My ancestors - Cashel - Contents

Cashel of Co.Kerry

The "Blennerhassett problem"

The "Holy Grail" of my family tree research has always been the Blennerhassett problem.
This is the mystery of how we connect through George Cashel (born 1807) to the landed gentry Blennerhassett family of Kerry. The family story is that a Miss Blennerhassett ran away with a Mr. Cashel and they were the parents of George Cashel.

In 2020, I finally proved using DNA that George Cashel descends somehow from the Blennerhassett Baronets branch.
See Proof of our descent from the Blennerhassett Baronets family for the details. We know some descent exists from that family, but we do not know the details.

In the meantime, we have two other lines of evidence. We have discovered George Cashel is closely related to the O'Connell family of Co.Kerry. And we have discovered some evidence that he may be from the Stephen Cashel family of Tralee. We now have a mountain of clues and hints, but not the final answer. It remains to be seen how these three lines of evidence fit together.

The Pat Lavelle story

The following is the family story as written in the Papers of Patricia Lavelle.
Pat says that the mother of George Cashel was a "Letitia Blennerhassett". She ran away, married a Mr. Cashel, and they were parents of George Cashel.
We think this story is unlikely, for various reasons:

We have no candidate for "Letitia Blennerhassett".
There is not even a female candidate of another name in the Baronets family. It is probably a male in that family who is our ancestor, and probably a natural child, not a runaway marriage.
In fact we suspect the name "Letitia" came from the Tralee stained glass window and is an error.
George Cashel has no Cashel relations. He has no siblings, no parents, no cousins appearing at any event in his life. No other Cashel appears in his life. If Mr. Cashel ran away with a Miss Blennerhassett, would they not have had other children? Would a parent not somehow appear in George's life? Even if it was Miss Cashel having an affair with a Mr. Blennerhassett, should George not still have Cashel relations?
We are sceptical that George even is a Cashel. His descendants do not DNA match anyone with a Cashel ancestor. We have done a huge amount of DNA testing of his descendants. Surely, if either his father or mother was Cashel, there would be some DNA match found by now who had a Cashel ancestor.

For what it is worth, Pat Lavelle's version is as follows:

Edward Cashel,
or Edward George Cashel [PAT/13, no.2-3],
or George Edward Cashel [PAT/13, no.6],
or George Philip Cashel [PAT/10, p.3].
He was Catholic.
He married Letitia Blennerhassett.
She was Protestant.
It was a runaway marriage. The family story is she ran away with a Catholic and was disinherited.
She became a Catholic herself.
They had issue:
1. George Cashel.

The notes of Pat Lavelle show the mother of George Cashel as a Letitia Blennerhassett.
We do not think any of this is true.

The Stephen Cashel family

DNA points to an origin for George Cashel in the Blennerhassett Baronets family and the O'Connell family.
But a further strand of documentary evidence points to the Stephen Cashel family of Tralee.
There is a George Cashel, baptised 1808, in that family. This could be our George.
See Evidence of descent from Stephen Cashel family for the evidence that our George Cashel is from this family.
There are many questions:

Can we prove this George is our George?
If our George's parents were Blennerhassett and O'Connell, how is he found in this family? Maybe he is adopted?
If this is our George, how does the Blennerhassett Baronets DNA fit in? This George is grandson of a Catherine Blennerhassett, born around 1760, of an unknown branch. So that might be the link to the Blennerhassett Baronets family. Maybe the irregular child is not George, but is further back. George is a biological child of Stephen and Agnes.
How does the O'Connell DNA fit in?
Why does no one from this family ever turn up in the life of our George Cashel?

We start with:

Stephen Cashel,
or Cashell.
He was a linen draper, of Tralee.
He married in 1803 to Agnes Noonan, whose mother was a Blennerhassett.

Our George Cashel

As discussed above, the origin for our George Cashel remains unclear.

We have proof that our George Cashel descends from Robert Blennerhassett and Frances Yielding, parents of the 1st Baronet.
Hence George is a descendant of Edward III and Aoife MacMurrough and Brian Boru.
Through what line he descends from Robert and Frances is not clear.
We also have evidence that our George may come from the Stephen Cashel family of Tralee, whether by biology or by adoption. But this is not proved.

We start with:

George Cashel,
born 1807, Co.Kerry, according to RIC records.
Since he retired 1 Feb 1867, maybe this was at age 60 and maybe he was born around 1 Feb 1807.
We suspect however he is the "George Cashell" baptised 24 July 1808 in Tralee, Catholic, son (maybe adoptive son) of Stephen Cashel and Agnes Noonan.
RIC records list him as Catholic.
Also written "George Blennerhassett Cashel".
Also written "George S. Cashel". We suspect this is "Stephen" and is from his (biological or adopted) father Stephen Cashel.
See George Cashel's middle name.
He was a policeman.

