Finding Florence Brosnan

[camberwellbeauty]

I am trying to find any information on Florence Brosnan he was born around 1848ish in or around Knocknagoshal County Kerry, he had a son Timothy (my ggrandfather) who was born 1878 and who later left Ireland and came to England where he married my ggrandmother in 1909 at the age of 31.  Unfortunatly Timothy died several years after marrying and therefore not in my fathers memory and there seems to be very few "tales" in the family about him.


 

[heywood]

Hello,
you may already have done this but 'googling' Florence Brosnan brings up a 1916 petition from Knocknagoshel in which Florence is a signatory - possibly still him he would be nearing 70 yrs. (If him, is a nice bit of history).
http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlker/parishpet.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlker/index.html - this is the home site and has quite a lot of info re Kerry.
Griffiths valuation (around 1850s) does not have Brosnan at all in Kerry but the name Bresnahan is in Knocknagoshel and a Brosnahan is nearby.
http://www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/kerry/castleisland.htm
Again, if you have not already got it, you could apply for your ggrandfather's birth certificate to get more details - mother's name and place of birth.
Lastly, the Kerry home site does suggest writing to the parish priest- you may get details of Florence's marriage and any siblings of Timothy.
best wishes
heywood
ps - if Timothy was still at home in 1901 there is also the census. You can order microfilms of the census and parish records through LDS (Latter Day Saints) family history libraries if there is one near you.

[camberwellbeauty]

Thank you Heywood for your reply, I did know about the petition to split Brosna and Knocknagoshel and that's my only link that mentions a Florence, be it male or female, who can tell. Family rumor has it that Brosnan was originally Brosnahan.
Timothy may well have still been at home in 1901 as i have not found him on our census, so that's another possibility i can look into. And the parish priest is another route i can try.
I did go to Knocknagoshel a few years ago and had a rummage round the cemetry but no mention of a Florence anywhere.
Once again thanks for putting some ideas my way.

Camberwellbeauty.

 

[aghadowey]

IGI lists Timothy Brosnahan born 14 Dec.1878 Co. Limerick, Ireland, son of Florence Brosnahan & Johanna Foley.

There are also several other later references to Florence Brosnahans in Co. Kerry.

P.S.- I have come across Florence used as a male Christian name once before- in that case was named after Florence Nightengale.

[heywood]

This looks very interesting - Limerick and Kerry border each other and Griffiths has lots of Brosnahans - especially Timothys in Limerick. (He could be father of Florence). Florence was quite a well used male name in Ireland- so I still am inclined to believe that that was your Florence.
The best bet now might be to go after the birth certificate for Timothy and see what that turns up.

[camberwellbeauty]

Thank you for all your help in this.
I know know that my Timothy was born in Limerick, as was his mother Johanna Foley, and all the rest of the Brosnan's (Brosnahans) were born Knocknagoshel,  Kerry.
I did manage to get a marriage cert for Johanna & Florence, and the name changed from the top of the cert to the bottom, why i shall never know, but that part of the family legend was certainly true, they went in Brosnahan and came out Brosnan...
I did have an fantastic bit of luck with this as another member on here mentioned that his family had married into the Brosnan's and i asked him if he had ever heard the name Florence, and as luck would have it he had transcribed the 1901 census for that area and recalled the unusual name, and bingo i had my Timothy as home with his parents Florence and Johanna and all their siblings.
What luck...

[camberwellbeauty]

Strange but i do have a Nightengale in my tree as well.
Never linked it to the actual Florence.... but you never know.....

[heywood]

what good news - well done.

best wishes
heywood

[wbutcheruk2]

Did you have any luck tracing his sister Margaret?