Author Topic: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.  (Read 41459 times)

Offline donkenny

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 24
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #18 on: Thursday 08 April 10 14:24 BST (UK) »
Hi Garvary:

It has taken me a while to get some of the following together.

Neil said it best.  Yours is an interesting post on the Kenny name. Plus, it is very helpful to know what everyone’s objectives are, as you help us all along.

1: I also early on found the Breslin family history note that mention’s Kenny's as relations, and their possible arrival with that “clan”. It was probably from the same source.

2: Methodism was very much a part of my grandfather’s, and great-grandfather’s lives. They were certainly very evangelical to say the least. I’m sure you have hit on it when you say they “… were pious (and) were attracted to its small group meetings, its prayer and its fervour.”

3: Bill Kenny’s comments on the Kenny surname can be found by googling the “Kenny Surname by William Little Kenny”.

4: The Inishmore riots occurred in 1824. This started due to a brawl between two men, Kenny, a Protestant and Lunney, a Catholic. The fight escalated and got very ugly, from the accounts that I have read. (I have a hard time believing that this Kenny would be an ancestor of mine!)

5: Thomas Kenny, Royal Artilleryman:
I have asked the UK National Archives for a copy of Thomas Kenny’s military records, covering the period 1796 to 1814. I’m hopeful that this will verify that we have the right person, and if the records are what I think they are, they should establish who Thomas’ parents were, and put more of the puzzle together. I’ll report here on the results, but it will likely take several months.
 
6: One of the family charts we have, has this entry: “KENNY MacKenzie Clan, Iona Scotland Moved to Central Ireland 1511.” This entry has no backup of any kind, and may just be someone’s guess, although it had to come from somewhere. The chart then jumps to 1830, a 319 year gap.
 
So that’s it for now.

Don.

Offline dcgb

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 2
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #19 on: Wednesday 06 October 10 15:41 BST (UK) »
I've just come across this discussion and might have some reinforcing details to add. My grandmother was a Kenny, great-grand daughter of Robert Kenny who died in Aylmer, Quebec (now part of Gatineau, the twin city of Ottawa, Ontario) in 1896 after a long and prosperous career as a local businessman (and prominent Methodist layman). He is buried in the Bellevue cemetary in Gatineau, along with Alice, who died in 1854 in Aylmer. Robert and his wife Elizabeth Grimes had nine children and numerous descendants, many of them still in the Ottawa/Gatineau area, including one in the Canadian Senate.
All the records I have seen from this corner of the family have Robert and Alice coming from Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh, although no-one has been successful in being more precise than that. The information in these postings certainly fits.
I have a letter from my grandmother's brother who writes: "The forerunner, Robert Kenny, came to Canada in 1829 and visited with two uncles near Lake Erie; this was in the period of the Col. Talbot Irish settlement in that area, but he came to rest at Aylmer East, Quebec. He did carpenter work, finally took up land, married Elizabeth Grimes from Vermont, built a log cabin, cleared land, built a stone house. His father died in Ireland and Robert sent for his mother, his sister and two brothers (about 1852). Their descendants seem to be lost in the rush". I hope this helps!

Offline dcgb

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 2
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #20 on: Wednesday 06 October 10 18:59 BST (UK) »
A footnote: a small piece of evidence in support of the proposition that Thomas was Alice's husband is that Robert named his second son Thomas (b. 1837). His oldest son was William (my ancestor - b. 1835), named after his maternal grandfather, although one of the posts suggests that the elder Thomas may have had a brother William as well. If it offers any clues, the other children were named Rachel (b. 1840), Richard (1841) , Edwy (1843), Miriam (1844), Jane (1847), Elizabeth (1850) and Marietta (1857!)
One thing that raises a question in my mind that needs exploring is my great-uncle's statement that Alice and Robert's siblings came to Canada in about 1852 after her husband died. By then, Robert was well-established and able to support her/them, but the siblings would have been in their 30s and presumably with families of their own. He isn't precise about when Alice's husband died, although the suggestion is that his death was what precipitated her move to Canada, to live out her old age with her eldest son. So that may well have been the timing -- or the date in his letter (written in 1993 when he was in his 90s) may have been a typo (1832?) Or some of the siblings came earlier...

