The celt unites longlost relatives from cavan and cork
The publication in The Anglo-Celt of a letter to the editor in February, searching for Kellys in Cavan had a happy follow-up last week when the Kelly family from Cork was united with the Kellys and Smiths from Cavan in the Derragarra Inn.
John Kelly from Blarney in Cork, who penned the original letter, travelled with his wife Pat to the county last week to meet their long-lost Cavan relatives - Kitty Smith and her family from Redhills and other Kelly cousins from the Butlersbridge and Ballinagh areas.
A delighted John told the Celt that there was always a question mark on his side of the family.
“Where did our people come from originally?”
The general consensus was that they emanated from somewhere in Kerry or maybe Ulster.
He put in two years’ researching in Cork and Kerry to try to find out “the answer to the million dollar question”.
A vital piece of the jigsaw then led his search to Cavan. “I then got a clue that my great grandfather’s origin was traced to Cavan. An RIC form he filled out at 18 years of age surfaced and it stated that his county of origin was Cavan.”
John then got onto Cavan Genealogy and, following their research, discovered that his great great grandfather was a man by the name of Felix Kelly. John was initially happy to have traced the Cork line of the Kellys back to Cavan. It wasn’t until a few years later that John yearned to find out if he had any relatives still in Cavan. it was then that he had the brainwave of writing a letter to the editor of The Anglo-Celt in February of this year.
The letter was published and a few days later he got an email from a Kitty Smith who thought she might be connected and, coincidentally, she was doing a family tree of the Cavan Kellys.
Her research went back as far as a Felix Kelly and his father was James. There were two sons – one was Bernard. It was from Bernard that John’s line was descended, as are Kitty Smith and her family.
“Only for the letter in the Celt, Kitty Smith would not have found me or known that I even existed. I was basically asking the question, have I any descendants that I have not met? It all happened very fast, thanks to The Anglo-Celt,” said John.
When Bernard Kelly joined the RIC he was sent to Kerry and then to Thurles and married a North Tipperary woman by the name of Mary Mulfahy. He was later stationed in County Cork and his son James is John’s grandfather. He is buried in Weymouth. James’ son Denis is John’s father.
An accountant by profession, John is a big supporter of the St Finbarr’s hurlers in Cork. He has operated his own accountancy firm since 1981 and has a family of eight.
The missing link
Kitty told us that she emailed John after seeing the letter in the Celt.
“Then I researched who my grandfather’s father was and got his baptismal cert and found out his parents’ names and then learned that it was one of the names John had,” she said.
“My great great grandfather and John’s great grandfather were brothers,” explained Kitty.
“My grandfather Felix Kelly was an only child, so we never had any relations on his side – so it is nice to realise now that we have,” added Kitty.
Another cousin of John’s, Sean Kelly, well known for playing the bagpipes in Cavan and beyond, told us that he had played in Cork never knowing he had cousins there.
“I’ll have to head for Blarney now and kiss the Blarney Stone,” quipped Sean. He highlighted the fact that the names Felix and Sean have carried on in the Kelly clan since the 1800s.
If you have a letter to the editor, please email it to linda@anglocelt.ie or in the usual way to Station House, Cavan. Please provide contact details to verify the authenticity of letters. Simply state if you want them withheld.