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Emailed Treasure

A few weeks ago I was emailed by a Ben Macauley who had found my blog post on 'The Misfortunes of the Hulleys' (https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-misfortunes-of-hulleys.html). Ben is descended from Mary Hulley, a daughter of Trafalgar pioneers Patrick and Catherine Kenny. Patrick and Catherine are 2x great grandparents to us both, which makes me and Ben 3rd cousins. Mary Hulley had four children, the youngest of which, Mary Kathleen, was Ben's grandmother. Mary K had been raised from a young age by her aunt Lexie O'Loughlin (another of the Kennys' children) and as a result Ben's family had never really known much about her older brothers, so was especially grateful to learn about them.

Fast forward to this week, and Ben contacted me to say that amongst a selection of scanned images from his dad, there was one in which he hadn't been able to identify who was featured. But after seeing my blog posts (specifically the one in which Patrick Kenny is pictured, ie. https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/08/horsewhipping-whiskey-and-jug-through.html) he now believed this photo showed Patrick and his family. Upon viewing it, lo and behold, there was no doubt it was indeed Patrick, his face matches the image in the blog post exactly! He poses comfortably, together with what can only be presumed is his wife Catherine and six children. I find it a bit of a thrill to see a photo of a direct ancestor for the first time, and I had always been curious about Catherine - with her maiden name of Phelan I like to call her the Phelan on the 'wrong' side of the tree. Discoveries like this come along so rarely in family history research, they really are precious moments to savour.

It took a short while to determine who was who in the photo, given that I knew the Kennys actually had seven children and that meant one child was missing from the photo. Their son John died tragically in 1888 aged just 11 (https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/09/john-kennys-horrible-death.html), but their seventh and youngest child, Patrick Edward (Ted), was born in 1887. Once I looked at the age and gender of each of the children - not that the genders are obvious at first glance - I was able to determine the date of this photo as 1886, ie. after the birth of the sixth child Nellie (December 1885) but before that of Ted. 

Which means that John is indeed present (standing at the rear, the second-oldest child, about 9 years old). While it is sad knowing the fate that would befall him in the not-too-distant future, by contrast it is lovely to see my great-grandmother Margaret Kenny as a child for the first time (the oldest child, resting her head on her hand at the right of the photo (about 11). Both Margaret and Mary have quite boyish haircuts, I believe that is Mary (aged 7) in the bottom right corner. Which means child number four James Kenny (4 years old) sits in front of Margaret. Finally we have the father Patrick Kenny holding toddler Lexie (about 2 years old) and his wife Catherine holding baby Nellie. Sadly, only five or so years after this photo was taken, the family would be mourning the loss of Catherine, who died aged just 40. 

The Kenny family of Trafalgar (l to r): Patrick, Lexie Agnes, John Caven, Catherine (nee Phelan), Ellen Theresa (Nellie), Margaret Catherine, James Michael, Mary Lillias

While Ben was grateful for the information I was able to provide in my blog, the gratitude is returned tenfold now that he has sent me this image. I'm sure others in the family will agree it is a great addition to our family photo collection. 



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