RootsChat.Com

Hi

I have confirmed that Bridget and Katherine Geraghty's mother was Ellen Tollett.

Ellen's father was Lord William Tollett, Earl of Mayo. Ellen's brother (and Bridget and Catherine's Uncle) was Lord Frances Tollett. Their cousin John Tollett esq of Belmullet. Nothing is known of their father (Geraghty) Ellen's husband, at least not in my family.

anyone know anything about the Tolletts?

Hi Amac1210

Just had a look at the Denis Kelly line...these ones are protestant. The ancestors were all fiercely Catholic. Of my eight Great Aunts descended from Edward and Bridget six became nuns...in Sydney.

I also have a Barret ancestor Julia Barret m Michael Monaghan, the mother of Mary Monaghan who was the mother of all the nun Aunts..I dont know anything about the Barrets..More Research!!!

Hi Bob

I got Kitty's Birthdate, 1760, from Ancestry..but my record has it as 1768 with Bingham born 1765.

My Documents say that Bingham and Edward Kelly were about the same age, but this cannot be so...my document states that Kelly was born around 1745/50 which makes sense given the age of his children.

Like everything else in this crooked tale its hard to know anything for sure..

Given that Bingham's father died in 1789 and the Major inherited the estates it makes sense that the two moved from South Mayo to the West in around 1790..but may well have been doing stuff there before that.

Its possible that Edward Kelly worked for Bingham's father I suppose, as he appears to be trusted to manage things. They must have traveled around a fair bit as the distances between South and West Mayo were not huge...Castlebar may also be a relevant place to search for the sisters..although Kitty may well have been airbrushed out of the Bingham history I suspect.

Major Denis was an enterprising chap and attempted to set up  a business in herring fishing, he built a large factory and store and brought over Coopers from Aberdeen including Alexander McCoy.
McCoy had six sons and one daughter, Mary, who married Edward Kelly's 3rd son, another Edward Kelly, and is a great great etc somebody to me.

Apparently the Herring business never really got off the ground..

Here is what my Great great Grandfather Henry Edward wrote about Bingham Castle in 1937...

" The Cosgrove government of the Irish Free State resumed the whole of the Bingham Estate, demolished the magnificent  Bingham Castle, cut up the estate into suitable areas for small farmers  and transferred into their..(its blank here)..the hardy islanders of Inishkea."

Mind you this old fellow was long gone from Belmullet by 1922 having emigrated in 1876 to Sydney. Most of his family including his aging parents and his brothers followed him out here. The old boy never stopped longing for Erris and Elly Bay and continued to write for the Irish times until 1937 when he died. At that time old Henry Edward said there were no Kellys and no Binghams left in Belmullet...but we know thats not quite true.

Please let me know if you find anything on Kitty!

Hi Bob

Its been a few years since we chatted, I forgot about all this for a bit but it all came up again today with verification from Ancestry.com that Katherine Geraghty was the wife of Major Denis Bingham..but you probably know that already..William does also appear as one of the children born in 1794...Katherine was my ancestor's sister in law, but they were poor Catholics so I can't find any further info about them..Did you go to Belmullet? the thread has gotten very interesting.
Cheers

Williams mother was Katherine Geraghty, William was born before Denis and Katherine were married so could not inherit. There were problems because Katherine was Catholic..Denis a Protestant. I have just come across some more of my own family history from this time. William was not recognised despite the fact that Katherine and Denis later married and had Anne. Often there is no mention of William at all...a bit sad really.