O'Connells - county Kerry

If Maurice was a policeman in Kerry then he almost certainly served with the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Their service records have survived. The originals are in the National Archives in Kew, London, with copies in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast and the Garda (police) Museum in Dublin. LDS have also copied them and it is possible to order the films into their libraries. However if you are not able to access those options, the police museum in Belfast also has a set of the records and will do a look up for a £25 fee (sterling). See:

https://www.psni.police.uk/inside-psni/our-history/genealogy/

The service records should tell you the person’s county of origin. Note that it was RIC policy not to post a policeman to the county he was born in or had connections in.

In order to join the RIC, you had to be at least 19 (18 if your father had served in it). You could not marry till you had served 7 years. These rules can be helpful in working out ages and birth years.

DRNZ:

I searched on www.irishgenealogy.ie which is a free Irish government site which has Co. Kerry church records. I was expecting to find records in Moyvane for Maurice and his family but they were actually in the Abbeydorney RC parish records which start in 1835 but there is a seven year gap from late 1844 to early 1851 for baptisms. 

http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0645

Below is the marriage record which indicates that Maurice was from Abbeydorney and no location info is provided for Ellen. There were also baptismal records for Jane 2/19/1854 family in Ballysheen, Francis March 8, 1858 and Mary 2/18/1860 and family living in Dromncunnig. No record for Edward showed up but it may be on the register.

You won't find a baptismal record for Maurice unless he was baptized in a church other than Moyvane or Abbeydorney and also has records back to 1814.

Roger McDonnell

Area - KERRY (RC) , Parish/Church/Congregation - ABBEYDORNEY

Marriage of MAURICE O'CONNELL of ABBEYDORNEY and ELLEN MCELLIGOTT of NR on 5 February 1853

HusbandWifeNameMAURICE O'CONNELLELLEN MCELLIGOTTAddressABBEYDORNEYNROccupationNRNRFatherNR O'CONNELLNR NRMotherNR NRNR NR Witness 1THADEUS KEANWitness 2JOHN MCELLIGOTT

Hello Roger McDonnell, and thanks for the marriage data on Maurice and Ellen as I have trouble figuring out 19th century Irish parish names.  But I have located that parish record also now with your help.  You're correct about the difficulty in locating his birth record, and his Australian death certificate data counting back indicates 1795 but his un/assisted shipping record for his family  indicates 1814.  Oh well.  The additional data on their children most helpful. I will process that information through my ancestry.com tree. Regards

David Ross

Hello Elwyn

Thanks very much for that helpful information on Maurice and the RIC.  I will follow up on it to clarify that point.  His daughter, Jane O'Connell, married Patrick William Vincent O'Connell (no relation) in Victoria, Australia, 1878, and in that same year Patrick joined the Victorian Mounted Police, influenced I suspect by Jane's father.   Regards. David Ross

Hi David,

Both Edward and Frances seem to have come from the townland of Lower Kilcolgan in the parish of Kilnaughtin, which is near Tarbert in North Kerry, as both Connells and Walls had land there around 1832 – see the following links:

Irish Genealogy – Church Records         Marriage of Edward Connel and Frances Wall

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/search.jsp?namefm=edward&namel=o+connell&location=gale&yyfrom=&yyto=&submit=Search

Tithe Applotments 1832     Parish: Kilnaughtin, Townland: Lower Kilcolgan - Thomas Connell and Mrs Wall

http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/reels/tab//004625685/004625685_00220.pdf

Co. Kerry Civil Parishes with Townlands and links

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlker/civparlist.html

I think Maurice may have moved to Abbeydorney when he got married. The McElligotts seem to have been from that area – see Griffith’s Valuation links below.

Griffith’s Valuation 1850s   Parish: ODorney   Townland: Ballysheen – Richard and John McElligott

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNameSearch&PlaceID=586139&county=Kerry&barony=Clanmaurice&parish=O%27dorney&townland=%3Cb%3EBallysheen%3C/b%3E

Map of Ballysheen

http://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/single_layer/i8.php?lat=&longt=&dum=0&sheet=21&mysession=2504009002260&info=&place=&county=KERRY&placename=BALLYSHEEN&parish=O%27DORNEY&country=Ireland&union=&barony=CLANMAURICE

The townland of Ballysheen was just north of Abbeydorney village, while Dromcunnig was south of the village.

I also found the record for Edward’s baptism: http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/c2ddec0002705

It seems likely that Maurice’s sister Bridget and Ellen’s brother John married each other:

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/search.jsp?name2fm….  

This was quite a common occurrence at the time of arranged marriages. They also lived in Ballysheen and if the above link works you can see Maurice and Ellen’s names appearing as sponsors for their children.

This all sounds a little convoluted! I hope you can make sense of it …

Regards,

Joan Holland