Mary Ann Sullivan b. 1833 in "Killarney Lakes" Kerry

Do you have any idea of the parish they may have been from? 

Were your ancestors Catholic or another religion?

There are a couple of preliminary links to try but you will be more successful if you have an idea of the parish. 

Irishgenealogy.ie has many records and I have had many successes with Co. Kerry records on that site.  In addition, you may want to check the 1901/1911 National Census of Ireland which may help you locate the parish and other family members who remained in the area.  National Census records are found at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

Griffiths Valuations are the census substitutes for earlier years in Ireland.  Here is the link to Griffith's Valuations of Sullivan's in Killarney but hard to narrow without more information.  http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml?action=doNam…

This may be your ancestor (but hard to tell without more information):  It was found by utilizing irishgenealogy.ie with her name, Co Kerry, and Killarney as the identifiers.

~~

Name
MARY SULLIVAN 

Date of Birth
14 April 1833 (BASED ON OTHER DATE INFORMATION) 

Address
KILLARNEY 

Father
EUGENE SULLIVAN 

Mother
CATHERINE LEARY 

Further details in the record

Father Occupation
NR

Sponsor 1
DANIEL COTTER

Sponsor 2
CATHERINE COTTER

Priest
REV. T. DUNNE

About the record

Book Number

Page

Entry Number

Record_Identifier

7  10  137  KY-RC-BA-309943 

Vicki (midnirdr)

Vicki, I do not know the name of their parish. My great-aunt's notes just said "Killarney Lakes." I'll try running the search you suggested with her other siblings' names and see if they have the same parents listed. Thanks so much for the research tips and lead!

The Sullivans and Sheas were most definitely Catholic. :-) They helped found St. Philip's Catholic Church in Franklin, Tennessee, where they eventually settled.

Off to try some other searches now--many thanks!

~Mary Reagan

Mary,

You are most welcome.  I hope some of the links I provided will aid in your search.  Researching can be frustrating but the reward makes it all worthwhile.

I will be happy to help if you need more assistance.

Vicki (Midnirdr)

Mary,

You are most welcome.

I will be happy to help further if you need it.  Research can be frustrating but the reward makes it all worthwhile.

Vicki (Midnirdr)

Mary,

I find several Mary Sullivan's coming through Canada in the 1850's but without more information, it is hard for me to narrow down.

Some of my ancestors landed first in Halifax Nova Scotia and then came back to the United States via Boston.  Halifax is another area for you to check.  Castlegarden.org is the site for most immigration records in the States pre Ellis Island.  If she came in the 1850's that is the site I would check.  Ellis Island did not open until 1892 (I believe so please double check) so CastleGarden is the site you may want to check for records upon arrival.

Here is a link to 1901 Irish National Census.  Identifiers used were:  Sullivan, Co Kerry, Townland: Lakes of Killarney.  There are not many.  I can't retrieve your other message while typing in this message, I believe you mentioned a John Sullivan.  There is a John Sullivan listed which may be a sibling to your Mary.  If your family followed the Irish Naming Pattern (google search), you may be able to narrow parents names (or at least have ideas of names to look for).  Honora is frequently shortened to Nora or Norie.  In addition, many Irish used their middle name.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?census_year=19…

Vicki, thanks for your further help! I think Castle Island didn't open until 1855, which would be too late for my Mary's arrival--she married Jeremiah C. Shea in Nashville in 1854. I really do think you might have found her baptismal record though, because she and Jerry Shea had a son Eugene, and the Jeremiah Sullivan that I believe was her brother (also in Nashville) had a son Eugene, and I found an Ellen Sullivan Conner in Pennsylvania that also had a son named Eugene.  Annnnddddd (trumpet fanfare): today I found the Tennessee death certificate for the Jeremiah Sullivan that I believe is her brother, and it states his father's name was Eugene Sullivan! The only discrepancy between what you found and the death certficate (reported by his widow, Mary Welch Sullivan) is that his mother's name was recorded as "Deboro Fogarty" on the death certificate. Mary and Jerry Shea did have a daughter named Ellen Deborah.

I plan to do more digging around in the excellent resources you recommended, but today I celebrated your taking down the first Big Brick Wall that separates The Old Country family from the new by writing in EUGENE SULLIVAN on the paper pedigree form an elderly cousin started for me 40 years ago. I've tried to find the parents of the immigrant generation for all those years and just NOW I finally feel confident that I have one of them!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

~Mary of the 21st Century

Mary,

I am so very glad to have helped.  Nothing quite like the feeling of breaking down some brick walls.  Luckily, more information is becoming available.