Spelling of surname

The surname is also found written as "Cashell", but "Cashel" is what was standardised on by our family.

George Cashel is spelled "Cashel" in most records, but he is "Cashell" in Disciplinary action in 1829, land records in 1850s, Petty Sessions in 1850s-1860s and land records in 1860s.
If he is son of Stephen Cashel, that family is spelt both "Cashel" and "Cashell".
George's son William Henry Cashel is spelled "William Henry Cashell" in a newspaper of 1869.
After 1870 the spelling in the family is always "Cashel".

George Cashel's middle name

George Cashel is normally written with no middle name.
He is "George Cashel" or sometimes "George Cashell".
But he does appear during his life as "George Blennerhassett Cashel" and "George S. Cashel".
[PAT/13, no.6] also lists him as "George Edward Cashel", but this is long after his death and may be inaccurate.

What could "S" stand for?

Sometimes he is "George S. Cashel". What male names begin with S?

Stephen. This is our top suspect. We suspect that Stephen Cashel is the (biological or adopted) father of George Cashel. Hence his middle name.
Samuel. A name in one branch of Blennerhassett. The 1st Baronet's uncle. A little distant from where we think we fit in.
Simon. A name in the Yielding family.

Why did George not always use "Blennerhassett" in his name?

George named his son "Blennerhassett" Cashel. It would be useful to your career to carry the name of a great family, and claim you were a cousin.
But it is interesting that George almost never uses "Blennerhassett" in his own name. Why not? Would it not be useful for his career too?
Maybe for him, his origin as an irregular child (if that is what he was) was too close and too embarrassing. He might be called a "bastard" if he was a natural child. Whereas for his son it would be far less embarrassing.

"George Blennerhassett Cashel" on marriage cert of his son Blennerhassett Cashel in 1869.
See full size.

"George S. Cashel" sponsors the baptism of (his grandson) Willie Cashel in 1875.

Death notice of "George S. Cashel" in Irish Times, Fri 23 June 1882.

Death notice of "George S. Cashel" in Freeman's Journal, 23 June 1882.

[PAT/13, no.6] lists him as "George Edward Cashel", but this is written long after his death and may be wrong.

Real Gaelic descents v. Imaginary Gaelic descents

Some fictional Gaelic genealogy about Cashel from Pat Lavelle in [PAT/4].
She refers to her grandfather Blennerhassett Cashel.
Pat was fascinated by old Gaelic Ireland, but ironically, she could not see that Blennerhassett, not Cashel, or O'Mara, or any other family, was the only line that would give her a real descent from medieval and Gaelic Ireland.

The claimed descent of Blennerhassett Cashel from the Kings of Cashel is imaginary.
However, Blennerhassett Cashel descends for real from the Blennerhassett family of Co.Kerry.
In 2020, after 35 years of research, I proved that he descends from Henry Blennerhassett of Annaghgarry, Co.Kerry (died before 1728).
Henry Blennerhassett's mother and grandmother and great-grandmother all have proven descents from Aoife MacMurrough (who married Strongbow in 1171) and Brian Boru, High King of Ireland (died 1014). Every step in the descents is proven.
It took me 35 years to prove our descent from Brian Boru. But if Pat's grandfather had only ignored that old man and written down who his own grandparents were, I could have had a descent from Brian Boru my whole life.

There is another link to Irish nationalism: Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett, MP, the famous Home Rule MP elected in 1872.
Pat Lavelle was aware of Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett, MP, and talks about his famous victory for Home Rule in [PAT/12, p.14-15]. But she does not write down our link to him.
According to my theory of our descent, George Cashel was a reasonably close relation of his. He could even be his uncle, if Rowland of Kells was father of George Cashel.

The Cashell family (that descends from Rowan and Blennerhassett)

Miscellaneous Cashels

References

Papers of Patricia Lavelle

Connection to Stack:
- My grandmother Eithne O'Mara thought our Cashels were somehow related to Stack of Listowel, Co.Kerry. No evidence for this has been found.
Connection to Ledwidge:
- There was a story that the poet Francis Ledwidge is somehow related to our Cashels. No evidence for this has been found.
- See Francis Ledwidge: A Life of the Poet, by Alice Curtayne, 1972.
- Francis Ledwidge was born 1887, Slane, Co.Meath, the son of Patrick Ledwidge [born 1840], a migrant labourer, and his wife Anne Lynch [born 1850, dau of Nicholas Lynch, of Slane].