Posted By:	Liz Dow
	Email:
	Subject:	Re: KEARNEY - Limerick to Australia
	Post Date:	February 27, 2008 at 22:12:20
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/kearney/messages/1253.html
	Forum:	Kearney Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/kearney/

Dear Margaret, I have seen your post over and over again. I really did not think there could be a connection with our families, but I am more than happy to let you know what I know. My 3x great grandfather was John Kearney. He was born in either 1806 or 1819 in Limerick. He was Roman Catholic. There are several reasons for the discrepancy in the years he could have been born. In every census I have for him here in the US, he tells us his age and it always comes up with 1806. And also his headstone says he died at the age of 68 in 1874. However, last year I was fortunate to locate his Declaration of Citizenship to the state of Maine from 1847! In this declaration, he tells us that he was born in 1819 in Glin, Limerick Ireland. It also says that he left Ireland in 1842 and landed in Saint John N.B. In the spring of 1843, he moved to Sidney Maine and finally settled in Yarmouth, Cumberland Maine in 1847. He gave his account to a lawyer in Portland Maine. Several people have told me that he probably lied about the year he was born because the Irish were generally uneasy around lawyers and such. This explanation seemed perfectly reasonable to me. In going over immigration and ships list, I have only found one John Kearney who came to Saint John in 1833-34. When I posted a query on the Saint John’s board, someone told me he may have come over twice, once in 1834 and again in 1842. Living on the Shannon River, it could have been a possibility. John married Mary Scanlon at some point. Mary was born in 1817 in Ireland. I only know that her father’s name was John Scanlon. There are many Scanlon/Scanlan families living in the Kilfergus Parish, Shanid Barony area. So once again I am guessing that they married in Limerick. I did find a John and Mary Kearney living in Scotland in 1841 with their corresponding birthdates with a child James, a newborn baby. They disappeared after that. It is once again possible that John and Mary moved to Scotland and then onto Canada in 1842. Unfortunately, if John and Mary did have a baby James, he did not survive. John and Mary went onto have three living children. They are Mary born @1847, Nellie b. 1849-50 (aka. Ellen), and Joseph born 1851 (my 2x great grandfather). Abington is not that far from Glin. Perhaps our families are connected somehow. Please feel free to contact me directly. Warm Regards, Liz juliegoolyyarmouth at yahoo dot com