Offline NEILKE

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 798
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #21 on: Wednesday 06 October 10 20:22 BST (UK) »
i wish this was my kenny,s but they not
neil
kenny from ireland befre moveing to north shields  flaxen/flexon from cumnor then sunderland robinson from rothbury then north shields urqhart somewhere in scotland then sunderland


Offline donkenny

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 24
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #22 on: Thursday 07 October 10 00:01 BST (UK) »
Hi Neil:
You may not have found a close connection on our Kenny lines, but the name is enough to qualify you as far as I am concerned.
Thank you for your interest and contributions, but more importantly, please continue as we move along. Perhaps there will be a closer connection than we see right now.
Don.

Offline donkenny

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 24
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #23 on: Thursday 07 October 10 00:06 BST (UK) »
Hi dcgb:
This is wonderful news. We are definitely the same family.
I will put together a better reply later tonight, addressing the items in your messages, along with additional comments on my findings.
Until later.
Don.

Offline NEILKE

  • RootsChat Veteran
  • *****
  • Posts: 798
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #24 on: Thursday 07 October 10 00:18 BST (UK) »
hi don i think my kennys came from southern ireland they were catholics.they came over to north shields in the 1870s from the north shields time i know a lot this is my dads branch.
neil
kenny from ireland befre moveing to north shields  flaxen/flexon from cumnor then sunderland robinson from rothbury then north shields urqhart somewhere in scotland then sunderland

Offline donkenny

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 24
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #25 on: Thursday 07 October 10 02:17 BST (UK) »
Hi Again, dcgb, and other Roots Chatters:

I’m certainly glad you came across this chat. This has all been extremely rewarding, due to the website format, and the kind folks who have given their time and expertise for our benefit. You have added a lot of information that I was unaware of. 
My great-grandfather is Ralph, Robert’s brother. Your first paragraph parallels my data.
Robert’s wife, I have as having been born in Hull Township (Aylmer), but her father, William was born in New Hampshire, and her mother, Rachel Benedict, was born in Vermont. A small point. I have 11 children, which includes Mary (1852) and a second Edwy (1843) These two likely died very young.
I have visited Tim Kenny, Buckingham (Gatineau) Quebec who is a Robert Kenny descendant. Tim gave me a booklet on the Robert Kenny line, which I can forward if you can supply a safe mailing address.
Garvary has Tattinbar(r) as the townland of our Kennys. It is 4-5 km E-SE of Maguiresbridge, and might have been considered the closest town of significance. I would love to have a copy of the letter you have from your grandmother’s brother. This is mostly new info to me. I have information on Robert’s successful lumbering and farming efforts, mostly taken from Anson Gard’s ‘Pioneers Of The Upper Ottawa and Humors of the Valley’ (1906).
Gard reports that Robert ‘came from Ireland to Aylmer in 1830.’ Tim Kenny reports that the rest of the family came later. The first Canadian census in 1842 has part of the family in Robert’s home in Aylmer and the rest in Ralph’s home in Chelsea, Quebec. I can account for Ralph’ descendants (that is me) and Letitia’s. Her info is at: http://www.heyland.ca/individual.php?pid=I80&ged=heypub22102005.ged. John died young, and I know little at this time.
Ralph’s third son is named Thomas (1858 – 1879).
William Walton Kenny (1835 – 1909) died in Manitoba. Some descendents moved on to California.
Robert and all siblings married in Canada, so 1832 sounds like it might be the right year for the balance of the family.
I am working to get Thomas Kenny’s Royal Artillery records from the British National Archives. There have been setbacks, so I am still a long way from being successful.
So, that is about it for now.
Don.

Offline donkenny

  • RootsChat Extra
  • **
  • Posts: 24
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: KENNY family: Fermanagh to Gatineau, Quebec, Canada in1830.
« Reply #26 on: Friday 10 December 10 02:03 GMT (UK) »
Hi Everyone:

I viewed the discharge papers of Thomas Kenny, Aughavia, Fermanagh who served in the Royal Artillery from 1796 to 1814 and George Kenny, Aughavea, Fermanagh, who served with the 27th Foot from 1819 to 1837.

This information is available on www.findmypast.co.uk as pay per view.

The papers dealt with their discharges only. The documents did not list next of kin or anything that might assist our genealogy search. (My uncle’s WWI Canadian service documentation consisted of 48 pages, and included next of kin information. This is what I was hoping for, but of course things change in a hundred years!)

Both Thomas and George were discharged due to chronic rheumatism (something carried down to this descendant as well), plus general wear and tear.

Anyway, my Rootschat inquiry this summer produced wonderful results. Please be assured that all your considerable efforts have been greatly appreciated.

I would like to contact dcgb if at all possible. I’m sure there is a lot of information you have that I would like to see, and I have a lot of data that might interest you?

Best regards to all,

Don.