My family tree

I have been researching my family tree since 1984, though really this started in 1983 when I started researching the history of the Thomond motor car that my grandfather built.

How to read my narrative family trees: The format I am using is a hypertext version of the Burke's Peerage format. To move around the tree you click on the structural links.

Surnames

I descend from the following families.

Humphrys (or Humphreys) of Co.Limerick and Co.Tipperary

Flanagan line:

Flanagan of Co.Dublin
Collins of Crumlin, Co.Dublin
Walsh
Maguirk

Stack line:

Stack of Co.Kerry
Moore of Co.Kerry
O'Callaghan of Co.Kerry
Carmody of Co.Kerry

O'Mara line:

O'Mara of Limerick city (formerly of near Clonmel, Co.Tipperary)
Casey of Clogheen, near Clonmel, Co.Tipperary
Foley of Limerick city

Pigott line:

Pigott of Limerick city
Ebrill of Limerick city
Gould of Limerick city

Cashel line:

Cashel (or Cashell) of Co.Kerry
Kickham of Mullinahone, Co.Tipperary
Armstrong
Lyons

O'Rahilly line:

O'Rahilly (or Rahilly, or O'Rahilly "Fionn", or The O'Rahilly) of Sliabh Luachra (and Ballylongford and Dublin)
O'Donoghue of Co.Kerry
O'Sullivan (or Sullivan) of Meentoges, Co.Kerry
McEllistrem of Ballylongford, Co.Kerry
McCarthy of Ardfert, Co.Kerry

Mangan line:

Mangan of Shanagolden, Co.Limerick
Nolan of Waterpark, Shanagolden, Co.Limerick
Donovan of Lisgordan, Shanagolden, Co.Limerick

Ryan line:

Ryan (Ryan "Tim" or Ryan "Cadea") of Newross, Co.Tipperary
Hourigan of Co.Limerick

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

The history of the Thomond motor car

One gateway ancestor

My connection with the World family tree.
Blennerhassett Cashel, son of George Cashel, descendant of Edward III.

My ancestor George Cashel is my connection to the family tree of the West and my link to millions of other people. I became aware in 1985 of George Cashel's possible Blennerhassett ancestry. But it took until 2020 to prove it. For years, clues in documents suggested various possibilities for our Blennerhassett descent. But no proof was found. In 2020, DNA testing finally proved that we descend from the Blennerhassett Baronets branch.

See Proof of our descent from Blennerhassett for the proof that we descend from the Blennerhassett Baronets branch. I call it as proved that my ancestor George Cashel (born 1807) descends from Robert Blennerhassett (died 1765) and his wife Frances Yielding. Nothing else explains the DNA. That we descend from this family is proven, but the exact descent is unproven. It remains to prove this from paper, to confirm from paper records what the DNA says must exist.

This yields descent from the following families:

Blennerhassett of Co.Kerry

Yielding line:

Yielding (or Yeilding) of Tralee, Co.Kerry, and Belview, Co.Limerick
Bateman of Co.Kerry

Crumpe line:

Crumpe of Co.Kerry
Orpen of Co.Kerry

Conway line:

Conway of Castle Conway, Killorglin, Co.Kerry
Ryeves
Spring of Lavenham, Suffolk, and of Co.Kerry
Tuchet
Herbert [actually part of our common family tree]

The only Irish line:

Browne of Awney, Co.Limerick

Lynne line:

Lynne of Southwick Hall, Northamptonshire
Knyvet of Southwick Hall, Northamptonshire
Kirkham of Northamptonshire
Montagu of Boughton, Northamptonshire
Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire [actually part of our common family tree]
Forrest of Morborne, Huntingdonshire

Martindale line:

Martindale of West Newton, Cumberland

And further descent from:

Many other families that my wife also descends from.
I have separated these as our common family tree.
These include a Royal Descent.

Abandoned families

For some years I pursued the theory that we might descend from Letitia Blennerhassett of Tarbert. I looked at the following families because they are Letitia's ancestors.

In 2020, I discovered that we descend from a different Blennerhassett branch and not from Letitia. Instead of deleting this work, I leave it up as a service to others.

Finding the new Blennerhassett descent meant abandoning 9 percent of this website.
Overall, I had to abandon or edit 27 percent of this website.
You can search for all abandoned lines.

Abandoned families

Letitia Blennerhassett of Tarbert descends from these families:

Goddard of Wiltshire
Beale
Smith of Tidworth House, Hampshire
Mullins of Burnham House, Co.Kerry
Stoughton
Nugent, Baron Delvin
Fitzgerald of Dunmaniheen, Killorglin, Co.Kerry.
Leader
Cross
Eveleigh
Caldwell
Boyle

Abandoned families (may come back)

Letitia Blennerhassett of Tarbert also descends from the following families. However, these ones may not be abandoned forever. These families are also ancestors of Sarah Rowan, wife of Francis Cashell. If I descend from that Cashell family, then these families come back as my ancestors. For now they are abandoned:

Rowan of Co.Kerry
Dunlop
Denny of Tralee Castle, Co.Kerry
Roper, Viscount Baltinglass
Harrington
Champernowne

My Royal Descent

Proven Royal Descents in my family tree

Branch of my tree	Person with Royal Descent	Through what line	From most recent monarch	Status of descent
Humphrys	Elizabeth Gibbon	Augustus Reebkomp	Edward III	Proven
Flanagan	Tom Jacomb	English nobility	Henry VII	Proven
Ebrill	Matt de Courcy	MacDonnell	Edward I	Proven
O'Mara	Count Johann Herbert of Herberstein	Austrian nobility	Edward III	Proven. Though marriage had no issue.

