Bernard Kelly in Rossard

Most of the useful records relating to family-history are now available online, many now free of charge... e.g. civil BMD records, Catholic Parish records, Griffith's valuation, Tithe applotment record etc, but as you've probably seen these often run out by the 1830s or so, especially for small farmer Catholic families. In this case both surnames are very common,  which makes the search difficult...

I'm not sure if you have already looked into the Revaluation records, aka Cancelled Land Book, at the Valuation Office in Dublin city. These are not currently available online, but cover slightly later timeframe - i.e. they continue on from Griffith's Primary Valuation using the same type of format and continue up to the 1970s - see Valuation Office Dublin - Genealogy. The books for some counties have been scanned and are available to view on computers in the office, for other counties like Co. Wexford you have to request the various volumes. There's usually a new revision book every 15-20 years, the books are based on DEDs (Electoral divisions) and for rural areas the entries in th books are organised by civil parish and townland.

Bernard was baptised in the Catholic Parish of Newtownbarry/Bunclody, which at the time covered parts of five civil parishes - Ballycarney, Kirush, Monart, St. Mary's Newtownbarry and Templeshanbo. Rossard townland is in Templeshanbo civil parish. Unfortunately there are the gaps you've seen in the baptism records for the parish during the 1850s, and the registers start about 1834. Marriage records are recorded back to 1834 - I checked for possible marriage for your Thomas and Winifred in this parish but didn't find any matches, extending the search to other parishes in the area also did not show any promising results. Likely they married in a parish that does not have records going back far enough, or their marriage was noted on a page now missing or too faded to read..

There are some details for the civil parish of Templeshanbo included in Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837 which might be of interest - see Templeshanbo, Co. Wexford, and also details for the town & civil parish of Newtown-Barry/St. Mary's.

Elizabeth,

My great-grandfather Bernard left Ireland in 1880-1882 to sail to New York and then lived in Philadelphia,  By family history, his friends Mike Long and Charlie O'Rourke also left, although maybe not on the same boat or time. What was your ancestor's name? From Griffiths valuations and census records, I have the likely location of where the Kellys lived.  I would also appreciate the address of the Wexford county library and Templeshambo graveyard, as I will add it to my itinerary.

It is also possible Bernard had siblings named Thomas and Bridget who also went to the US,, but I don't have the year they left, but would have to be the 1870s-1880s

Thank you,

Joe Kelly

Hello Joe, Michael Long settled in Delaware and years later in the 1970's his daughter Veronica came to visit his homeplace which is our family farm. I am a descendent of Micheal's younger brother James. There was a family of Kelly's who lived up the lane from our farm. If that was your relations homeplace, nothing remains of the house except the gateway, but it is located a few fields from the foot of the Blackrock Mountain. I myself emigrated to the US and now live in NYC. Here is a link to the library which is located near the Cornmarket on Mallin Street in Wexford town: https://www.wexfordcoco.ie/libraries/opening-hours-and-branches/wexford…. Here is some information on Templeshambo graveyard: http://www.from-ireland.net/templeshanbo-graveyard-records-wexford/ It is located at Templeshanbo, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford. Here is a google share for Templeshanbo and the graveyard is to the left of the Church: https://goo.gl/maps/ysPUrTMRxSrS5YSe7 

The Bunclody area has a website maintained by a locaI man www.bunclody.net

I hope this helps, Regards, Elizabeth 

Elizabeth,

Thank you so much for this information. My information was also that the Kellys lived by the base of Black Rock Mountain (the red X on the attached map).  I will definitely contact you by email as I plan my trip to Ireland.  I would love if on the day I plan to hike Blackrock Mountain, I could contact someone you know who could show me the old gateway to the house.  I would love to get a picture of me standing in the gateway to share with the rest of the family and add to the family history. My email is bigredwombat@gmail.com 

Thanks again,

Joe Kelly