Maher & Feehily Ancestors

Dear Donna:

Thanks for your post to the Ireland Reaching Out message board.

We have a number of volunteers who may be able to assist you and I'm copying this query to them.  In the meantime, you might consider creating an ancestor profile (if you haven't already done so) for some of the Maher ancestors on the XO Chronicles feature on the site.  These profiles are very useful for research as many of our members read them, they are updated weekly and researchers can collaborate with one another if there is a family connection.

The link to create a profile is below:

https://www.irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy

If you need further assistance or have any other questions, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Jane.

Thank you so much!

Hello Donna, I have just recently joined Ireland Reaching Out, and while I don't have any information on the specific people that you requested, my tree definitely has some of the same families.   So I thought that I would introduce myself and say hi.  Hopefully your trip to Ireland a few years back was able to help you out.  

My great, great grandmother was Honora (Nora) Feeley (Feehely, Fehilly, etc.), born in 1830 in Lisdalleen, Templetuouhy.  Her parents were Edmond Feeley and Mary Carroll, both probably born in the 1790's,  Norah had at least 4 siblings -- Michael b 1821, Mary b 1824, Margaret b 1826, and Patrick b 1833 -- who I believe were all born in Lisdalleen.  From your story, it's certainly possible that my Edmond and your Andrew might have been brothers, cousins, etc. 

And while I haven't been able to find anything else on Norah's first 3 siblings, her younger brother Patrick married Ellen Maher in 1867, and they had a large family in the Toher (or Togher) townland of Templetuohy.  Many of their children then emigrated to Naugatuck, CT around the turn of the century.

"My" Nora married Joseph Ringwood in 1860 and then my great grandmother Mary Ann Ringwood, along with her sister Elizabeth, emigrated to the US in the 1880's.   

Phil Cagney

St. Louis MO 

pcagney@yahoo.com

Hi Phil,

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you. I somehow didn't see the message sent to me by IrealndXO and my cousin from Thurles let me know that you had messaged me. So nice to meet you online. I actually added what I knew about my Maher-Feehily family back in Jan, 2018. I have since been to Ireland again and got to meet my cousin, Marianne Maher Cleary, in Thurles, Co. Tipperary and some of her family while there in June, 2018 with my sister.

So I think that my 3rd GGF Timothy Feehily was definitely a brother or cousin to Edmond Feeley (Fehilly). The first time I went to Ireland, I had contacted the Genealogy Center in Nenagh, North Tipperary and I paid them to research their records for more information on my family. They did tell me that the records prior to 1800 were destroyed in a fire so unless your family handed down information from one generation to the next there just wasn't anyway to get early data.

While there in 2016, I met with the parish receptionist at the Sacred Heart Church in Longorchard, Templetuohy. She was able to research the church records and found some information on baptisms and marriages for both the Maher and Fehilly families. The church register had Edmund Fehilly & Mary Carroll  - married on 1821.02.06 (witnesses - William Shea & Maurice Fehilly).  Maurice is most likely his brother. I did find out that many of the tenant farmers and their families were illiterate and frequently the variety of spellings found were based on how they sounded to the person recording the data in the entries.

Baptism entries for Edmond & Mary's children  - Michael Fehilly 1821.11.03 (witnesses - Pat Fehilly & Anny Carroll); Mary Fehilly 1824.03.15 (witnesses - Bridget Fehilly & Patrick Ryan); Margaret Fehilly 1826.07.30 (witness - Miss Carroll); Honora Fehilly 1830.05.09 (witnesses - James Fehilly & Bridget Carroll) and Patrick Feehily 1832.03.17 (witnesses - James Fehilly & Bridget Brute).

I found the marriage record for Honoria Fehilly & Joseph Ringwood on 1860.02.14 - witnesses were James Brophy & Bridget Carroll. I couldn't find a marriage record for Patrick Fehilly & Ellen Maher, but did find baptismal records for the children. Mary A. Fehilly 1868.08.15 (witnesses - Jeremiah Fogarty & Ellen Carroll);  Edmund Fehilly 1870.04.10 (witnesses - Michael Quinn & Anne Maher); Michael Fehilly 1871.10.02 (witnesses - Michael Shelly & Honoria Feehilly); Margaret Fehilly 1873.08.24 (witnesses - Michael Dowling & Margaret Ryan); Thomas Feehily 1875.01.22 (witnesses - Rody Carroll & Margaret Maher);   Rody Fehilly 1876.12.10 (witnesses - Anthony Dowling & Mary Shelly);  Honora Fehilly 1879.02.23 (witnesses - Rody Carroll & Eliza Ringwood);  Eliza Fehilly 1881.09.07 (witnesses - Daniel Lalor & Mary Lalor); Ellen Feehilly 1883.07.15 (witnesses - Matthew Laalor & Johanna Ryan) and Patrick Fehilly 1885.09.20  (witnesses - Roger Carroll & Catherine Moran); 