Unproven Royal Descents in my family tree

Branch of my tree	Person with possible Royal Descent	Through what line	From most recent monarch	Status of descent
Cashel	George Cashel	Blennerhassett Baronets	Edward III	DNA says proven. But documentary proof needed.
O'Mara	Dr. Alec Spain	Colclough	Edward III	Unproven. Seems unlikely.
O'Mara	Dr. Michael Rynne	MacNamara	Edward I	Unproven
Humphrys	John Lloyd	Burgh	Edward I	Unproven
O'Rahilly	Edward Wren	Blennerhassett	Edward III	Unproven
O'Rahilly	Aileen O'Connell	Blennerhassett	Edward III	Proven Royal Descent. But not proven related to us.
Ebrill	Frances Mary Croker	Croker	Edward I	Proven Royal Descent. But not proven related to us.

My relations

My ancestors

My grandfather:
- Dick Humphreys, fought in the GPO in the Easter Rising 1916.
- Frank Flanagan, British Army officer in WWI.
My great-grandfather:
- James O'Mara, Home Rule MP, Sinn Fein TD, Member of the First Dail.
- Michael Flanagan, Alderman of Dublin.
My great-grandmother:
- Nell Rahilly, Urban Councillor.
My great-great-grandfather:
- Stephen O'Mara, Parnellite MP.
- Richard Rahilly, Justice of the Peace.
- James Humphrys, Poor Law Guardian.
My great-great-great-grandfather:
- James O'Mara, High Sheriff of Limerick.
The first non-Catholic ancestor I found (before I found the Blennerhassett link):
- Charles Kickham, born 1752, Protestant.

My blood relations

My blood relations (i.e. we both descend from a common ancestor):
- Liam Cosgrave, prime minister of Ireland (Taoiseach).
- The practical joker The Bird Flanagan.
- The jockey Fred Winter.
- Joseph O'Mara, the opera singer.
- The Sinn Fein activist and County Councillor, Alice Cashel.
- The Fenian Charles Joseph Kickham.
- Farmers' Party TD Michael Heffernan.
- Thomas Crean, Irish winner of the Victoria Cross.
- Paddy Crean, father of stage combat.
- The O'Rahilly, the only leader of the 1916 Rising to die in action.
- The Gaelic poet Aodhagán Ó Rathaille.
- The scholar T.F. O'Rahilly.
- The scholar Alfred O'Rahilly.
- The scholar Cecile O'Rahilly.
- The pirate radio pioneer Ronan O'Rahilly.
- Richard Johnson, President of the High Court.
- The revolutionary Sighle Humphreys.
- Leader of the Workers' Party, Tomás Mac Giolla.
My blood relations (unproven):
- The poet James Clarence Mangan.
- The Gaelic poet Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin.
- John Joe Rice, TD
My grand-uncle (by marriage):
- W.T. Cosgrave, the first prime minister of Ireland.

My relations through the Blennerhassett link

My direct ancestors through the Blennerhassett link:
- Sir John Knyvet, Lord Chancellor of England 1372-1377.
- John Knyvet, MP 1397.
- Sir John Knyvet, MP 1421.
- Miles Forest, one of the killers of the "Princes in the Tower" in 1483.
- Thomas Spring, one of the richest men in England (died 1523).
- Piers Conwy, Archdeacon of St. Asaph up to 1532.
- Sir Edward Montagu, Lord Chief Justice of England 1539-1545.
- Thomas Blennerhassett, MP 1584-1588.
- Capt. Thomas Spring, MP 1585-1586. High Sheriff of Kerry 1592.
- Robert Blennerhassett, MP 1613 and 1634.
- John Blennerhassett, High Sheriff of Kerry 1640-1641. Captain in Cromwellian army. MP 1661-1666.
- Major Rowland Bateman, Cromwellian officer. High Sheriff of Kerry 1669.
- Capt. Robert Blennerhassett, Captain in Cromwellian army. High Sheriff of Kerry 1682.
My blood relations through the Blennerhassett link:
- Lots of people. I might construct a summary at some point.

My most recent non-Irish ancestors

All of these are through the Blennerhassett link.

Spring in Suffolk up to around the 1570s.
Herbert of Wales up to maybe around the 1570s.
Conway in Wales and London up to 1583.
Blennerhassett in Cumberland up to 1590.
Lynne of Northamptonshire up to around 1620.
Bateman in England up to maybe 1649.
Yielding in probably England up to about 1650.
Orpen in Dorset up to maybe c.1661.

Southwick Hall, Northamptonshire.
My most recent identifiable non-Irish ancestral home.
Martha Lynne left there around 1620 to marry and move to Ireland (where her aunt already was).

The beautiful Gold Hill in Shaftsbury, Dorset.
Robert Orpen lived somewhere in Shaftsbury town (not necessarily on Gold Hill).
He died in 1645. His son is found in Ireland c.1661.
The (unidentified) Orpen house in Shaftsbury may be my actual most recent non-Irish ancestral home.

My father's family had a telephone in 1898.

My mother's family had a telephone in 1905.

"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 (est c.1730) of Aodhagán Ó Rathaille, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granduncle.