Kenny
Joseph Kenny's parents are:
Dan Kenny's parents were Lee R. Kenny and G. Clare Connor
Lee Kenny's parents were Thomas F. Kenny and Mary Gilmore
Thomas F. Kenny's parents were Richard Kenny and Eliza Lovely
Richard Parents were Thomas Kenny and Eleanor Purcell
I have been actively working on Thomas Kenny's parents. I had believed them to be Patrick Kenny and Julie O'Brien, but I have recently found some information in County Wicklow, near a townland called Kilcaven, which is near the townland of Kennystown, a birth of Thomas Kenny, son of Bartel Kenny. This makes a lot of sense to me because the Thomas Kenny above has a first born son named Bartholomew and it is an Irish tradition to name the first born after the grandfather. Bartel is a nick name for Bartholomew.
Thomas Kenny Richard Kenny /4 generation picture
Notes for Thomas Kenny
To my knowledge, Thomas and Eleanor stayed in Canada when the Lovely's and Richard Kenny moved to the US.
Francis E. Kenny gave me a tin type picture of what is believed to be Thomas Kenny.
The 1851 Ontario census shows the name spelled as KENNEY. It lists Thomas, Ellen, Bartholomew, James, Richard, Edward and Ann, all spelled KENNEY.
The 1861 census shows Thomas, Eleanor, Bartholomew, James, Richard, Edward, Ana, Mary and Eliza Ann, all spelled KINNEY.
Notes for Richard Kenny
Richard came to the US in 1868----from Canada.
According to the Index to Declaration of Intention for Door County, Wisconsin, his Date of "Intent" was filed on March 19th, 1868.
Richard and his wife sold their land in Door County, section #34, township # 27, 120 acres, to William Wilke for $1200 on October 24, 1873.
Richard is in the "Military List" 1881-1889 in the books at Carroll Iowa - age 33
Age 35 in 1881, he was in the Washington Township, Carroll County, Iowa.
On Nov. 25, 1873, Richard bought 80 acres, 4-5 miles due south of Arcadia, for $640.00, then 40 more on May 14, 1874 for $320.00. Sold it all to Mary New on Sep 30, 1890 for $3720.00. It showed his residence was in Omaha. These documents are in my files, along with the Carroll County 1875, 1880 Census' and the
Omaha, Douglas Co. census of 1900 & 1910.
In the Carroll County 1875 Census, It shows the Lovely's in their own section as head of house, and it shows 4 male and 5 females in Richard Kenny's house.
On the grave stone in Arcadia, IA, it shows 3 separate burials on a pillar shape stone, on three sides. All three children were definitely Richard and Eliza's Kenny. They were Bridget, Elizabeth and William, and their name is spelled KENNEY.
I also noted on Richard P. Kenny's death certificate it is spelled KENNEY, as were many records in Smiths Falls, Ontario. It is fair to say that there were also KENNY spellings in these records. Richard's parents, were Thomas and Eleanor Kenny, and I can assume both were illiterate when they came over to North America. Is it possible that we could have all been KENNEY originally?
In Omaha, Richard's family lived at 1402 Pinkney.
According to a Omaha, 1910 census, it shows Richard and Eliza having 12 children, with 7 alive in 1910.
On Richards death certificate, it states, Richard Kenney. On his wives death cert. it indicates Eliza Kenny
In the obit, is states Richard Kenny
While Richard lived Omaha at 2413 S. 18th, there was a 17 year old Lizzy Lovely also living with him.
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Chris Surfus sent me n article from the Door Co. Advocate, dated Dec. 22, 1910. It states ,
"Mrs. Mary Hourigan of Smith Falls, Ont. is revisiting this town after being absent of 39 years. She is a sister of Edward and James Kenny and Mrs. Phil Gillick, and will be
remembered by the older residence. Frank J. Hourigan and his wife of Carthage, NY, are also spending a week here, the first being a son of Mrs. Hourigan. He is an engineer on a NY railroad and expects to remain for a week."
In another article from the same paper, Dec. 29th, 1910, there was an article, " Richard Kenny of Omaha, Neb., is spending the holidays with his relatives and friends and a family reunion was held with in the week, at which all the surviving members of the family were present."
