This site is a resource for those interested in finding their ancestors from Kilcar, Co. Donegal, Ireland. It has the following sections.
What surnames are found in Kilcar?
Where did people from Kilcar move in America?
Is anyone else working on the same surname?
How can I translate the townland names from Irish to English?
What genealogy resources are available for Kilcar?
Kilcar is a small town in southwestern County Donegal, Ireland. The village itself is surrounded by a variety of townlands, which with the village comprise the Catholic parish of Kilcar. The parish is of similar size to a township in the midwestern United States, with the village of Kilcar at its center. In rural Ireland locations not in towns are called townlands. They are somewhat like townships in the United States, only much smaller. They would generally be at most a square mile. The parish of Kilcar includes some 45 townlands, although the names and exact number have changed over time. Killybegs is to the east, Donegal Bay to the south, Carrick immediately north and Ardara a bit farther north and Glencolumbkille is to the west. The mountains make the road distances much farther than the distances as the crow flies.
John Haughey, a son of Kilcar now living in Texas, has a Kilcar home page that discusses Kilcar as it is today, including some recommendations about pubs and accommodations at http://www.kilcar.net/ .
Carrick is also on the web at http://welcome.to/CarrickOnLine
What surnames are found in Kilcar?
Boyle, Browne, Byrne, Campbell, Cannon, Carr, Cassidy, Chestnut, Cunnea, Cunningham, Curran, Doogan, Doran, Dorrian, Dougherty, Dunleavy, Erskine, Gallagher, Gildea, Gillespie, Haughey, Hegarty, Love, Lyons, Malloy, Maloney, McBrearty, McCahill, McCauley, McCloskey, McDevitt, McFadden, McGinley, McHugh, McNelis, McNulty, McShane, Meehan, O'Boyle, O'Donnell, O'Gara, Parks, Raughter, Shovelin, Ward
Although there isn't a single answer, people tended to go somewhere they knew someone. Many people ended up in coal mining towns in Pennsylvania and mining towns in the west. These places needed a lot of unskilled labor. Once one person from Kilcar went to a place, others followed. Therefore, particular towns had a lot of Kilcar people in them. The list below is not complete by any means. Please send me any additions.
Centralia, PA Meehan, Carr, McNelis, O'Gara, Lyons
Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk), PA and the adjacent Panther Valley, the most southern of the PA anthracite coal fields. Almost all the Irish in Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill, Lansford, etc. were from Co. Donegal, especially from its SW region. Cunningham, Cannon, McFadden, Boyle, O'Donnell, McGinley, Gallagher, Haffey, McBrearty, Gillespie, McNelis, Curran, McGee, Ferry, McNulty, Harkin, Lyons, Barrons, Carr, Gildea, McLaughlin, Sheridan, Conaghan, Shovelin, Breslin, Barry, Molloy, O'Gara
Wilkes-Barre, PA Dougherty, O'Donnell, many more
Greeley, NE McNelis, Cannon, Byrne (changed to Burns) More information about these people can be found on my McNelis page.
Newcastle, NE Askin, Cunningham
Maryville, MO Doogan (Dougan in the U.S.), McNelis, Cannon. More information about these people can be found on my McNelis page.
Kansas City, MO McNellis, Byrne, Murray, O'Donnell
Omaha, NE Gillespie, Cunningham and Cassidy
Ottumwa, IA and thereabouts Cannon, Doran, Dunleavy, Gallagher, Love, Lyons
Ringgold County, IA Cassidy
Indianapolis, IN Carr, Hegarty, McNulty, Boyle
Terre Haute, IN Byrne, Gallagher
Belvidere, IL Askin, Cunningham, McNellis, Hagerty and Carr
Chicago, IL Meehan, Carr, Cassidy, Cunningham, O'Donnell and many more
Rock Island, IL Cunningham, Doherty
Cleveland, OH Byrne, Doherty and others
New York, NY, especially Brooklyn Byrne, Carr, Love, O'Donnell, and probably almost any other name from Kilcar
Leadville, CO Byrne, McNelis
Butte, MT Byrne, McNelis
Augusta, GA Gallagher, Cunningham, and McCahill
Anderson, SC O'Donnell, McNelis
Asheville, NC O'Donnell
Walnut Creek, CA Cassidy
The following people are interested in Kilcar genealogy. Most of them know something about
many names, although like me they tend to have most of their information about one or two
names. Much of the other information involves things like the name of a spouse back in 1800, with
no way of fitting that person into context. Almost without exception, the researchers listed have a
lot of information about the descendants of the Kilcar families in America. In some instances I
have e-mail addresses and in other instances I have only postal addresses.
