Humphrys genealogy

Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.



Blog

A time-ordered index of updates to the site.


Still to come online

All of my family trees ever are now on this site.
The only research of mine that is not yet online is:



Ongoing - DNA testing

Ongoing DNA testing of me and other family members started in 2019. I am testing with Ancestry, to maximise the number of real people we can connect to, and real lines we can prove.

So far, DNA testing has strongly confirmed, in many different lines, the accuracy of my family tree research. Many lines in the family tree are now DNA proven.


  


Monday, 18 March 2024

  
The re-discovery of the lost Reebkomp portrait, 2023.

Lost for over a century, a "reverse image search" in 2023 re-discovered the lost Reebkomp portrait in America, mis-labelled.

  

A formerly lost portrait of Augustus Montgomery.
Painted maybe around 1783.
It was inherited by the Gibbon family and sold after 1913.
It was then mis-labelled, and lost for a century, before I re-discovered it in 2023.


  
Yeats line updates
  

Day line updates
  


Burial of (my wife's direct ancestor) Francis Sharp, musician, 31 Mar 1783.


  
Stanger updates
  


Marriage of (my wife's direct ancestor) Humphrey Stanger, 30 Nov 1676.


  
Ebrill papers
  



2022

  
Various updates
  


1805 attack on the property of (my direct ancestor)
Jack Hourigan, of Annagh.


  
100 years since the burning of the Four Courts, June 1922.

100 years since core parts of my family history were burnt forever: The real disaster for my family tree was the burning of things that would have solved the Blennerhassett problem:
  • Census records 1821 to 1851 for George Cashel were burnt in 1922. The earlier ones may have had his parents. The 1821 census would be crucial in showing where the teenage George Cashel lived.

  • The majority of the CoI parish records for Co.Kerry. Which may have had (probably did have) George Cashel's baptism. And his parents' baptisms. If we ever found George Cashel's baptism, it would probably solve everything.

  • Many known Blennerhassett wills. And also George Cashel's known will. Some abstracts and full copies survive. For others, it was all lost in 1922.

Destroyed at some unknown point (but maybe destroyed as a consequence of the 1916-23 revolution) was:

There is no real replacement for any of the above.
Nothing destroyed forever my link to earlier Irish history like the 1916-23 revolution.

  

The Public Record Office, Dublin.
Before it was burnt by Irish "patriots" in June 1922.


  

The origin of the name "gibbon" (the ape)
  

Orby tree updates
  


Marriage licence of Elizabeth Horseman and Peter Orby, 4 March 1603.


  
Talk on the Queen's Irish ancestry, Feb 2022

I gave a talk on the Queen's Irish ancestry on 17 Feb 2022. This was part of the Jubilee Talks organised by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Northern Ireland. To mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee (70 years) in 2022.

  


Video of the 1 hour talk.
There is an intro.
Then I start at 1:47.
I finish, and Q and A starts, at 1:04:13.


We made an error in the Q and A:
  • The talk is fine, but in the Q and A at 1:13:30 we went wrong. Seamus Farrell (another speaker in the series) referred to the marriage of the daughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone with Viscount Magennis, which he thought was a Scottish name. And then he considered whether Martin McGuinness was related to these, and had a Scottish name.
  • It sounded right, so I went with it. I mused about other nationalists with Scottish/planter names, like Gerry Adams, and talked a bit about fixating on male lines.
  • But in fact, it is not right. Viscount Magennis is an Irish name. The conclusion is in fact the opposite. Rather than Martin McGuinness having a Scottish name, unionist Ken Maginnis has an old Irish name.
  

Flyer for the talks.
See full size.


  


2021

  
My granduncle had a secret family. Discovered Oct 2021.

  

Entire Humphrys tree now online.
  



For fun, I tried to find how early the surname occurs in Ireland.
The oldest I found is Richard Humphrey, listed at Swords, Co.Dublin, in 1277.
We have no idea if he is a relation, of course.


  
Box of loose Gibbon papers (letters etc.) now entirely scanned.

  

Susan Maltass had a natural son in Paris in 1818.
  

Charlotte Kerr is daughter of William Dicey not Cluer Dicey
  

Updates of Kerr branch
  

The oldest dated item in my family tree

The oldest dated item in my entire family tree (excluding Blennerhassett) is this 1701 Bill.

  


Summary of the 1701 Exchequer Bill.


  
AI animations of old photos and portraits

AI animations of old photos and portraits. Made using Deep Nostalgia at MyHeritage. Uses AI technology from D-ID.


  

AI animation of Blennerhassett Cashel (died 1915).
If only I could have asked him who his grandparents were.





2020


O'Mara are from Clonmel

For decades, we did not know who the father of old James O'Mara was.
In 2020 I proved his father was Peter O'Mara of Clonmel. Before O'Mara came to Limerick, they were in Clonmel, not Toomevara.
The father and the 3 sons lived in 4 different places:



New updates and images
  

The O'Rahilly's house in Herbert Park is demolished, Sept 2020.


  


2020 (earlier)


My grand-aunt's Royal Descent is disproven, May 2020.



Davis line families updates from DNA findings.

Noltie line families updates from DNA findings.

  










Donation Drive

Please donate to support this site. I have spent a great deal of time and money on this research. Research involves travel and many expenses. Some research "things to do" are not done for years, because I do not have the money to do them.
Please Donate Here to support the ongoing research and to keep this website free.

Help       Conventions       Abbreviations       How to read the trees

Privacy policy       Adoption policy       Image re-use policy       New 250 G VPS server.