The other Fehilly males on the list that were married:  Timothy Fehilly (my 3rd GGF) + Anne Murphy 1816.09.22; William Fehilly + Margt Quinlan 1820.02.13; Edmund (your 3rd GGF) 1821.02.06; Patrick Fehilly + Judith Tierney 1826.01.31. So Timothy could be Edmund's older brother and William & Patrick Fehilly could be younger brothers, but not sure. The were all from Lisdalleen.  Couldn't find Michael or Margaret in the marriage records, but found 2 Mary's - 1841 & 1863 but no way of knowing if it's a sister for sure.

Well, take care and good luck to you in your research. I also found another website rootsireland.ie  but it is a paid service. I just signed up for a month at a time when needed, but they have records that list the parish, residence, father of groom & bride or parents of child baptized.  You can save the records and then download them before quitting the paid website. I found that site very helpful. 

Take care,

Donna (Maher) Custer

Aurora, Ohio

Hello Donna, 

Thank you so much for the message.   I had some of those records on my tree, but certainly not all of them.  All the different spellings of "Feeley" definitely makes some of the research more difficult.  But I do subscribe to Roots Ireland and have found their site to be very helpful for some of these older church records where transcriptions somehow don't make them all accessible by Ancestry.

 I have a few records to add for you below, but first I have to ask you about the Cincinnati connection.  My father has 3 DNA matches on Ancestry who in their tree have a John Feely in Cincinnati, born in Ireland about 1855, who married an Ella Clinton.  And then their daughter married a Beebe.   Do you know if that John connects to any of your family?   Feel free to contact me here or at my personal email of pcagney@yahoo.com.

Here are some additional items.

I believe that Edmond and Mary Carroll had one more child in Lisdaleen:  Roger, on 11 Mar 1836.  Father was listed as Edmond, but mother was listed as Mary "Carew" instead of Carroll, and there were no other children from this couple, so I think that's a typo. 

I was able to find the marriage record for Patrick Feeley (I'll just keep it simple on the spelling) and Ellen Maher.   They were married 4 Mar 1867 in Skirke, Borris-in-Ossory.  Patrick's name was actually listed as "Feehy" on the record.  Ellen's father was a Thomas Maher.

Also, as for Norah's siblings, with the help of some DNA matches, I figured out what happened to 3 of the 4 that I know.   Sisters Mary and Margaret emigrated to New Haven, Connecticut and married Lalor (Lawler) brothers.  And while brother Patrick and wife Ellen stayed in Ireland (in Toher / Togher), most of their children wound up in Naugatuck, New Haven.   But I don't know anything on older brother Michael.

In addition to the group of potential Feeley siblings, I found two others who are slightly older and who had children baptized in Lisdaleen.  There was a Michael Feeley wo married a Mary Kirwan in 1804 and there are baptismal records online starting in 1809.     And then there is also a John Feeley who married a Bridget Quinn (can't find the marriage record) but have children baptized, some in Lisdaleen, starting in 1812.   

I also found maybe 8 more Feeley men who had children baptized in Templetuohy in the 1820's, but I haven't found a Lisdaleen or a DNA match connection as of yet.  

Also, I was looking through the children of Andrew Maher and Mary Ryan, and one that I have some different information is Johanna Judith Maher who married Jame Feeley.   It looks like you and some others have her death as 6 Apr 1892.  But that death record is actually for a Johanna Judith Shanahan who married a John Feeley.  I have been in contacct with someone from his family and he actually sent me a picture of the Irish gravestone with that exact date.    However, I did find another possible death record on 15 Oct 1889 for a Johanna Feehily who passed in Clonmel, but who was indicated as being from Templetuohy,.  I was albe to find this on irishgenealogy.ie, but for whatever reason, probably transcription error, it isn't coming up on Ancestry.  But just wanted to pass on the information.

At any rate,  thank you again for posting and filling in some information!

Phil Cagney

St. Louis MO 

pcagney@yahoo.com