|
Researcher |
Surnames |
Jim Dunn 212 E. Irvin State College, PA 16801 |
McNelis, Byrne, Meehan, Doogan, Dunleavy, Campbell, Cannon, Cunningham My Kilcar families are discussed further at my Genealogy home page. In addition, if you have any interest in the name McNelis my McNelis home page discusses this family in much greater detail. Further, any Kilcar baptisms between 1848 and 1910 where one parent is named McNelis are listed at baptisms. I also have a Byrne page that lists my own Byrne family and a Cannon page that lists my Cannons. |
Sue Cunningham 34 Phelps Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901 suecunning@aol.com |
Cunningham, Carr, and McBrearty from Killybegs and Carrick |
Kevin Doogan University of Bristol Kevin.Doogan@bristol.ac.uk |
Doogan |
John Dougherty 136 Forest Rd Mountaintop, PA 18707 dougher@tl.infi.net |
Dougherty, et al. |
Bryan Dunleavy 231 Swanwick Lane Lower Swanwick Southampton, UK SO31 7GT magic.flute@btinternet.com
|
Dunleavy |
Matthew Erskine Ballybofey Co. Donegal matthewerskine@hotmail.com |
Erskine |
Kevin Gillespie
1060 N. "L" St.
Fremont, NE 68025 keving@radiks.net |
McCauley, Gillespie, Carr, Cunningham, has information on many others. Kevin has some Gillespie information at http://www.radiks.net/~keving/ |
|
Brian Gillespie
Huntington Beach, CA |
Gillespie and Byrne from Cashel, Kilcar |
Sam McFadden 110 El Verano Way San Francisco, CA 94127 rory@itsa.ucsf.edu |
McFadden, Carr, Dorrian, Gallagher Doran, has information on many others |
|
Jeff McQueen
Rochester Hills, Michigan
|
Cunningham, McNelis, McBrearty, Gallagher, and O'Donnell. |
Peter Askin 2700 Ocean Drive #201 Vero Beach, FL 32963 |
Askin, Cunningham, Gillespie, McGinley |
|
Eileen Briggs |
Fisher, Campbell |
|
Mike Burke |
O'Donnell, McShane |
|
Frank Byrne
104 Overlook Circle
Wimberley, TX. 78676
|
Byrne, Gallagher |
James Byrne 2 Rehboth Place S.C.R. Dublin 8, Eire. iamjamesbyrne@hotmail.com |
Byrne, Carr |
|
Kathy Cannon
|
Cannon (Roxboro) |
Anna Carr
Seamus3930@aol.com |
Carr, Doogan |
|
Patrick Coleman
|
Malloy & Cannon |
Brendan McCahill mccahill@charter.net |
Gallagher, Cunningham, and McCahill
Brendan has some of his information listed on his web page at http://www.mindspring.com/~mccahill/ From the first page go to his grandmother's letter. |
|
Patrick McFadden Portland, OR USA |
McFadden ( 2 families) Cunningham, Doherty, Byrne. various spellings of the names not important.
