My g-g-grandmother Anne Sheehan was born in May 1838 to William and Catherine Cleary Sheehan.. They had been m. on Dec 4, 1836 in Bruff RC Parish. Catherine was reportedly originally from Nenagh, according to family stories.
Anne m. James Spillane in Bruff on Feb 25, 1859.. Their first child Peter was b. in 1860, but tragically his father had died by that time. Family stories say that he fell from a horse. Anne eventually immigrated to Toronto, Canada, and remarried. Peter later joined her, immigrating alone at age 11.
I know nothing about Peter's Spillane family, other than his father's name. I would very much like to learn more about the Spillane, Sheehan and Cleary families. Thank you for any assistance.
Mary Butler Arnold in Texas
mkarnold
Friday 1st Mar 2013, 05:04AMMessage Board Replies
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The following information may be of some help to you.
Bruff/Grange/Meanus Community Council is a voluntary organization working in partnership with other statutory and voluntary bodies, groups and agencies to encourage and promote the social, cultural, economic and commercial vitality of the town and surrounding rural areas. We presently have a number of projects in hand:
- Ireland Reaching Out Programme incorporating The Gathering or Week of Welcomes which is on from 1st to 7th July 2013
- Developing the Fitzgerald Trail. Thomas Fitzgerald was John F Kennedy’s great grandfather on his mother’s side. He was born in Bruff in 1823. He was a farmer and lived on the Palatine Road. Although the Fitzgerald farm was affected by the Great famine, Thomas managed to keep it going until finally, in 1854, he was forced to leave for the U.S taking with him the family bible on which JFK took his oath of office as President of the U.S. Like the Kennedy’s he also settled in Boston, Massachusetts and in 1857 married Rosanna Cox who had arrived in Boston from County Cavan, Ireland. One of their children, John Francis Fitzgerald (Honey Fitz), JFK’s grandfather, eventually became Mayor of Boston. Other ancestral names linked with the Fitzgeralds include Wilmouth, Linnehan (Lenihan), Hannon, McCarthy, Dineen and Slattery.
- Graveyard Project – This is a community based heritage project which digitally records and publishes historic graveyard surveys. We have 12 graveyards in the parish of Bruff and 10 of these have been surveyed – Catholic Church, Church of Ireland, Uregare, Grange, Mainister, Ballingirlough, Kyle, Tullybrackey, Holycross and Teamplain. The results can be obtained by searching www.historicgraves.com.
- As we are a voluntary body, our resources are limited and so regretfully we are not able to complete individual searches for people. However, we will be hosting a genealogy workshop on tracing your roots plus heritage walks and talks as part of The Gathering. In addition, The Ireland Reaching Out Programme, Graveyard Project and our own website, www.visitbruff.com provide valuable sources of information.
We would like to invite you to our Week of Welcomes Monday 1st July to Sunday 7th July 2013. A full programme of events will be available nearer the date. It would be great if you and your family, as descendants of Bruff, could join us for this celebration of life in our community. We can assist with sourcing accommodation if required. Hope to see you in July.
You may reach us direct by emailing bgmcouncil@gmail.com
Kind regards,
Maurice Lyons
Tuesday 12th Mar 2013, 06:40PM -
We have now sent your details to a local Sheehan Family to see if there is any connection.
Kind regards,
Maurice Lyons
Monday 18th Mar 2013, 06:07PM