I married into the Kearney family almost thirty years ago, and since that time, I have been researching this family. Let me tell you it has been very slow going! First of all, my husband did not know his Kearney side of the family. This was due to the fact that his parents separated when he was an infant, and the adults involved in this generation basically had nothing to do with each other. As a child, my husband asked questions, but sensed it was a painful time in his mother’s life that she did not want to discuss. Enter the genealogist.
My mother-in-law knew how much I enjoyed family research. Over the years she would tell me stories about her family, so she was not taken aback when I asked about the Kearneys. And seeing as over thirty years had passed, she was ready to tell me what she knew…which honestly was not a lot; his parent’s first names (but not grandma’s maiden name) and the state where her ex-husband was born. However, as I was asking questions, she remembered that a few months after she and her husband separated, his father died and she attended the funeral. So she knew exactly where his family was buried. A phone call to the cemetery gave me the full names and birth/death dates of my husband’s grandparents. Folks I knew I could find in censuses! Woohoo!
Back then genealogical databases did not have a lot of information and often were rather clunky to use. Bit by bit, and over many years, I pieced together a rather full tree for the Kearneys, but knew very little about their life before they came to the US from Ireland in the late 1800s. Obituaries in Chicago newspapers filled in some of the siblings of my husband’s great-grandfather, Cornelius Kearney. It seemed they came from County Kerry as it appeared there are baptism records (and digitized on FamilySearch), but some of the dates were off. This lead me to question what I was finding, plus in all the United States records where Cornelius Kearney appears he says he was from County Cork. Within the last year or so, I not only found through document research, more of Cornelius’s siblings…. the ones who either died young, or never relocated to the United States, but I found Irish census records that show the family in County Cork. Cornelius’ youngest sibling was born there when Cornelius was about ten years old. Which means that when Cornelius was asked where he came from…. he said correctly, he came from County Cork.
Irish research is tricky. I am extremely lucky to have found records on this family. Lack of Irish records is largely due to Ireland’s Civil War, as the country’s archives were destroyed. This means Irish records are spotty, and often a researcher must rely on records at the village/city or county level; records like land records, dog license applications, etc.
Very recently, I decided to look at DNA to see if I could expand the Kearney line. Both my sons have taken Ancestry DNA and my husband 23 and Me DNA. Looking at their matches and figuring out how they fit into the family tree, I’ve been able to learn more about Cornelius’ siblings who stayed in Ireland…marriage, children (‘cause they are the DNA descendants who took a test) and from their trees I found the death date for some of these siblings. I should note that originally I found Cornelius was one of five siblings who came to the United States. Kerry church records show he was one of twelve children, one who died young.
The DNA also showed me a genealogical match to a Kearney branch who moved to New Zealand. Interestingly, someone from this branch reached out to me a few years ago. She had a theory that her great-uncle Patrick Kearney, married his cousin, Anna Kearney (Cornelius’ sister). She wondered what I had on my branch and if there was any truth that could prove her theory. Today I know that answer. My sons share DNA with this woman…. as well as another woman who is a second cousin to the lady from New Zealand. This shows that Patrick Kearney and Anna Kearney were cousins! When Patrick’s father married a second time, he listed the name of his father as Patrick…and Cornelius and Anna also have a brother Patrick. Further exploration is need with this line. One technique I did was to make a spreadsheet to record all the baptisms of Cornelius and his siblings, but I included the names of all the sponsors, hoping this will give some clues to other family members.
Kearney DNA is also showing me relatives to Cornelius’ mother, Catherine Curtin’s family. Although I have not proven any line, it appears Catherine has relatives…either brothers or a father named Cornelius Curtin and Laurence Curtin. Catherine named two of her sons: Cornelius Curtin Kearney (my husband’s great grandfather) and Laurence Curtin Kearney.
You can see that by using DNA records one can grow a family tree, and not just find a missing DNA relative. I can see this is the start of something promising, but it is going to need a lot more research to prove anything. But I am up to it!
Laurie L. Kearney 