Looking for Bridget King, County Kerry, Ireland

+4 votes
190 views
Have been trying to chip away a bit at my Irish branch - I beleive there are some DNA connections if I can only branch out a bit!

I managed to identify John Kenny and Bridget King as my 3x Great Grandparents.  I've just found a record of their marriage giving me the names of both fathers.  I also found a widowed John in the 1901 census with one child and his family and then this family again in the 1911 census, so I've added a few twigs to my tree.

As I have an approximate age for John from the census, I did hope I might be able to locate a baptismal record, but no luck so far.  With Bridget, I did think I'd got there - about the right age, right area, right fathers name..... but then I did some further searching on Irish Genealogy and there are some other candidates, so now I'm confused about her mother - it may not be the Julia Lalor I thought.  To confuse the matter further, I did some cross checking when I found the 1901 census and eventually decided that it was the right John Kenny and family, but it has there in the family his mother-in-law and her name is Hannah Connell!  I can't see a Bridget King, daughter of John King and a Hannah (she is in her 90s, so I thought she may have remarried) but then I thought maybe John remarried and was careless enough to lose a second wife?!

I have found their son, Simon on the 1901 and 1911 census, but I can't track down the other children of the family, other than Mary Kate, who as my ancestor I knew had come to England.  With all of the earlier Irish census records having been destroyed I'm thinking I may end up being stuck where I am.
WikiTree profile: Biddy Kenny
in Genealogy Help by Deborah Smith G2G6 Mach 1 (12.2k points)
I have not looked for records for this but just wanted to comment that taking the ages in the censuses too literally can be unhelpful sometimes - I have researched many people where they are 10-20 years out.
I've come across some that have been out by a few years, but not as much as that!

1 Answer

+6 votes

Is this the couple?

Area - KERRY (RC) , Parish/Church/Congregation - ARDFERT

Marriage of JOHN KENNY of CHAPLETOWN and BRIDGET KING of BANNA on 15 February 1865

Husband Wife

Name JOHN KENNY BRIDGET KING

Address CHAPLETOWN BANNA

Father THOMAS KENNY JOHN KING

Further details in the record

Priest REV. JOHN O'CONNELL

Witness 1 TIMOTHY KEAN

Witness 2 DENIS MURPHY

Book Number Page Entry Number Record_Identifier

3 18 N/R KY-RC-MA-5169

 

 

If so, Ballynahaglish is in the Chapeltown area  (there is another Chapeltown further away and not in the Ardfert area) and shows two sons:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kerry/Ballynahaglish/Ballymakegoge/1430815/

 

I also see a Bridget Kenny deceased at age 45 in 1891.  The census has the younger child born circa 1889.

With John showing age 66 in 1901, we can impute his birth circa 1835,  I did not see a census for this John in 1911, but filtering for the surname and DED of Ballynahaglish, it shows Simon's family.  The only death for record that come close i for a John Kenny between the two census records has an imputed birth year of 1851 but that would have to have been an error if indeed it were for the John Kenny who had married Bridget King.

 

There is this baptismal record for a John Kenny born about 15 miles away on the Dingle peninsula:

 

Area - KERRY (RC) , Parish/Church/Congregation - ANNASCAUL

Baptism of JOHN KENNEY of COOLES on 17 September 1837

Name JOHN KENNEY

Date of Birth 17 September 1837

Address COOLES

Father THOMAS KENNEY

Mother MARY DUGGAN

Child Denomination RC

Sponsor 1 BARTHOLOMEW LOUCEY

Sponsor 2 MARY CONNELL

Book Number Page Entry Number Record_Identifier

N/R N/R 60 KY-RC-BA-24290

 

Maybe some of this will help.  Also, there is a County Kerry burial resource: http://www.kerrylaburials.ie/en/index.aspx

 

by Living Anderson G2G6 Mach 7 (79.9k points)
That's the correct marriage record - or at least there isn't another one I can see that answers!

I know John had died before 1906 as per his daughter's marriage certificate (at least if I assumed that was correct - question everything me!).  Bridget has evidently predeceased him as she's not on the census.  Her mother appears on the 1901 census (at least she's listed as John's MiL) but I can't see a Bridget King with a mother called Hannah and the one on the census is a Hannah Connell, not a Hannah King..... you see why I am confused!
Well, I think I would need to know which facts are absolutely certain and work from there. There were only two other censuses for John Kenny, one in Killarney and the other in Ballyheige.  The latter being closer to Chapeltown: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Kerry/Ballyheigue/Doonamontane/1425457/
I'm 99% certain the marriage record is correct and that it's the correct John I have on the 1901 census.

I think I have the wrong baptismal record for this Bridget though.

I did find some of the extended family members through the burial records, to thank you for that.

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