Need a bit help for Family Ulster!!!

[ruthstran]

Hi Elizabeth,
I hope you haven't given up your search.  I have been working on my family tree for over 10 years and haven't paid a penny for any info.  All of my info was obtained from family members, helpful genealogy researchers, and people I found online who were also trying to find family connections.  Once I have found all of the names, places, and approximate dates, and have some spare change, I will send for birth records, etc.  There are a lot of people out there who are very nice, and helpful, and maybe also related to you!  So keep asking around; your family might find YOU!

I have been looking for a Kennedy Connection because my Great-Great Grandfather's first name is Kennedy, and his surname is MAWHINNEY.  Several descendents of his are also named Kennedy, with the surname CAMPBELL.

Can you tell me what church they went to in Co. Down?  Or at least which denomination?  It might help in the search.

Ruth

[Betty Boo]

Hi Ruth,

Thanks for your message, I have stopped looking for my grandmother as I don't have enough information about her to find out where she came from in Ireland.
Most of what I know about my grandmother Mary Carney is hearsay from an elder cousin as all my family are gone and I really don't have anyone to ask.

All I know for sure is my grandmother Mary Carney married my grandfather Thomas Ferguson in Dundee on 27th July 1903, Mary was aged 23 and Thomas was 22, they married in the Catholc Church in Dundee.
Mary's father was John Carney hairdresser, her mother was Mary Carney nee Kennedy.

When my gran died I was only about 11/12 years of age so never asked any questions, my mother had told me my gran was born in Ireland.

Years later my elder cousin (she was about 13 years older than me) who had been brought up by my grandmother as her mother had died young said my gran came from Belfast Ireland.  She remembers being told by my gran that she came to Glasgow Lanark when she was about 17 years of age with two of her sisters.
She later met my grandfather there as he was working in the mines in Glasgow, they later returned to Dundee and married in 1903.

I can't find my grandmother in any census other than maybe the 1901 Dundee census where it looks like she is living with an Irish family as a boarder.

Elizabeth

[ruthstran]

Hi again Elizabeth,
I think that Mary KENNEDY was the name you should be looking for, not Mary Carney.  It may also be a common name but you may find her listed as a mother giving birth to a girl child, unnamed as of the reporting of the birth.  Usually there was a christening date recorded that was a date just as important as the birth, and the christening date was sometimes the only date reported.  Can you tell me if the family was catholic or protestant?  You might find out more from church records. 

Here is a link to the area around Newry.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rosdavies/MAPS/NewryTownlands.htm

See if any names of the towns look familiar.  Mourne isn't the name of a civil parish, but there is a catholic parish called  Mourne Lower.  The Mourne Mountains are between Rathfriland and the sea.  Part of Newry is in County Armagh.

The Mourne Mountains are beautiful when viewed from Rathfriland and surrounding towns.  I know, I have seen them!  Your ancestors, and mine, lived in a beautiful place, even if life was hard and food was scarce.  After my three week visit I really learned why they found it so hard to leave.

Good luck to you. 
Ruth

[Betty Boo]

Hello again Ruth,

I actually paid for a search to be done at the records office in Ireland and they search two years either side of 1880 and couldn't find my grandmothers birth.
I think thats why I kind of gave up as I felt I had tried everything!!

Yes as I said my gran was Roman Catholic up every morning for 6am mass in the church, never missed a day.

As noted in an earlier message as my thread I thought the hairdresser who lived in The Strand in Newry and Mourne Nicholas Carney could have in some way been related to my grandmother as there was a Catherine Carney who married in Dundee and her father was Nicholas Carney (a hairdresser).

I had thought this could maybe could have been one of my grans cousins but I will never know for sure. I just thought with John Carney and Nicholas Carney being hairdressers, well maybe they could have been brothers.

Elizabeth

[ruthstran]

I guess I missed part of your message.  Thanks for covering it again.  I also didn't read all of the messages in the other thread as directed by the moderator.  Sorry.  I just wanted to write to you right away to say: don't give up!  And don't waste money.  I know there are experts that do this for a fee.  But part of the joy is the journey.  It is a bit like fishing, but use lots of fishing poles and good bait.  I have "met" so many nice people doing this, and while looking for my own family, I still try to help other people find theirs.  I guess that is what I mean by bait.  Have lots of messages out there for people to find, and in the process, make friends and help others.  Someday the right person will read your message and know exactly who Mary KENNEDY CARNEY is, or her daughter Mary CARNEY FURGUSON and contact you right away!  Your grandmother was a devoted Roman Catholic and she probably learned that devotion from her mother.  There has to be some record of that Kennedy family in one of the RC churches around Newry.

You may be right about the hairdressers being related.
Hold on to that idea.  And try to find out more about your great-grandmother.  Another fishing analogy:  Cast a wide net.  Look for as many names as possible. 

Bye for now,
Ruth