Kenneally's from Kilkenny

Hi Lesley,

Do you have any idea about what part of County Kilkenny they were from? So the first thing you will need to do, is to try to narrow down the place of origin from County Kilkenny to a parish in Kilkenny.

There are some documents you could try checking to help narrow this down. When you do find out where in Kilkenny they were from, then I can recommend some church or estate records for you to research.

Don't forget to check all the variants of the surname Kenneally when researching. You can find some of the variants here: http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=Go.&UserID=

You could try checking the land records called the Tithe Applotment Books (1823-38) or the later Griffth's Valuation (1848-64). Griffith's is freely available here: www.askaboutireland.com or here: www.failteromhat.com Failte Romhat has lots of other useful links you could try looking at.

Do you know which convent the girls who became nuns were connected to?

Civil registration records are available from the General Register Office (GRO). These start from 1864 however. You can access the website here: http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm

Have you checked the immigration records in Australia? You have the name of the ship and a date, so this will help a lot. Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. The University of Woolongong has produced, on microfiche, a complete index and transcript of all information concerning immigrants of Irish origin recorded on ships' passenger lists between 1848 and 1867. These are useul for finding out an exact place of origin as well as parents' names. The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, peitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more.

Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

Hi Sinead,  Thanks for your very informative reply.  We have a fair amount of information on the migration to Australia, the Nuns etc... it is more information on William Kenneally and Ellen O'Neil that we are wanting.

They were based in Garryduff as far as we can tell.  We have them from the Griffiths valuation and are trying to find the connection between them and other Kenneallys in the vicintiy in Garryduff.  We have found birth information on William and Ellens first three children but nothing that ties Thomas and David to them.  We have applied Thomas and David to them as we know for certain that David andThomas are brothers and that Davids parents are William and Ellen but cannot find any documentation like birth certificates etc.

We are also trying to find William and Ellens own parents.

If you can help in this direction that would be gratefully appreciated and if you can find no more information then what you have provided is also greatly appreciated. Regards Lesley

Hi Lesley,

Could you please post your message on the Kilmacahill (Garryduff) parish page here: http://www.irelandxo.com/group/kilmacahill-kilkenny

The Roman Catholic church records I suggest you could try checking are from the diocese of Paulstown (Kildare and Leighlin). These records date from 1824 for baptismal and marriage records. You can find these at the National Library of Ireland, Pos. 4198, or the Church of Latter Day Saints, ref. no. 0926124. If you have any difficulty, you could try writing to the parish priest for more assistance.

If you have some luck finding the records you need here, then you could continue looking through the sources I mentioned earlier.

Hopefully, someone in the Garryduff area will be able to shed some more light for you too.

Please make sure you link anyone else in your family who is interested in their Irish heritage to our site - and indeed anyone else you know of Irish heritage.

Kind regards,

Sinead Cooney

Genealogist (Ireland XO)

Records for Garryduff before 1824 are in Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow. Have you other connected names?. Witnesses ETC..........I Live near to Garryduff and have researched some families there....

Just saw this post...

Thomas Kenneally was a neighbor of my Durney family in Garryduff (along with Patrick Kenneally) as shown on Griffith's Valuation. Mary Kenneally was a baptismal sponsor for Thomas Durney (son of Daniel Durney and Anna Walsh) on 10 March 1817 (Owning Parish.) My Durney's emigrated to Jersey County, Illinois in the U.S. in the 1850''s. (Margaret Durney, sister of Thomas Durney, was my great-great grandmother.) The baptismal records for my Durney family were found in the Owning-Templeorum Parish Records.