Valencia Island

Hello Heather,

The BMD registers for co. Kerry is on irishgenealogy.ie (a free searchable website)  Put in your names and dates, and gradually move up the years .  These dates are approximate and hardly anybody know what age they were. So keep an open mind.

Gradually refine your search by putting the father's name into the search bar also.  I found Mary, so I'm sure the others are there also.

regards,

Anne

Heather,

Only 4 of the townlands in Valentia Island were microfilmed from the returns of the 1911 census, they are Farrenreagh Town, Tinnies Upper, Tinnies Lower East and Tinnies Lower West. I was in the National Archives in Dublin on Friday last and they told me that because the other 21 townlands were not microfilmed, they would not be viewable on the website either. However, they said that all the original household returns for Valentia in 1911 ( as well as all other DEDs ) were held ' off site', but could be ordered in advance to view at the National Archives in Dublin. That might not be of much use to you, but if you want, the next time that I am going to the Archives ( i am currently researching my wifes ancestors who came from Cooil West, Valentia ) i could get a photocopy of your ancestors household return from 1911 and email a copy of it on to you. You just need to supply me with the townland, family name, and some of the first names of the family members to help narrow the search down to the relevant one.

Anne mentioned the irishgenealogy website. With a little bit of cross referencing, I found this database brilliant, especially as it gave all details, including the sponsors as well as the local names of places.

Kevin

Hi Heather,

I hope that you see this message.  I just found this site, 3 years after your initial post :).  My husband's great-grandfather is Michael Healy, born in Lahern in 1872, son of John Healy & Mary Murley.  I recently started researching his Healy line from Valentia Island.  Have you done any DNA tests?  Jeff is on Ancestry and I have uploaded his results to Gedmatch . com.  His kit number is: A713567.  I would love to connect and compare notes.  I was not aware of 3 older sisters born prior to Julia in 1866 but that makes sense considering the ages of John & Mary at Julia's birth ("old" for a first birth at 27  or 29) ;-)

Kathleen Healy

My great grandfather was Michael Healy 1872.  My Healy website is:  http://www.angelfire.com/ma/healytree/

Photo of Michael Healy:  http://www.angelfire.com/ma/healytree/images/mh1872.GIF

Hello from NZ. I was thrilled and surprised to receive an email saying I had a reply on Ireland xo as I had not visited the site for sometime and with there not being too many options, I thought, for my Healy family from Valentia I had only rarely checked.

The final alert re Marykara's response was the only one I was alerted to so I had not seen your one Kathleen though I do recall i may have replied to Kevin re his offer to check the "missing" data for the 1911 census for Valentia.

I would love to make contact Kathleen as I have been intending to do something with DNA research but as yet hadn’t done so as I was unsure which organisation was best to use and my limited understanding of how the male and female line worked with matches. I will put a query on the NZSG members list to day for some advice on that as of course our line will come via the female line from the second of the three sisters who came to NZ.

The eldest and the first to arrive in NZ in 1875 Mary did I know return to Valentia Island between 1882-85 and married John (O)Sullivan who was the butcher in Knightstown and had several children and that family shows cross-referenced with Mary's parents and siblings in several church records over the years. 

To my knowledge Mary (nee Murley) Healy passed away in 1907 and John Healy in 1915. What I can send you Kathleen are various obituaries of the two sisters with the NZSG. my great-grandmother Kate Healy passed away 1928 and Ellen who passed away in 1935 and whose burial record states she was the daughter of John Healy, slate-worker Valentia Is Ireland. Kate obituary in the Auckland Star also records her as coming from Valentia Is County Kerry.

I am certain this is the same family and as you say the late age of parents for the children born after registration was required from 1864 indicates that too.

Hopefully my replies will be seen and in regard to the census records if Kevin, or anyone currently researching could sight the 1911 one for me I would be most appreciative.

The details are for Coahra Beg Valentia Island and one household would be for by then John Healy aged approx 76 and his son also John aged about 42, The other household for Coahra Beg would be for Michael Healy's family.

Many thanks and regards HeatherM

Hi Heather,

Glad you saw the message!  I don't think that the 1911 census for Valentia is online yet.   I did find Michael Healy's son living with John & Mary Healy in the 1901 census.  He is listed as "nephew" but from what I have read, nephew was sometimes interchangable with grandson.....and this particular son is missing from the census with Michael Healy's family.  James Morley is also listed with the family as a lodger, perhaps a relative of Mary?

You will want to do autosomal DNA.  I have tested mine both at Ancestry & FamilyTree DNA.  Males & Females will get the same result with an autosomal test.  Only males can do a Y-Test but that will only (possibly) give you a paternal surname, it will not really help with genealogy research because the connections may be many, many genrations back.  You can upload both Ancestry & FTdna results to gedmatch.com to compare across companies.  While I have found some of the projects at FTdna interesting, I find their site kind of clunkly and not user friendly.  Ancestry has the records/trees/hints intergrated and their data base is so much larger....I have found it much easier to navigate and much easier to contact and confirm matches with paper trails.

I would love to see obituaries for the NZ sisters.  I agree, I believe Mary died in 1907 & John in 1915.  I don't have a record of John working in the slate mines, most records I have list him as a farmer or laborer.  But he could have been a laborer in the slate mines, there was one on Valentia Island. I have been combing through the parish registers in Valentia & Cahersiveen to find baptismal records for Ellen, Kate & Mary.  The handwriting is not the best but I keep hoping we will get lucky. :)  Michael married Hanora (Nora) Leary in 1894.  He had 15 children, many emmigrated to the US and he died in Valentia in 1933.

My email address is kathealy8@gmail . com

Kathleen