Fennell and Whelan in Barrowhouse/Tankardstown area

My apologies for the very late response. Have you managed to learn anymore about these ancestors? ​Have you had a look at the early Birth and Marriage Index, it may be of some use to you. 

http://www.irishancestors.ie/?page_id=6328

There are a few Whelan entries on the Tithe Applotment Books that you may be able to link to names in the Griffith's Valuation of any family who stayed behind:

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?…

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

Best wishes

Clare Doyle

Genealogy Support 

Ireland XO

Hello Clare - Many many thanks for your reply and suggestions. I do have a couple of leads from indexes and tithe applotments but unable to pin anything down sufficiently. I will review each of the sites you suggested again and perhaps seeing them with fresh eyes something will fall into place. It would have been nice if Bridget and Michael's parents had been named in the marriage record. I am going to try to follow up with the witnesses - Daniel Whelan (brother? father? cousin?) and Mary Kelly. It would help if there were documents listing the occupants of a home to see if Bridget and Daniel were both there. 

I will be in Ireland for a few months next Winter to research and write. I hope to visit the area that the Fennells and Whelans lived and possibly turn up something new. In the meantime I'm devouring John Grenham's book Tracing your Irish Ancestors.

Sincerely,

Ann Burns

John's book is great and small enough to travel with you! Do let us know about your trip, I love hearing about visits.

Clare

Genealogy Support

Hi sunnyseeker, great name.  Im not related to either of you kin but know the feeling of making a breakthrough. I notice that you are most of the way there on your current section. Your Daniel is unlikely to be her father, could be her cousin but more than likely her brother. I saw the marriage 13-1-24 Why dont you go into the parish records for baptisms and search for all Whelans and make a list.  You can find her death and work out her age. Why I answered this is I get the feeling that you havent seen the records yourself, just in case , you can go into NLI and look at the parish records of Athy yourself. If she was married in that church it is more than likely her parish, . Its sad that most priests of that time didnt give the mother her own name, but sometimes if you look at the other siblings bapt. you could just be lucky. Best

Hello again

My plans are now complete and I will be in Ireland for three months, arriving on January 6, 2017. Less than 2 weeks to go and I'm quite excited. I will be staying at a rented cottage in Bunclody, Co Wexford which is really not too far away and I will have a rental car. I was wondering if there is anyone in this parish whom I could meet to help me find more information on my Fennell and Whelan families - details in earlier posts above.

The townlands of most interest are Tankardstown/Barrowhouse/Monebrock (Moneybrook). I don't know what is the closest town and would appreciate any assistance. Is there a family history centre or historical society I could consult.

I have been searching the parish records now online and have not found anything more that is definitive. I know there are Fennells in the area of Athy and wonder if we might be connected somehow.

I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new people and hope that one thing leads to another. I'd love to chat over a cup of coffee (or tea) if anyone will be around in January-March.

Thanks in advance and Happy Christmas to all.

Sunnyseeker (Ann Burns)

Hi Ann

Delighted you are making it over for a visit. Here are the details for Athy Library. The town is quite small and they don't seem to have a local studies section but at least it will be useful to have a contact there.

I have asked a volunteer in a neighbouring area if she is free and will get back to you when I hear from her. Could you send me a reminder email to cdoyle@irelandxo.com if you haven't heard from me by next Monday?

As an aisde here is Samuel Lewis' description of Athy in 1837

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support

Hi Ann

The Narraghmore volunteer has been back to me and would be delighted to meet with you. I will private email her details to you. She says too that this is a good website to check out burtownhouse.ie

Best wishes

Clare

Genealogy Support

Hi Ann - its Melanie from Narraghmore -  I have some information if you want to give me a ring thanks  re Tankardstown graveyard where your relations are buried.

thanks

Hi Melanie - What times would be good to ring you? I'm just in from a night of story-telling and music here in Bunclody.

Home now and wide awake - I should not have had that cup of coffee.

Ann

Hello Ann,

I just came across this post now.

Let me suggest that this Bridget Whelan may have been related to the Whelans of Nicholastown.  (She may or might not have been born there, but they would have probably known each other).  I would say this because there was a Bartholomew Whelan married to an Ann Fennel, about 30 or more years earlier.

Back then, I believe most marriages were arranged and familes often had pre-existing connections, so for instance, perhaps Bart was Bridget's uncle and Ann was Michael's aunt.  They may even have been more distantly related.

These (Bart and Ann) were my ancestors, but i'm afraid I don't have much info on them, as I've never had a chance to look at the church index or register.  I've only had a chance to look at the NLI's copy and the index from Findmypast.  Both have obvious gaps in them, and I assume the local ones are superior.

As such, I only know that they had four children (they probably had more) and not exactly when they were married.  Three of the children were born in Bray (near to Nicholastown.)