|
|
Mary McGonigle |
McCloskey |
|
Margaret Morley |
Carr, Doherty |
|
Hope Carnicle |
Cannon, Byrne, Malloy |
|
John Curran |
Curran Derryveagh/Glenveagh,
Wilkes-Barre and |
Michelle MichelleFM@aol.com |
Cunningham |
Susan Cohea 6041 E. Osborn Rd. Phoenix, AZ 85018 |
Meehan, Carr, Dunleavy |
Valerie N. Colvin Policy Sciences Center Florida State University Tallahasee vcolvin@garnet.acns.fsu.edu |
Anderson |
Steve Gallioto 58 Birch Rd. Southville, Bristol BS3 1PF U.K. kells96@msn.com |
Carr, Parks, Cunningham |
Wendall J. Burns 5735 Garnett Shawnee, KS 66203 Wenda92295@aol.com |
Byrne |
Timothy A. Carr Milwaukee, Wisconsin XHDF71A@prodigy.com |
Carr |
Bob Clements 1020 Prospect Ridge Blvd Haddon Heights, NJ 08035 (609) 546-8509 Clmnts5@aol.com |
McBrearty |
|
Paul Doherty 154 Briarwood Dr. Schererville, IN 46375 |
Doherty, Cunningham |
|
Cecilia Ann Donegan James Gulczynski W225 S9595 Big Bend Drive Big Bend, WI 53103-9574 United States (262) 662-3248
|
Michael Donegan/Hannah Haughey (Haffey in US) Came to USA about 1887/1888 Teelin originally St. Columba's Church in Carrick
|
Daniel P. Dougherty 4862 S.E. Devenwood Way Stuart, FL 34997-2163 d.dougherty@juno.com |
Dougherty and McShane, esp. in Teelin |
James B. Gillespie 12 Hawthorne Ct. Maple Shade, NJ 08052 gillespieja@msn.com |
GILLESPIE, CARR |
Molly Harmoney 2139 S. Nugent Rd. Lummi Island, WA 98262 harmony@az.com
|
Cannon, Cunningham, Kennedy. Molly's Cannons are found, in part, at Cannon. |
John Haughey 1522 Yorkshire Dr. Richardson, TX 75082 john@kilcar.net
|
Haughey, Deane |
Susan Innocenzo innys@erols.com |
McBrearty, Byrne |
|
Carole Jenkins |
Barron, Byrne |
Joyce (McBreairty) Landean 12 Northwood Drive Downingtown, PA 19335 joyce_e_landean@yahoo.com |
McBreairty and Gallagher |
|
Georgette Love |
Chestnut, Love |
|
Sandra McDevitt smcdevitt2001@yahoo.com |
McDevitt, O'Donnell, Cunnea |
Trevor McBrearty link not working |
McBrearty, Erskine, Gillespie, and O'Donnell
|
|
Kate McNeal |
Carr, McNelis, Haggerty (Hegarty?) Kate has a web page at http://www.networksplus.net/kate |
Tom McNulty Indianapolis, IN KILCAR@MSN.COM |
McNulty, McNelis, Ryan, Gillespie,
Doherty, Dorian, McGinley, Fawcett.
Further details about Tom's family are my McNelis page |
James M. Moore 1924 Fairmount St Wausau, WI 54403 715-848-3812 jimoor@pcpros.net |
Doogan, Cannon. Jim's Cannons and Doogans are partly shown at Cannon. |
Michael Moore 52618 Woodmill Drive Macomb, MI 48042-5664 mmoore@mcgh.org |
Boyle, McLoone, McNelis and Moore |
Norman Parkes Norman.Parkes@btinternet.com |
Chesnutt |
|
Patrick Parkes penpark@ns.interconnect.net |
Cassidy, Carr, Cunningham, Parks |
Bill Parks Fairfax, VA WParks8182@AOL.COM |
McNellis, Parks |
Jack Riley Domer1956@comcast.net |
Erskine, Askin, Byrne, Cannon |
|
Nick Shelley |
Doogan, Boyle |
Brian Southwood (link not working) |
Cunningham, O'Donnell |
Barbara Byrne Varanese
ogfm@netwalk.com |
Byrnes, McShanes,Dohertys, Cunninghams, Wards, O'Donnells, Currans and many more |
Barney Barry St. Louis University bbarrysj@aol.com |
Byrne, McNelis, Murray |
Liz Breadon
LizBreadon@aol.com |
Maxwell, Chesnut and Walker families from the Glencolumbkille / Carrick and Kilcar |
Mike Carr 49- 70th Street Brooklyn, New York 11209-1113 cococarr@erols.com |
Carr, Doogan, Byrne, McNelis, Gillespie, and more |
|
Nina Joan Cobb
7704 Arboretum Dr., #101
Charlotte, NC 28270
704/752-7678
|
McShane and O'Donnell |
Joe Doran joedoran@adelphia.net |
Doran, Cannon |
Kathleen Gallagher Ewen johnewen@erols.com |
Gallagher, Conaghan, Breslin, Melly, McGlinchey, and O'Donnell Ardara/Iniskeel/ Lettermacaward |
John P Garrah 300 17th St. Honesdale, PA 18431- 2024 jpgar@ptd.net
