Julia A. Sullivan

Tom:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

Firies is the RC parish for Aglish civil parish. Racomane East and Racomane West are townlands in Aglish civil parish. Records for Firies start in 1830 and a link to the online register is below.

www.irishgenealogy.ie is a free Irish government site which has Co. Kerry church records. I just looked for a baptismal record for Julia and found one in 1846 (November 2nd) for a Julia Sullivan with father Jeremiah and mother Margaret Casey. The townland was shown as Knockaderry not Racomane.

I need to do some more searching to see if I see other records with Racomane.

Roger McDonnell

http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0646

Roger, thank you very much for the very quick reply. The townland/parish is what is so confusing to us. From what you've told us, Firies is the Roman Catholic Parish place name, but Aglish is the civil parish name- but I would assume that both are the same place?

We've dug through some more old hand written notes and found a mention that Julia's parents may have been a John Sullivan and Ellen Margaret Scollard. Her death certificate merely states Aglish, Kerry, Ireland. Her children wrote in the Racomane, Magunihy, Aglish, Killarny description and also switched the order around and adding to the confusion.

Considering Aglish and Firies are the same place, would it be possible her husband Jeremiah Sullivan was from the same area? His parents our records show to be Owne Sullivan and Mary Foley, and he was born on26 September 1841. Again we have a stewpot of places he was born. His obituary states Killarny, his gravestone Firies and other documents Kilnanare.

I greatly appreciate your assistance, as I've been chasing my tail for quite some time trying to figure out the locations.

Tom:

The civil parish boundaries don't necessarily match the boundary for the related RC parish. In fact, Firies RC parish also relates to Kilnarare, Molahiffe and Kilcredane civil parishes. Those parishes are to the northwest, north and northeast of Aglish.

I looked for John Sullivan and Ellen Scollard. I located an 1835 marriage (below) in Castleisland which is to the northeast of Firies. There was a baptismal record in 1837 for a Cornelius Sullivan with the same parents and an 1844 baptismal record for a Juliana Sullivan with the same parents (see below). Not sure how this all sorts out.

Roger

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

Marriage of JOHN SULLIVAN of NR and HELEN SCOLLARD of NR on 24 February 1835

HusbandWifeNameJOHN SULLIVANHELEN SCOLLARD

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

Baptism of JULIANA SULLIVAN of SCARTAGLIN on 6 October 1844

NameJULIANA SULLIVANDate of Birth6 October 1844 (BASED ON OTHER DATE INFORMATION)AddressSCARTAGLINFatherJOHN SULLIVANMotherHELEN SCOLLARD

Thank you very much for the reply Roger. I was on vacation and away from my computer. Firt, thank you very much for all the research you have done. Without you, I think I would have been running around in circles like we have for years. Being used to simple town/county descriptions here, the parish/townland/barony descriptions leave us totally lost.

The information for Julia's birthplace was supplied by her daughter. As far as we know, John and (H) Ellen did not make the crossing and remained in Ireland. There is mention in some infromation of someone named Cornelius. Maybe she changed her named to Ellen here or there was a transcription error there? Hard to tell, so I guess I'll have to see if I can find more documents here. But you have given me something to go on, probably the closest we've been to tracking her down. It doesn't list a birth location for Helen, so I would assume they were married in the husband John's church? You've given ,me quite a lot to think about. Thank you very much.

Hi Tom,

Just a point of information you may have surmised yourself by now. Many of these old registers are recorded or partially recorded in Latin. Hence Julia is listed as Juliana - likewise a girl named Ellen would be named after St. Helen or Helena  and listing it as Helen would be closer to the Latin. I have known other Irish and Irish American women that used Ellen, Helen, Lena and Nellie all interchangeably.

And from what I can see from what Roger found, it certainly seems like your family. The distance from Castleisland to Firies is only about 8 miles and from Castliesland to Aglish about 12 miles and from Aglish to Firies about 6 miles and from Racommane West to Castleisland about 12 miles so all of the distances were not great. perhaps Ellen Scollard was from Castleisland and hence the baptisms taking place there? just a thought. 

Hope your research is progressing.

Best,

Ed