Hi John Joe,
The family name is Foley. The furtherest I go back is to Timothy Foley & his wife Elizabeth (nee A'Hearn - variation on spelling). Other name from the area is Cashman, Bartholomew & his sister Margaret also came to Australia.
Margaret married Denis Foley in Cork, presume in Grenagh, Bart married Mary Foley in Launceston, Tasmania. Parents were Jeremiah & Catherine (nee Buckley). There was a third Cashman, James, who also came to Australia but sadly he died shortly after arriving.
My Foley tree starts with Timothy's children, the eldest Denis who by ages on documents was born around 1816 & immigrated to Australia in the early 1850s. Along with his younger brothers Patrick & Timothy and sisters Ann & Mary. On one document Timothy snr is referred to as "gentleman", mostly he is noted as a farmer.
I did write to Father Kelleher last year but I've not received a reply however I appreciate parish business is more important than looking up the past.
If your cousin is ever in the Lyradene cemetery with time to spare and can find anything refering to our Foleys that would be wonderful. My thinking is that both Timothy & Elizabeth died before their children immigrated.
Was planning a trip there this year but global crash has put that on hold for now, not so many pounds for my aussie dollar these days.
I did have a researcher look up the parish records in Dublin but she said "the handwriting was the worst I've ever seen by a parish priest". However her research appears to have started around 1829, so a bit late for what I have on the Foleys. I did ask in my letter to Father whether or not the parish still held the records. Do you know?
There is also reference in Denis' documents to the family being from "Lyradane Estate". As your cousins lives there would they know if such an estate existed or was it a bit of Irish folk lore?
Anything on Lyradane would be gratefully appreciated, history, stories, folk lore, where it got it's name. There isn't very much on the net about the town.
Kind regards
Debra.
