My family treeThe research I was doing on the Thomond motor car that my grandfather built led slowly but inevitably to researching my family history in general, which I have been doing properly since 1984. I have a large amount of material offline, in particular a set of family trees I produced in 1990-92. Over the next few years I will transfer all this information onto the web. It may take me 10 years to put all my information online onto this website. The blog page shows my future plans for putting the material online.How to read my narrative family trees: The format I am using is a hypertext version of the Burke's Peerage narrative format. Basically, to move around the tree you click on the names in bold.
List of Surnames | Ancestors Chart | Blog
SurnamesI descend from the following families.Ones that are only partially online are marked in green. The others are fully online.
One possible gateway ancestor
My possible connection with the World family tree. Blennerhassett Cashel, descendant of Letitia Blennerhassett, possible descendant of Edward III.
My descent from Letitia Blennerhassett is my possible connection to the World family tree. There is probable evidence that she descends from the main line of Blennerhassett of Co.Kerry, but this remains unproven:
Depending on how the Blennerhassett descent is proved, it may yield further descent from the following families. These will not be done in detail. Rather I will only show enough of the tree that is necessary to highlight and cement my particular lines of descent:
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My possible Royal Descent
There's nothing strange about Royal Descents. In the west, your family tree tends to either (a) end in obscurity after a few generations, or (b) goes on to connect with the vast, inter-connected web of medieval royalty and nobility in Europe, from which millions of people are provably descended. Showing a descent from some key medieval royal figure is simply a convenient way of showing your connection to this vast family tree of the West. My wife has many such Royal Descents. See also Royal Descents of many famous people. I have written on what is the point of genealogy and what is the point of Royal Descents.This is in fact the golden age of genealogy, when you can be born without a Royal Descent, set off to look for one, and finally, triumphantly, connect with the world family tree. In the future, everyone will have a known Royal Descent at birth, which won't be half as much fun. I have been working on the line below since 1985 (when I was age 17). I am close, but the triumphant moment has yet to arrive.
If this chart does not display properly, see help.
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Edward III
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+--------------+----------------------------------------+
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John of Gaunt Edmund Plantagenet
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Joan de Beaufort Constance Plantagenet
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+----------+-------------------------------+ Isabel le Despencer
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1st Earl of Salisbury 3rd Baron Abergavenny Elizabeth Beauchamp
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Alice Neville +----------+------------+
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Elizabeth Fitz-Hugh 4th Baron Abergavenny
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Catherine Vaux Sir Edward Neville, Kt.
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Clement Throckmorton Catherine Neville
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+-------------------------+---------------------------+
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Martha Throckmorton
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George Lynne
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Martha Lynne
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+------------------------+----------------------+
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Robert Blennerhassett John Blennerhassett
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Henry Blennerhassett +----------------+----------+
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Robert Blennerhassett John Blennerhassett Ruth Blennerhassett
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Sir Rowland Blen., William Blennerhassett Mary Blennerhassett
1st Baronet | |
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+-----+--------+ William Blennerhassett Sarah Rowan == Francis Cashell
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Arthur Blen. Sir Robert Blen., Arthur Blennerhassett
died 1839 2nd Baronet |
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Sir Arthur Blen., Arthur Blennerhassett
3rd Baronet of Ballyseedy
died 1849 died 1843
Letitia Blennerhassett Edward Cashel
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+-----+-----------------------------------+
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George Blennerhassett Cashel
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Blennerhassett Cashel
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Agnes Cashel
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Eithne O'Mara
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Richard Humphreys
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Mark Humphrys
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Letitia Blennerhassett of the Killorglin branch
It may be that our Letitia Blennerhassett is identical with Letitia Blennerhassett of the Killorglin branch. If this is the case, we would get the following:|
Edward III
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+--------------+----------------------------------------+
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John of Gaunt Edmund Plantagenet
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Joan de Beaufort Constance Plantagenet
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+----------+-------------------------------+ Isabel le Despencer
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1st Earl of Salisbury 3rd Baron Abergavenny Elizabeth Beauchamp
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Alice Neville +----------+------------+
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Elizabeth Fitz-Hugh 4th Baron Abergavenny
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Catherine Vaux Sir Edward Neville, Kt.
