Here's the short version of my take on the K'town bunch. There are no
baptismal records for any of these Balfes, either, but the children that
I propose for the Widow Balfe of Kennystown DID all come to Smiths Falls
(except for maybe Bridget Shannon--I may not have her right, since the
FW record says she's a cousin. She could be a dtr of the Widow Balfe of
Boley).
Edward (m. Mary Doyle? Mary Kenny?). He appears often with a
Doyle godmother as sponsor for various Balfe children in K'town/Parkmore.
He was gfather/witness at a lot of Tomacork parish sacraments, but John
recently did a followup search, looking for that Catherine Balfe of
Kitley/Smiths Falls, and he found Edward/Edmond Balfe and Kitty Doyle
were also witnesses at a marriage in Stranakelly (close to
Boley)--Clonmore RC parish--for a Patrick Doyle/Judy Toole marriage in
Jan. 1839. This Doyle couple then had their children back in Tomacork
parish. So there WERE connections between K'town and Boley.
- Edward seems to have had only one child, according to the FW rentals:
dtr. Margaret b c1788 (m. Michael Hendrick; emigrated to Old Chelsea,
QC, close to Ottawa). The only Balfe gparent for the Hendrick children
was Nick Balfe (Montague Nick, presumably); the other gps were mostly my
Murphys.
Widow Balfe of Kennystown m. Unnamed Balfe
3 sons and 3 daughters living with her in the 1827 FW rental records
Here's my guess at who they were:
- John, b. c1806 (m. Alice Dobbs)
- Thomas, b. c1807 (m. Sally Kenny)
- Mary, b. c 1808 (m. Michael Lowman)
- Margaret, b. c 1810 (m. James Foster)
- Bridget, b. c1812 (m. Thomas Shannon; widowed, and m. 2)?? Patrick
Canty??) As a widow, she lived with the Thomas Balfe family in
Kennystown. HOWEVER: the FW eviction record calls Bridget Shannon a
cousin of Thomas Balfe.
- Nicholas, b. c1816 (m. Cath. Kealey)
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There was only ONE Balfe family in Boley; and there was only one
Patrick Balfe who could be the father in Boley then, and it was Old
Kitley Nick's brother.
Using the Irish naming pattern, I've also been assuming that the
father of Thos. Balfe (m. Bridget Butler and Margaret A. Hunt) was
also called Patrick, and his mother was either Mary or Anne. I think
Thomas was a brother to Catherine and Ellen (above), born in the
period where there are no records, to Patrick Balfe and Anne Price.
This couple surely had more than 2 children.
What we did know from John's earlier reports:
- that Mary Balfe Shanks, and Old Kitley Nick, and Patrick Balfe (m.
Anne Foster/Pryce) were the children of the Widow Balfe of Boley, in
the 1827 FW rentals records. But who was their father?
What we now know:
- the father of Old Kitley Nick et al was called PATRICK. There was
a Pat Balfe in Boley with 3 acres in the 1825 Tithe Applotments; no
widow. Pat was gone by the 1827 FW rental records, and in his place
was the Widow Balfe on a tiny plot. In the 1839 rentals, OK Nick is
back in Boley (he'd been at Mungacullen and Cronelea), living with
the Widow Balfe on a miniscule piece of land, barely enough for a
cabin and garden. He was a laborer, travelling around the townlands
for work.
The only Balfe marriage records in this area are for Mary Balfe
Shanks and Thos. Balfe/Bridget Butler - because they married in the
bride's home townland, I think. The other Balfes, John speculates,
may have married brides from just over the border in Carlow, maybe
in the Myshall area. (For instance, there were Prices living in
Killalongford, where Michael Shanks was from.) There are no records
that early there. So...we're stuck with speculation.
Re Old Kitley Nick: once we knew his father was Patrick, I wondered
why his first son wasn't called Patrick. And of course, he was there
all the time. He's clearly Patrick Balfe (b. c1819) who m. Mary
Byrne. (Nick's daughter, Mary, married a Patrick Byrne; maybe a
brother?)
And the most satisfying thing of this whole search is that Patrick
Balfe and Mary Byrne moved around a lot, prob. as a laborer, too. He
was married in the Tomacork records, although the residence was
Shillelagh (over near Boley); he had one child baptized in Tomacork
parish, but quite a few in Clonmore RC parish, too.
He's the connection between the Balfes of Boley and the Balfes of
K'town, etc. It would explain the closeness between the Shanks
family and OK Nick, and Thomas Balfe/Sally Kenny in Ontario.
Of course, Thomas Balfe (m. Sally Kenny) COULD be a child of the
Widow Balfe of BOLEY, but we don't want to go there right now.
Still, we're missing some of Patrick and the Widow's kids. I've just
guessed at Myles Balfe as one: he married in Tomacork parish, but
baptized his kids in Abbeydown, Wexford (Clonegall RC parish).