Rice and Donohue Familes - Ballynamuddagh

Laurie:

Roots Ireland www.rootsireland.ie has an 1853 baptismal record for a Michael Rice in the Kilworth RC records. The fathers name was Patrick and the surname of the mother was Donoghue. I tried Ellen for the first name and it did not work. I also tried other names with no success. Possibly this is your Michael's record. Roots is a pay site to view the transcription of the church record.

I also looked at the 1901 census www.census.nationalarchives.ie for Ballynamuddagh townland, Leitrim civil parish. There were a number of Ric, Donaghue and Lomassney records in Ballynamuddagh.

Suggest you look at the online Irish phone book to see if you can locate any leads for current family members. http://www.eircomphonebook.ie/  Make sure you check the Resedential listings not the business listings.

Roger McDonnell

Thanks Roger,

I appreciate your help.

Best Regards,

Laurie Rice-Richards

Laurie,

I don't know if you're still on this board, but I saw your post, and I thought I'd share that My great grandmother was a sister of Ellen Donogue, her names was Elizabeth, and she moved to Chicago in the 1870s? and married John Kenealy, who was also from Ballynamuddagh.  Edmund Donoghue and Ellen Lomasney were my great-great grandparents.

Kitty McGrath

I'll add, John Kenealy's mother was Mary Rice, so possibly a double connection! LOL.

Good Morning Kitty!

Thank you so much for the information. Since originally posting my inquiry, I did in fact find not only the Rice's that settled in Massachusetts but all of the brothers and sisters that settled in Chicago. That makes us cousins!!! Someday I hope to visit Ballynamuddagh once we get through this pandemic!!

Again thank you for your help and reaching out.

Laurie Rice-Richards

Laurie, 

That is fantastic.  I'd love to see which of the brothers and sisters settled in Chicago.  If you ever get a chance, can you share what you found?  I've never been able to find a birthday for my great grandmother, Lizzie (Ellen's sister).

My husband is from Ireland, and 2 of his brothers moved down to Cork recently, so I plan on visiting Ballinamuddagh and Propogue on our next trip over.  Can't wait until this pandemic is over!  

All the best to you!

Kitty

Hi Kitty,

I do have a lot of information on our Rice Family. I have been told that their original home unforutnatley in Ballinmuddagh burnt down some years ago but the foundation is still there.  Some of our cousins from Chicago went to see it.  

I will put a summary together for you. I tracked all of them (both Donoghues and Rices) from Ireland to America. Most settled in Chicago. Michael Rice settled however in Massachusetts. He appears to be the black sheep of the family! He too was supposed to migrate to Chicago with his siblings but upon arrival in Boston, decided not to go any further. He would have been better off since at that time there were far better jobs in Chicago for the Catholic Irish than in New England.

Are you from the Chicago area? 

Thanks

Laurie

That's great!  Funny enough, we knew Rice's growing up on my dad's side of the house.  The Donohues were on my mom's side.  She was a kenealy, who were from propogue, just beside ballinamuddagh.  None of them are left in the area in Ireland, but I'd still like to go see it some day.

Take care!

Kitty

Greetings, Kittie and Laurie,

I am also researching Rices from Ballynamuddah.  My wife's Rice relatives came to Albany, New York during the Famine. While the husband, Thomas Rice, appears to have died before 1849, his wife Margaret (nee Geary) and children came in 1849 and 1850.  The children appear in the baptismal records for the Kilworth parish.

We were in Ireland in 2018 and thanks to contacts from this site, we connected in person with living relations from another Rice family from the area.  We visited the Macroney graveyard, where a number of Rices are buried, some from the 1700s.

The upshot of my work to-date is being challenged with the number of Rice entries with the same names in various townlands surrounding Kilworth, including Ballynamuddah.  I have not yet determined the connections between them all, and who is related to whom.

Anything you can share would be most appreciated.  Happy to do the same.

David Barnet (dbarnet@aol.com)

BTW, as a coincidence, my wife's last name is Richards!