Notes on Thomas Francis Kenny
Sponsors at her baptism were M. McDonnell and Mary Lovely
All records show Thomas F. being born in 1866. These records are incorrect. Smith Falls parish record were written in order by dates and Thomas fell into place right on the 16th of June, 1865. It is my belief that the Kenny's were protecting themselves because Thomas was conceived out of wedlock. It is indeed possible that Thomas himself did not know the correct year.
Thomas was a master mason, with his brother Richard.
Thomas didn't always stay at home. Mary raised the children on her own for periods of time. Thomas had a drinking problem. There were verbal reports that Thomas died in a jail in Chicago. On his obituary, it does state that he died in Chicago. I looked into that, and never found any evidence of this. It was the story passed down through the
Wagens, though.
Notes on Lee Roy Kenny
Lee worked for years for the M & O Railroad as an engineer. He worked there
since he was 16. He went to school in his spare time and for 12 years practiced law as an attorney. One day his 1rst cousin, Francis Earle Kenny, who also worked at the RR, call Lee to ask him if he could work with him that day in the roundhouse. Lee had accepted and headed for work in his car. He got close to work, but got stuck in the snow and went to get Fran. Together they got the car out of the deep snow. The weather was terrible that day with blizzard like conditions. Later that day, Lee dropped over dead at the controls of the engine. This information came from Francis Kenny.
Notes on Dan L. Kenny
My father was on a fishing trip, with the Kraft brothers, Frank Vlock, my uncle,
and Dr O. W. Neligh, on the Kawishiwi River, 20 miles east of Ely, Minnesota. The waters were extra high that spring and the currents strong. They were portaging deep into the wilderness near the end of the day, the boat that my father was in capsized in the strong current and he drowned. I was 6 month old when this tragedy had happened. It left my mother to raise the five of us alone. My mother never remarried. My father was an attorney and practiced with Mino St. Lucas, and their firm was called Kenny and St. Lucas, located at the Service Life Bldg., in Omaha.
Notes on Joseph A. Kenny
I started to gather information about my family in 1987. I started with the
"Kenny" portion and when I hit a dead end, I started the "Janda" side, and then
to the "Toman" side. I received most of the information on the Kenny's from a
lot of hard work. Many hours at the public library on micro fiche machines
looking at census reports city directories and obituaries. One day I noticed
an address under Kenny that kept appearing in the city directory. When I
investigated it, it was a house that Francis Earle Kenny lived in, and had lived
there all his life. He was 90 years old at the time and with full mind. He
and his son Patrick helped me so much with information about their side of the
Kenny's, which was my Great grandfather, Thomas F.'s brother. With their info,
it all seem to tie together after that. Francis has since past away and we'll
miss him a lot.
I gathered a lot of the Janda and Toman info the same way and with visits to the local
Cemetery, (Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Plattsmouth Nebraska, and the
parish in Plattsmouth that holds the Holy Rosary's records. I also gathered
some Family group records from Margaret Ann Cuthrell, my cousin, and they also helped considerably. Joe Kvapil, a Plattsmouth (Bohemian Town) authority, is a real good friend of my family and a personal friend of mine. He too provided me with documents to back up my research such as many obituaries, Funeral information cards and helped get my Family Holy Card collection started. Marie (Toman) Hammonds did some extensive research on the Toman Family and she shared her notes and records with me and I am extremely grateful to her and all the others mentioned.
I returned to the Kenny research in 1996. I ordered microfilm of Smith Falls, Ont. from the LDS library and discovered a lot. I will be going to Ireland in Dec. of 1997 to start the Connor side and hopefully continue some of the Kenny research.
I own and operate Kenny's Services Inc., and we primarily paint houses. I've been in business since 1983, prior to that I was in charge of the Painting Dept. for the Enron Corp.
My sisters and I have a true love for Music. We all have the ability to play and sing. Whenever we get together for Thanksgiving or other family gatherings, we always end up at the piano singing old Broadway tunes, for hours.
I have recently been investing money into a small music studio where I am able to record music for myself and others.
