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Johanna's Maternal Grandparents

Johanna’s maternal grandparents were Nicholas Fahy and Johanna O’Neill.

Nicholas Fahy

The Fahys lived in Kilmanahin adjacent to Jamestown. As the eldest son, Nicholas lived in the family home and inherited it after his father died.

The first official record we have for Nicholas Fahy is his marriage to Johanna O’Neill on 12 February 1839 in Owning church. He was part of a large Fahy family well established in the area, described in the next section. Nicholas leased 22 statute acres in Kilmanahin from the Earl of Bessborough at the time of the Griffith valuation[1] in 1849.

His death on 24th April 1879 indicated that he was 77 years old, so he was born about 1802. The death is also recorded on the family headstone in Owning churchyard (right).

Johanna O'Neill

Nicholas’ wife Johanna was baptised on 12th November 18101. The O’Neill family were from Owning village, so she was probably baptised in Owning church. Owning village was a model village on the Bessborough estate, similar to, but smaller than Piltown. Owning is adjacent to Kilmanahin where the Fahys lived. To put the map in perspective, it is about 5km from Owning to Piltown.

The layout of Owning is largely unchanged today as can be seen in photographs of the same spot taken around 1908 (left) and 2020 (right). When Johanna O’Neill was baptised, John Fahy (her future father-in-law) was one of her sponsors, showing that there were close links between the families.

Johanna and Nicholas Fahy had six children. Johanna outlived Nicholas by 18 years and died on 11 March 1897 at the age of 87.

Johanna Phelan's Maternal Uncles and Aunts

We have records for all the six children born to Nicholas and Johanna Fahy. Anastatia was Johanna’s mother. The other children were Mary, Margaret, John, Mary and Thomas. The first Mary died young, John and Thomas remained at the family farm in Kilmanahin, the second Mary married a local man and lived nearby. Margaret emigrated to Canada and was married there in 1861. Their stories follow.

Margaret

Margaret (pictured right) was born on 14th September 1842. She emigrated to North America, arriving in Newfoundland about 1861. She married a young man, William Ready, from her home village of Owning, in the Catholic Church in St John’s, Newfoundland on 19th May 1861. The witnesses at their wedding were John Ready and Johannah Phelan of St John’s. Based on the last names, it is likely they were relatives of Margaret and William.

Margaret had eight children between 1862 and 1880. Mary, Johanna, Ellen and Anne were all born in Newfoundland. The family then moved to Newburyport in Massachusetts where Margaret, John, William and Harriet were born.

The family are recorded in the 1880 census where William’s occupation is listed as a labourer.

Margaret died on 25 April 1904 of typhoid fever.

William continued to live in Newburyport until he died in 1923.

Five of the Ready children died relatively young, and before their father. John and William died in their 30s and Ellen, Anne and Margaret in their 40s so times must have been tough. The remaining three, Mary, Johannah and Harriet lived into their 80s. Most of the family remained in the Newburyport area, and seem to have kept close connection. Census records (up to 1940) show the families living with each other at various times over that period. The children’s story will be covered in more detail separately.

John

John Fahy was born on 3 March 1845 and he married Margaret Browne from nearby Ardclone on 30 January 1879.

Shortly after they were married his father Nicholas died on 24th April 1879 and John, as eldest son, inherited the family farm. John and Margaret had nine children between 1880 and 1895.

All their children were at home at the time of the census in 1901, except for Margaret, who would have been about 20 years old. By 1911 only Nicholas, Alice, and Patrick, were at home. John Fahy died of Bright’s disease on 5 September 1923 at home and Margaret died ten years later. Their son Nicholas, inherited the farm, married Mary Foley, had a family and remained at Kilmanahin for the rest of this life. Not a lot is known about the rest of the family – their details are too recent for records to be freely available.

Mary

The second Mary Fahy was born in 1847 and lived throughout her life in the local area. She married Patrick Phelan from the Avenue, Ballynametagh on 20 February 1873. They had seven children.

Their eldest daughter Mary married Michael Wall in Piltown in 1901. The eldest son Michael inherited the family farm, married and had at least one son. Margaret married John Hennebery, from nearby Ballglassoon, in Owning church in 1915. While searching the records, the author came across a court record where John Hennebery had to have his father committed as a “dangerous lunatic” in 1913 – poor man was about 70 years old and possibly suffering from dementia. He was committed to the Kilkenny lunatic asylum – different times!

The other four children all emigrated to the USA, settling in Staten Island and New Jersey. There the family name spelling changed to “Whalen”, reflecting how the name was pronounced in South Kilkenny. Nicholas married and had a family. His obituary tells us that Johanna, Catherine and Statia were living in New Jersey in 1953 and only Johanna was married. Note that his date of birth on the gravestone (1881) would appear to be incorrect, as his baptismal certificate, the authoritative source, says 1877. No further details have been found to date.

Thomas

Thomas was born 22 October 1849. He did not get married and remained living at home with his brother John. His death record on 21 September 1911 indicates that he had been hemiplegic for nine months, suggesting that he may have had an accident. He is also remembered on the family headstone in Owning.