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Clement Throckmorton Catherine Neville
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+-------------------------+---------------------------+
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Martha Throckmorton
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George Lynne
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Martha Lynne
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Robert Blennerhassett == Avice Conway
| descendant of Edward III
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John Blennerhassett
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Robert Blennerhassett
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Rev. John Blennerhassett == Louisa Goddard
| descendant of Edward III
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Letitia Blennerhassett
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George Blennerhassett Cashel
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Blennerhassett Cashel
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Agnes Cashel
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Eithne O'Mara
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Richard Humphreys
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Mark Humphrys
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My relations
If the Blennerhassett descent is proved,
I get several million extra ancestors and blood relations.
See
Our common relations.
- My grandfather:
- Dick Humphreys, fought in the GPO in the Easter Rising 1916.
- My great-grandfather:
- James O'Mara, Home Rule MP, Sinn Fein TD.
- My great-great-grandfather:
- Stephen O'Mara, Parnellite MP.
- My blood relations (i.e. we both descend from a common ancestor):
- The O'Rahilly, the only leader of the 1916 Rising to die in action.
- Liam Cosgrave, prime minister of Ireland (Taoiseach).
- The revolutionary Sighle Humphreys.
- The Gaelic poet Aodhagán Ó Rathaille.
- The scholar T.F. O'Rahilly.
- The scholar Alfred O'Rahilly.
- The scholar Cecile O'Rahilly.
- Joseph O'Mara, the opera singer.
- The practical joker The Bird Flanagan.
- The jockey Fred Winter.
- The pirate radio pioneer Ronan O'Rahilly.
- My blood relations (unproven):
- The Fenian Charles Joseph Kickham (almost certain)
- The poet James Clarence Mangan
- My in-laws:
- What is an in-law? It means they are not a blood relation - there is no common ancestor. Both of you exist on separate trees which are tied at some point by marriage. We define a 1st-order in-law as meaning that there are just 2 separate trees, tied together by one marriage - a blood relation of yours and a blood relation of theirs married. If there were any children, then people exist who are blood relations of both of you in common.
- A 2nd-order in-law would mean there are 3 trees, tied together by 2 marriages, and so on. Allowing n'th-order in-laws, probably anyone on the planet can be connected to anyone else.
- So we will restrict ourselves to listing 1st-order in-laws. And not even all of them - e.g. the entire Royal Houses of Europe are already known 1st-order in-laws of mine (not just that - they are 1st-order in-laws of every single blood relation of mine in all of my family trees). So we will restrict ourselves to much closer sub-categories:
- My grand-uncle:
- W.T. Cosgrave, the first prime minister of Ireland.
- My only proven non-Catholic ancestor:
- It is almost certain that Edward Kickham's father was Charles Kickham, born 1752, Protestant.
- My most recent non-Irish ancestors:
- If Blennerhassett link proven:
- 17th century - I have ancestors in England, Ireland
- English - Martha Lynne left England and moved to Ireland perhaps c.1620.
- 18th century - I have ancestors in Ireland
- 17th century - I have ancestors in England, Ireland
- If Blennerhassett link proven:
James O'Mara, born 1817, Sheriff of Limerick.
Michael Flanagan, born 1833,
Alderman of Dublin.
Richard Rahilly, born 1840,
Justice of the Peace.
Stephen O'Mara, born 1844,
Parnellite MP.
James O'Mara, born 1873,
Home Rule MP, Sinn Fein TD in the First Dail.
"The O'Rahilly", born 1875,
leader of 1916 Rising
and researcher of O'Rahilly family tree
back to 17th cent.
Frank Flanagan, born 1886,
Redmondite Volunteer and
British Army officer in WWI.
Dick Humphreys, born 1896,
rebel in 1916 Rising.
"Stadfadsa feasta - is gar dom éag gan mhoill
ó treascradh dragain Leamhan, Léin is Laoi;
rachad 'na bhfasc le searc na laoch don chill,
na flatha fá raibh mo shean roimh éag do Chríost."
"I will stop now - my death is hurrying near
now that the warriors of the Laune, Lein and Lee are destroyed;
I will follow the beloved among heroes to the grave,
those princes under whom were my ancestors before the death of Christ."
- Deathbed poem (c.1729) of Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granduncle.
