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Kiltrustan Family Connections

 
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JKennedy1957



Joined: 04 Apr 2008
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:38 am    Post subject: Kiltrustan Family Connections Reply with quote

One of my ancestors, Michael Kenny, was originally from Kiltrustan parish. I know very little beyond the fact that he left in the mid-1840s and died in Baltimore Maryland in 1863. His obituary indicates that he originated from Kiltrustan. He lived for a time in a small town outside Baltimore called Texas along with known immigrants from the Ballykilcline area as well. I would like to know more about Kiltrustan parish, whether there are any records that would indicate who his wife (not clear if she died before he immigrated or shortly after since she never appears in census records) or other family members may be.
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ElphinBill



Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 12
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:10 am    Post subject: Kiltrustan Parish Reply with quote

Kiltrustan parish merged into Strokestown parish in the 1850s. The church still exists and services are held there on Sundays, but it is administered by Immaculate Conception RC Church in Strokestown.

For genealogy research your best bet is: http://www.roscommonroots.com/
This is a new, but related fee-based self-service at http://roscommon.brsgenealogy.com/

The old Kiltrustan cemetery is nearby, across the street. Here is a link to the names (legible markers) of those buried there. www.interment.net/data/ireland/roscommon/kiltrustan/kiltrustan.htm

I think hundreds more people are buried there, but without markers, or decayed markers.
The cemetery is the site of the ruins of an early medieval church.

The Strokestown parish church records are on LDS microfilm. I don’t know if they include records from the old Kiltrustan parish.

My family lived a few miles away, across the boundary in Elphin parish, but Kiltrustan was the family cemetery. Coincidentally, my grandfather and his brother also immigrated to Baltimore (to Fells Point in east Baltimore in about 1880).

I suspect families in this part of Roscommon chose to immigrate to Baltimore because neighboring families like yours led the way. By the 1880s, the Hibernian Society was big in Baltimore and provided a support network for immigrants. I also think they paid some of the transportation costs. As you probably know, Texas, Maryland was and still is the site of a quarry operation. I understand some of the Ballykilcline families worked in that industry in Texas, Maryland in the 1840s. There are several active and many inactive quarry sites in north Roscommon, so some of the Irish in Texas surely had prior quarry work experience in Ireland.
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JKennedy1957



Joined: 04 Apr 2008
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the information and the suggestions for more research. Several branches of my family settled in Texas MD and were involved in the quarry industry. I believe that the two earliest members of my family to arrive there were both from Roscommon, Patrick Kane and Michael Kenny. So, they may have been involved with initiating the quarries in the area in the early/mid 1840s. Martin Kennedy from Galway arrived a bit after these two, along with members of the Rafferty family (not sure of their origin in Ireland). Martin had one of the more successful quarries in the area and through the Hiberian society was involved in helping many other immigrants get their start in America. Many of them lived on his farm in Pikesville where the trees to burn the fires for his limestone kilns were cut down. Many of the Irish in the Fell's point area would have been associated with St. John's Catholic Church. Martin Kennedy was first associated with St. Vincent's prior to 1850 but moved over to St. John's shortly afterward, and then by 1860 moved on to Texas MD and St. Josephs. By the way, Texas MD was at some point associated with the name Ellengowan. I wonder if that is in reference to a point of origin of one of the earliest Irish to settle there?
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ElphinBill



Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Posts: 12
Location: USA

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:59 am    Post subject: St. John's in Baltimore Reply with quote

Is the St. John’s church you are referring to St. John the Evangelist? If so it is located in the 900 block S. Eager Street. My grandparents lived on Valley Street about a block away. I’ve heard it called the “Irish ghetto” of Baltimore. Certainly it was heavily populated with Irish immigrants beginning in the late 19 century. St. John’s closed in 1966, but the church building is still there, but in poor shape. The site is no longer owned by the archdiocese.

The church records maintained by St. John’s are quite unique. For baptisms, the parish priest lists the name of the county and townland in Ireland where the child’s parents came from. For marriage records, sometimes listed are the full names of the married partner’s parents. All pretty valuable information for family genealogy.

http://www.mdhs.org/Library/baltarch/Page24.html
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/refserv/html/catholic.html

Regarding Ed Gaffney’s reply, the townland of Lisanuffy is probably Lissonuffy located a little southeast of Strokestown. There is a cemetery around the remains of a very old church in Lissonuffy. A few of the markers date to the 18th century. I do not know if an inventory exists of the grave markers. The townland of Lissonuffy was hit hard by the famine and eviction period and it had one of the highest percentages of emigration. The Slieve Bawn is a small mountain range immediately east of Lissonuffy. On the west side of the range are the remains of the quarry where most of the stone for the houses in Strokestown were mined. Strokestown is an 18th century planned town by the Mahon’s. The nearest active church to Lissonuffy is St. Mary’s in nearby Carniska. Like old Kiltrustan, it is also administered by Strokestown parish with Sunday masses. Any vital records for this area should be part of the Strokestown registry.
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JKennedy1957



