Tipperary Kennedy ancestors with mixed marriage or converted?

Hello Marlise..I am Joe Kennedy recently we found a dna link to tipperary…My ancestors William Kennedy born 1809 Ireland came to Canada between 1809-1840…with a widowed mother and younger siblings according to his daughter..we are not sure from where ..however he listed his religion as episcopal in a Canadian 1851 census…A few years back I did a paternal dna test …My branch comes from Ayrshire Scotland M223..the main branch of Clan Kennedy…this goes back to late Middle Ages..email me at unionpipemaker@yahoo.ca if your interested in chatting about this…Joe

Marlise,

My Great-Grandparents came to New York from Templederry and from everything I have ever heard they were beckoned to come there by a Father Kennedy who no doubt must have also been from Templederry .

They were apparently very close to this father Kennedy as one of the sisters who never married worked for the church that he founded all her life.

They were Bourkes,  Winifred & Katey. Winifred was my great-grandmother.

My Grandmother Mary requested that her funeral be held at the church founded by Father Kennedy , St Lucy's even though she had not attended that particular church since she was a child.

I suspect she viewed this as coming full circle & returning to her roots.

I don't know if there is any connection you recognize in all of this but you did mention Templederry & a Reverend Kennedy, and Templederry being such a small place I thought I would let you know.

With Kind Regards, Michael Ferris

OUR HISTORY

In 1872 a request was made for a new parish to serve Roman Catholics residing west of Onondaga Creek.  The Reverend John J. Kennedy from Saint Mary's Parish in Albany was appointed as the first pastor.  Father Kennedy had initially been rejected for priesthood because of near blindness and vowed that, if he recovered his sight, he would dedicate a shrine or church to Saint Lucy.  So the new parish became Saint Lucy's. Some 10,000 people attended the laying of the cornerstone on June 21, 1873.  Noted architect Archimedes Russell designed the church in the decorative English Gothic style. It was built at the cost of $40,000.  The first Mass was celebrated in the church basement on the Feast of All Saints, November 1, 1873.  The first Mass in the church proper was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1875.  At the time the church comprised 1,000 families and seated about 1,400 people.  The parish school, St. Lucy's Academy, opened in 1891.

Hi Michael

Thank you for your informations. So far I don't know more than written above. 

Some public trees have a Mary Sheehan as mother for my gggggrandfather Thomas Kennedy and therefore Ancestry proposes her based on that. Like this mistakes or semi-truth are multiplying.

Yes, the area around Templederry is sort of behind the hills and the chance is high that a lot people were connected by marriage.

Your story about this church is quite interesting and an example how the Irish engaged in the U.S. and sort of stayed together.

Kind regards

Marlise