents, where is that from? Do you know who supplied the information? It is possible that the information you have is incorrect. Sometimes, it is worth it to start your research over for that person and take only known facts. Do not use facts that were provided by a third party that were not at the event they are discussing. For example, if you find Michael’s parents names from his death certificate and we know that information was provided by Michael’s child, that child would not have first hand knowledge of Michael’s birth or his parents. Whatever information is in those fields are just clues to follow only.
I would definitely think he should be in the baptismal records. I did a quick search on Irishgenealogy.ie and did not find anything that jumps out at me. But, I would recommend when you have the time to take a day subscription to RootsIreland.ie and see if you find anything there.
Good luck!
How right you are about the possibility of incorrect information. Alas, yes, all I have is what was on the death certificate (as far as his parents’ names). For all I know, his son might have put the mother’s second married name (rather than her maiden name) on the certificate. I’m curious to know why you recommend RootsIreland.ie. Does it have more baptismal records than irishgenealogy.ie? That’s a great idea to do a day subscription.
Thank you for your thoughts!
My 2nd great-grandfathers death certificate had his mothers name mixed up with that of his step-mother, so I always go forward with caution. Maybe do some searched with no mother listed and just the son and the father and see what that brings you.
As for RootsIreland, I am not a big fan. But, everyone always says that they have a larger, better index. So, I would use it as a last resort. I would use it this way when it was free. I have not had to use it since it took the free searches away.
Keep me posted on how the research goes!