1926..Seventy Five Years Later..2000

A lost letter from home is found

One of the great aunties dies and the family sort through her personal effects. Tucked away in a drawer is an old scrap of paper that reveals itself to be an old letter. It is hard to totally decipher the handwriting and once one starts to read, it is clear why. This is a precious letter that links the Australian family back to its Irish ancestry. Since our last visit to Galway, we can now add some pictures to make the letter come alive.

To Mrs. Bridget Heffernan,
Moore's Pocket. Ipswich Queensland,

Garbally, Ireland.
June 29 1926

Dear Bridget,

Received your welcome letter and am glad to know that your living.

There is many a change in this country since you left. Your sister Winny is dead 16 years and I am an old (man) of 84 years crippled with rheumatism.

All my family, four daughters in America and one boy who died there last April, leaving four children after him. One boy Dennis is living with me. He is married, has 6 in the family. The eldest Pat is in M. Bellew and has a good shop there. He has 6 in family.

( Click on Picture below to see shop today-It was Kenny's and then was sold to become Kelly's-)

Dennis Kenny in Menlogh is very low in health. Might be dead before this reaches you.

His wife is dead, has one son a priest and a daughter
Dsc0875.jpg (59851 bytes) ......a nun,
one teaching in Garbally school,
another in Monlogh,
2 sons teaching in England the oldest daughter has a son a priest.

Now concerning your brother Tom, his family are all gone but two- a boy and a daughter (with)4 boys and a daughter in America, one married girl over in Ryehill. He must go in the back seat he is bossed by his wife.

Your brother Dennis is dead four years, his family are in America, 2 girls married at home, one son married at home, one son died in America. Liddy Mannion is living. Your Aunt Biddy's family are all gone. Pat Laheen is dead, also Mark Fleming. His daughter is married in the house .

(Click on photo below-Nora Fleming's grave at Cloonkeenkerul-she is the "daughter married in the house."

I now conclude am sending you my love and best respects, also to your sister Mary.

I remain your ever good friend T. Kenny

Hoping you will excuse this scribble. My hand trembles.

This is a letter from an Irish friend of Bridget Heffernan, nee Costello, one of the girls who left Ireland and married in Australia. But it is full of mysteries because it refers to members of the family we have not heard of before. Who is "your brother "Tom" and "your sister Winnie" and "your brother Dennis?" Did Thomas and Bridget Costello, Bridget Heffernan's parents, have more children than we have listed on the genealogy? Is Tom and not John the brother that returned from Australia? Or did he not return, and the remnants of the Costello's in Menlough are from the family that stayed?

Coda
If this is the Tom Kenny who is recorded as being a Godparent to Bridget in the Menlough baptism register, then this is a vital link back to the place of origin. What it shows is that the family's children basically all cleared out-that there is no one left. The parents, Bridget's sisters and brothers, are all dead and the children have gone to America. It is the same story for Tom himself, that all his children have gone. One also notices that there is a close connection to the Kenny family.

A note that Sister Kit wrote under a typed letter of the family reads-

"Denis Kenny could be Sr.M.Cecilia's father because Dad lived at Menlough."

What we know is the Kenny's were close to the Menlough Costello's-maybe there was a Kenny-Costello marriage? To see a picture of Sister Cecilia, follow the link.

Menlough Diary 1999

When we showed the folks at Skehennagh this letter, we immediately got some recognition. They all remembered the shop ( which means a pub) it talks about in Mount Bellew. It is still open but no longer in the family. It is now known as Kelly's, we were told.

The mention of Dennis Kenny being sick and the writer not being sure if he would still be alive by the time the letter arrived- that turned out to be true if the cemetery at Menlough, behind Saint Mary's church records the same person. We found a Dennis Kenny who died November 10th 1926 aged 86. He would have been 2 years older than the writer, and presumably a brother. He lasted 5 months from the date of the letter.

People also identified the last person mentioned," Daughter married in the house" as being Honore (Nora) Fleming. When we checked out the Flaherty's, they remembered that Honore's father was indeed Mark Fleming.

Sister Kit, when I called her before our visit, said she remembered being visited by relatives, a couple who were Kenny's when she was young. The other story people told us was that Tom Kenny moved to live in Australia also. His grandfather was Thomas and his father was Dennis. We also learnt about a Mattie Kenny who is related to the family that had the shop in Mount Bellew and he had a brother in Australia. Before we left, Mary Costello gave us the name of Mattie Kenny, now living in Toronto, who is related to the Kenny's of the letter.

And with so many of the families living in America, where are the Costello connections in the USA? Has someone in the family there got interested in their family tree and can fill in some of the gaps. If anyone is out there, we'd love to hear from you.

1926..Seventy Five Years Later..2000

A lost letter from home is found

To Mrs. Bridget Heffernan, Moore's Pocket. Ipswich Queensland,

Menlough Diary 1999

And with so many of the families living in America, where are the Costello connections in the USA? Has someone in the family there got interested in their family tree and can fill in some of the gaps. If anyone is out there, we'd love to hear from you.

To Mrs. Bridget Heffernan,
Moore's Pocket. Ipswich Queensland,