|
O'Gara (Garrah), Lyons |
Jay Hartman jhartman@dct.com |
Cannon, Malloy |
Earl Gillespie
Starkville, MS
gghost@ebicom.net |
Gillespie, McGee |
Cheri Greenlaw 9 Delphi Place Coogee 6166 West Australia greenlaw@nettrek.com.au |
Dunleavy and Greenlaw (Killybegs) |
|
Laurel Harvey |
Gallagher and McNelis (Rockwell, IA) |
Jim Hegarty 13 Southwatch Lane
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
jhegarty@post.harvard.edu
|
Hegarty, Gara, Gillespie, Carr, and McNulty |
|
John Hegarty |
Hegarty |
Patrick Hegarty phegarty@slc.shorelin.wednet.edu |
Hegarty, Browne, Byrne, Campbell |
|
Peter Hegarty
|
Hegarty, McGill (Carrick), and Doherty (Ballard, Glencolumcille) |
|
Liz Houk
|
Cannon, Doran, Lyons |
|
Philip Jordan |
Conaghan, Meenan of Malinbeg/Carrick/ Glencolumbkille |
|
Sue Kuhn
Blue Ridge Summit, PA |
Patrick Murray / Mary Patten family from Derrylaghen and the John Murray / Catherine Sweeney family |
|
Thomas Mulgrew |
McCauley, Gallagher Tom has more details at his web site. |
Kathy O'Leary 422 S. Peck LaGrange, IL 60453 oleak@lib.oak-lawn.il.us
|
Heeney and Haughey (spelled Haffey in U.S.)Teelin. |
Stephen J Serfozo sserfozo@hotmail.com |
Cannon, Gaffaghan |
Joe Turner 17828 Mill Creek Drive Derwood, MD 20855 (301) 963-5789 SYu9815730@aol.com |
Carr, McGettigan |
Glenn Brash 488 Grand Trunk Ave Kingston Ontario gbrash@cogeco.ca |
Cunningham, McNelis |
|
Pat Youngberg 1609 Lakeview Drive West Plains, Mo. 65775 bpyoungberg@mchsi.com |
McFadden, Byrne, Meehan, McNelis, O'Donnell |
Caroline Wilkins Bee's Cottage Lot 1, 120 Grand Boulevard Montmorency, VIC 3094 Australia boo123@one.net.au |
Breslin, Cunningham, Carr, and Gillespie |
The parish records from St. Cartha's in Kilcar list the townlands in Irish script. The microfilm of the records are available at your nearest Mormon Family History Center. Between the difficulty translating the names, the difficulty recognizing the letters in the script, and the quality of the penmanship of the writer, deciphering these names is a real challenge. Below is a list of the names in English and in Irish using the regular alphabet. Thanks to Lillis O'Leary and Sam McFadden, I have a sheet that shows the script counterpart to these names. The pdf file here shows the script - townland pdf
| Townland Name in Irish | Townland Name in English |
| An t-Earagal | Arrigle |
| Babhdhun | Bavin |
| Baile n Droichid | Kilcar |
| Baile'Ac Phaidin | Ballymacfadden |
| Baile na Mona | Ballymoon |
| Baile an Teampaill | Churchtown (called the townland of Kilcar in Griffiths) |
| Bogach | Bogagh |
| An Caiseal | Cashel |
| Caiseal an Carn | Cashelcarn |
| Na Caislini | Cashlings |
| Caonachan | Keenaghan |
| An Charrig | Carrick - this is a neighboring town but it appears occasionally |
| Cill | Kille |
| Cill Beag | Kilbeg |
| Cill Chartha | Kilcar |
| Cill Chathasaigh | Kilcasey |
| Cladach na gCaorach | Cladnageerach |
| Coguis | Coguish |
| Cnoc Chartha | Cruckcarra, a place with a name in Towney |
| Crannceo | Crannceo |
| Croibh | Crove, a hamlet on the north side of the parish |
| Croib Bawn | Crowbane |
| Croib Dub | Crowdoo |
| Criob Eighter | Croweighter |
| Criob Lair | Crowlar |
| Cro na Rudda | Cronroad or Croanrudda |
| Cro na Saileog | Crownasillagh |
| Cruach Beag | Croachbeg |
| Cruach Chaorach | Crowkerragh |
| Cuiscreach | Cuskry |
| Na Currai | Curris |
| Dachtan | Largydachtan |
| Doire Leathan | Derrylahan |
| Droim na Fionngaile | Drimnafinagle |
| Droim Riabhach | Drimreagh |
| An Duinin | Doonin |
| Gort tSaile | Gortalia |
| Gortna gCoilleach | |
| Glencolumbcille | Glencolumbkille - once again a neighboring |