I must confess that you made my evening!  Bringing families back together, including my own, is a wonderful feeling indeed.  If I can help further let me know!

I will leave with you with a "story" my uncle (who started me in genealogy shared with me):

~~"We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

 Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: "Tell our story". So, we do.

 In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

 It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died, to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.

 It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them.

 So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.

Mary,

I am so very glad to have helped.  Nothing quite like the feeling of breaking down some brick walls.  Luckily, more information is becoming available.

I must confess that you made my evening!  Bringing families back together, including my own, is a wonderful feeling indeed.  If I can help further let me know!

I will leave with you with a "story" my uncle (who started me in genealogy shared with me):

~~"We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

 Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: "Tell our story". So, we do.

 In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

 It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died, to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.

 It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them.

 So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.

Mary,

I am so very glad to have helped.  Nothing quite like the feeling of breaking down some brick walls.  Luckily, more information is becoming available.

I must confess that you made my evening!  Bringing families back together, including my own, is a wonderful feeling indeed.  If I can help further let me know!

I will leave with you with a "story" my uncle (who started me in genealogy shared with me):

~~"We are the chosen. In each family there is one who seems called to find the ancestors. To put flesh on their bones and make them live again. To tell the family story and to feel that somehow they know and approve.

 Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts but, instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the story tellers of the tribe. All tribes have one. We have been called, as it were, by our genes. Those who have gone before cry out to us: "Tell our story". So, we do.

 In finding them, we somehow find ourselves. How many graves have I stood before now and cried? I have lost count. How many times have I told the ancestors, "You have a wonderful family; you would be proud of us." How many times have I walked up to a grave and felt somehow there was love there for me? I cannot say.

 It goes beyond just documenting facts. It goes to who am I and why do I do the things I do. It goes to seeing a cemetery about to be lost forever to weeds and indifference and saying I can't let this happen. The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought, and some died, to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us.

 It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them.

 So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are.

Vicki, thanks for sharing this. :-) That really sums it up. When things go really bad, even for months on end, I only have to think about one of my gggrandmothers. In 1863 her toddler daughter died, my great-grandfather was born, and her husband was conscripted into the Confederate army at the age of 30. All those things happened in the space of three months. They lived in the Cape Fear River area of NC where Sherman's "bummers" freebooted after the march to the sea until the end of the war. When my gggrandfather was released from POW camp at Point Lookout MD, it took some time before he regained full health so she had to keep up with the farming she'd done while he was gone. Remembering Catherine and all she went through, I know that I can put up with whatever difficulties I have, because nothing in my life has been as awful as what she endured.

You know, I feel like I've been working at the Sullivan/Shea/Riley brick walls with a plastic spoon all these years, and you've come along with a chisel and mallet to finally start to knock it down! I really can't thank you enough. I've been doing a little more work trying to track down death certificates for the other Sullivan siblings, but I haven't found them yet.  I access Ancestry.com at the public library but they've been having connection problems. I did find an obit for my great-great aunt that said her parents and grandparents  came from Ireland, and in the 1894 Nashville City Directory, I find E & J Sullivan's grocery store, which cross-referenced to Eugene Sullivan. Now while it could ben Jerry's son Eugene, I'm guessing it's his father Eugene. Once again we gnash our teeth at the missing 1890 census!!!

I hope you have a great year of searching, and that someone is able to assist you with a major discovery, just as you have helped me so very much. :-)

~Mary

Mary,

You are most welcome.  It took me about four years to break down some major walls in my tree too.  I still have some, but I keep looking.  Some I have an idea of the area but not much else because they were most inconsiderate in not naming counties etc. 

I have world ancestry.  If you'd like, send me an email with as much information as you can, and I will have a look for you (vnovaklaw@gmail.com).   It might take me a while to get back to you, but I will.

Familysearch.org is another great resource.  Luckily, they microfilmed many records that would not otherwise be available.  I got my gg grandmothers doctor's death record via their site.  They also have family history centers where you can order parish microfilms.  It is tedious and eye tiring, but, sometimes you can figure out relationships and obtain dates etc from them.

For me, no greater feeling that bringing families back together (including mine) and one of the many reasons I volunteer for IrelandXO.  The great news is that more and more records are becoming available online. 

Vicki