Regards.

Hi Al 

Thank you for this information. I've been collecting Fennell families and trying to sort them out and figure who might be related. I'm going to see if I can find Bart. I think I came across it at one point but dismissed it as not having been used in my family line but I'll take another look.

Ann

Hi im looking for Bartholomew whelan from athy born 1834. Ann burns have u done your dna ? My great grandmother was mary whelan from athy.

Hi Gemma

I have tested with ancestry and ftdna. My results have been uploaded to gedmatch. I have not had a lot of success finding matches other than a few that I already knew to be relatives and some who have no family tree. At Gedmatch.com A535501 and T429438 are my numbers. My brother is T685006. I have a gedcom attached to my tests.

I am going to look up my notes from recent research to see if I have anything on Bartholomew. I'm back in Canada now, having spent the winter in Ireland. The only Whelan names I have for sure are Bridget and her father James. I had looked up as many Fennell families as I could to see if I could figure anything out. I have not gotten back to my research since returning to Canada at Easter. 

Ann

It has been a few years and I'm still looking. I have not found any DNA matches that I can link to my Fennells or Whelans - and apart from the matches that I already know, most of my matches do not have a family tree or if they do it is private. When I contact them there is no reply.

I will be back in Ireland for the entire month of March 2020, and hope to do a bit more research at that time. I'm still looking for anything I can find on the Whelans in Athy. I have not had any luck browsing the records or doing any searches but perhaps I'll have another scan of the church records at NLI before I leave.

I decided to add this post in case anyone has found any helpful information since 2017. I think I've found what I can about my Fennells and have confirmed that I am NOT connected to the Fennells at Burtown House. Mine seem to have been in Laois/Queen's and Ballyadams/Tankardstown areas. 

Thanks for reading my post and now I'll cross my fingers hoping for good news.

Ann Burns 

Dear Ann, my Byrne ancestry is documented rather well by paper and Y-DNA.  My great grandfather Michael Burns, (Byrne per baptismal certificate), was baptised in 1843.  His father Michael Byrne, married to Honora Fitzpatrick, operated a foundry at Pounds Cross at Barrowhouse and his parents James Byrne and Jane Moran, were supposedly of Kilero (Kilcoo?), Co. KIldare.  James seems to have been a son of Den(n)is Byrne and wife Mary of Tankardstown & Athy.  James also had dauther Catherine a.k.a. "Kitty" wh married John Fitzpatrick and were the parents of a daughter ___________ who married a Whelan.  My E-mail address is RobertBurns@OBLaw.com.

I verfied tonight that Barrowhouse and Tankardstown are both townlands very close to each other just west of the River Barrow and that Pounds Cross is in Tankardstown not Barrowhouse.  The genealogy of Father Michael Dunne b. 1856 at Pounds Cross is thus in error at least as it was rehashed by my cousin Madeleine Robley.  I'd love to know your line in the Byrne Genealogy Project.

PS:  I looked at Michael Dunne, Sr's genealogy tonight.  It doesn't mention Barrowhouse.

Hello Robert

My Byrne ancestors are from Co Wicklow. It is only the Fennells and Whelans that are from Barrowhouse. Michael Byrne of Coolruss townland, near Clonegal, married Catherine McGuire in 1828. My brother Tom did the Y-DNA test and found that he is very closely connected with Jim Byrne whose family is still in Coolruss. They are part of the Leinster Byrne line. The spelling of our surname was changed in North America. 

Ann Burns

Hi Sunnyseeker,      the Byrnes of Wicklow,or the ubiquitous Byrnes as my brother Sean MacBradaigh (suaimhneas siora air) used to call them.  We have Byrnes on both sides of the family, although most people in ireland are much the same,or at least one.  Anyway Sean done an indept study of the Byrnes of Wicklow, and its somewhere on the internet,  . Our Byrnes were from Park which was not far from yours ,but then there was possibly a hundred Byrnes families living between them.  The records are not bad for 1828 around there, although I dont recall a Michael to a McGuire..  Ill keep my eye out for them.   Best Myles

Ann, I this morning discovered that patriot & educator J.J. O'Byrne, the son of an evicted tenant farmer from Valleymount, Co. Wicklow, who as a young man attended St. James’s School in Dublin before graduating with an arts degree from University College Dublin, lived for many years with his family "on a farm in Barrowhouse at a time when [] teaching in Westland Row Christian Brothers School."  https://underhung13.rssing.com/chan-7985713/all_p9.html  Barrowhouse is between where my GGGF Michael Byrne raised his family and "Kilero" if "Kilcro" from where his parents were when married.  Beyond that my Byrne lineage is very unsettled.  My Byrne line may be from Wicklow, too.