Hi Celticmoon,
I'm late to the party, but not too late, I hope.
I've got some information on Charles and Bridget (nee McCarthy) Keenan that may be useful from the time they started living in Whitehaven.
Keenan seems to have been spelled variously as Keenen, Konan and Konen in the English records.
Charles was a ship's chandler. There was regular coal trade between Whitehaven and various Irish ports and I think plenty headed to England that way, looking for work and settled in Whitehaven. Charles and Bridget look to have died there.
They appear to have had only two children: a daughter, Sarah, who married a Murphy (and then looks to have moved to Ireland for a time); and a son, Charles Edward, who was packed off to Melbourne, Australia, on his own at the age of about 14 - and, as far as I can tell, never saw his folks again.
(That said, he worked as a merchant seaman for a time, so may have crewed on a ship back to Whitehaven or thereabouts at some stage.)
Charles Edward did fairly well for himself: married a Scottish girl in Melbourne; had a good sized family and, after working on the railways much of his life, somehow managed to retire as a "gentleman" with about three houses and the odd block of land. Not sure how he managed that.
Unfortunately, I have no information on Charles' or Bridget's families back in Ireland. My guess is Charles was from around Antim.
I'm also guessing that a Mary Anne Keenan who lived with them in Whitehaven for many years may have been a younger sister or relative of Charles. She arrived in Whitehaven from Killough and looks to have started living with them when Bridget apparently was working in the textile mills up north for a couple of years.
Hope that's some help. I have more on the Australian family if you're interested. I'd definitely be keen to hear anything you may have re the Irish origins.
All the best,
Andrew Keenan