Joined: 04 Apr 2008
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Those baptismal records are really very interesting. I think that the Michael Kenny mentioned is probably my direct ancestor. This connects a big missing link for me. In 1860 records in Baltimore he has a son named Michael born in 1846 and a daughter named Mary born 1836. Although the birth year is off for Mary, I've found that the ages of single women are notoriously reported short of their real age. My Michael also has other children in 1860. Most notably, John Kenny (my ancestor) born in 1839. In addition there is Thomas born 1851. There are two Patrick Kenny's in his household in 1860, one born in 1838 and the other in 1836. My guess is that one of the Patrick's is a nephew. I wonder if there are baptismal records to corroborate this children. With respect to Mary Conaghy, that is a new surname for me and it is interesting that I've seen reference to a Jane Conaghy of about the same age with children baptized in Kiltrustan. That Jane also ends up in Texas MD.

Yes, it is St. John the Evangelist. I've gotten baptismal records from there from a Father Thomas who has since retired, but he only gave me names, no parish or town information. After he left there was no one that would do a search, so I need to get myself to drive the 25 miles to the nearest family history center and see if the records are there. That would be important because it was the home parish of my Kennedy family and I don't know where they originated in Galway. Also for my Dempsey family who were from County Wexford. I don't know if the Kenny's or Kanes made a brief home in the city before heading out to Texas. The quarry business in Texas now makes sense given the information you have on quarries around Strokestown. Long before I knew anything about my family history I had heard stories of the quarry business and how my ancestors had built a church somewhere near Baltimore.
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cassiekt



Joined: 09 Sep 2007
Posts: 10
Location: Clarksville, Maryland

PostPosted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

John & Others - the Mary Conaghy in those records is Mary Covahey (Covaghy) - I have a photo of the original page from the 1831 baptismal register that I (and Lynne Sisk) took when the Ballykilcline Society held our reunion in Strokestown in 2005. The sponsors for Mary Kenny's baptism were my Jane Covahey (later Jane Scally, who I believe was Mary Covahey Kenny's sister) and Thady Fehily (?). They also had a brother, John Covahey (married to Catherine Moraghan or Monaghan), whose sons Thomas and John (and possible Michael & Matthew) Covahey settled in Texas Maryland and many of their their descendants still live in the area. If your Kenny's, including "Aunt Kate" (of "Kate Kenny's Bar" notoriety) are descended from that Michael & Mary Kenny, then we are related (at least by marriage). The Covaheys had a liquor store on York Road, near the State Fairgrounds, directly across from where An Poitin Stil is now located. If you would like to see the photo of the parish register for the 1831 baptism, email me off list at cassiekt at verizon dot net and I can send you that picture. I have other pictures that I will have to review and see if they have other Kennys listed.
Cassie Kilroy Thompson, Clarksville Maryland

[quote="JKennedy1957"]Those baptismal records are really very interesting. I think that the Michael Kenny mentioned is probably my direct ancestor. This connects a big missing link for me. In 1860 records in Baltimore he has a son named Michael born in 1846 and a daughter named Mary born 1836. Although the birth year is off for Mary, I've found that the ages of single women are notoriously reported short of their real age. My Michael also has other children in 1860. Most notably, John Kenny (my ancestor) born in 1839. In addition there is Thomas born 1851. There are two Patrick Kenny's in his household in 1860, one born in 1838 and the other in 1836. My guess is that one of the Patrick's is a nephew. I wonder if there are baptismal records to corroborate this children. With respect to Mary Conaghy, that is a new surname for me and it is interesting that I've seen reference to a Jane Conaghy of about the same age with children baptized in Kiltrustan. That Jane also ends up in Texas MD.

Yes, it is St. John the Evangelist. I've gotten baptismal records from there from a Father Thomas who has since retired, but he only gave me names, no parish or town information. After he left there was no one that would do a search, so I need to get myself to drive the 25 miles to the nearest family history center and see if the records are there. That would be important because it was the home parish of my Kennedy family and I don't know where they originated in Galway. Also for my Dempsey family who were from County Wexford. I don't know if the Kenny's or Kanes made a brief home in the city before heading out to Texas. The quarry business in Texas now makes sense given the information you have on quarries around Strokestown. Long before I knew anything about my family history I had heard stories of the quarry business and how my ancestors had built a church somewhere near Baltimore.
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