The Library, Ancestors and descendants, a Dan Keane limerick or two and lifting the North Kerry Railway Line

The Best Free Entertainment in Town

This is the Listowel branch of Kerry County Library. Membership is free for everyone. There are books on every topic, magazines, newspapers and computers to keep you busy for hours. It is one of the most valuable resources we have in town. If you're not already a member, drop in and join. It's free.

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Another Loss to Church St.

This business has moved on from here.

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Seeking Lacey or Hickey Relatives

Every now and again people contact me who are searching for their Listowel ancestors. I am not the right woman for this job at all. Kay Caball of My Kerry Ancestors is the expert in this area.

Kay's latest blog post about common surnames in North Kerry is worthwhile reading for every family historian.

"Popular surnames in Kerry can be the cause of a lot of head scratching when searching for Kerry Ancestors.   O’Sullivan, O’Connor, O’Connell, O’Donoghue, Fitzgerald, Stack, McElligott, Murphy, Walsh families are thick on the ground and when these surnames are combined with the traditional naming patterns of sons and daughters, identification of YOUR family can be a bit fraught.

Have I any hints to help you identify the correct family?  I have been giving this some thought lately. I have been researching the family of William Walsh who was living in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1860[1].  His descendant Molly had done sterling work going through U.S. records and found a William Walsh living in New York in 1855[2].  This Census stated that William was aged 30, Head of the Household, lived with his wife Honora (20), his son Michael (0) and his mother Joanna (54) Widow,  and his brother John (17).  While we would have to discount all these ages as only approximate (with the exception of Michael, born in N.Y), we have really good stuff here – William’s mothers’ name and a brother’s name.  And most importantly, William’s first son is called ‘Michael’, from which we can almost certainly take it that William’s father’s name was also Michael.  See Kerry traditional naming practices.  All are ‘Born in Ireland’ with the exception of Michael……."

You can read the rest of this very interesting tale HERE

My quest today is not for ancestors but for descendants or other living relatives.

The request comes from a lady called Tracey Beckley who lives in the Isle of Wight.

Our first person of interest is Henry Lacey from Listowel who married Honora Hickey sometime in the 1920s. Honora died in 1932 leaving Henry with 6 children to raise. The youngest of the family was Mary, Tracey's mother. Mary was adopted at age 4months and she never met any of her siblings nor did she know what happened to any of them. Henry emigrated to Coventry in England at some point. We know this because Tracey has got his death cert and this is given as his address.

Tracey is anxious to make contact with anyone who might remember this family or know anything about them or where they went. She sent me 2 photos, one of Henry Lacey and another of Edward Lacey, one of his sons.

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A Limerick or 2 from The Master ; Dan Keane R.I.P.

An illiterate poor fellow in Cahir
In his whole life had only one prayer
When he went on his knees
It was certain to please
"Dear God, I am here and you're there."

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A lady whose name is Eileen
Her house it is spotlessly clean
Some years ago
She wed Billy Joe
And their family grew up in Trien.

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The End of the Line

Warren Buckley took this photo  1988 as the tracks were being lifted from this stretch of line which is now the John B. Keane Road.

Warren writes,  "My recollection is that it I took the photo near where ALDI is now. The vertical line left of the gate house is the mast that the ESB had in the field opposite Cherrytree Drive."