Family History

In a week, we’re planning to take a trip to Ireland for a nine day family vacation! While we’re there, I thought it would be interesting to attempt to do some family history research if possible. Back in the 18th century, before the United States even existed as a country (it was still a colony of England) the first Kelly that anyone has been able to trace back roots to immigrated to North America. Here is a quote from a book called THE KELLY FAMILY by Verna Hurlbut Carroll, Denver, Colorado. 1993 that my Dad shared with me:

Walter Kelly apparently came with the Irish Quaker colony, which included Timothy and Samuel Kelly, in 1751.
He came from Timahoe, a small town in County Kildare, Ireland, not far from Dublin. This colony located
themselves in the scattered settlements between the Wateree and Lynches Rivers, South Carolina.

It goes on to say that eventually Walter Kelly was killed by Indians, but I was interested to see if I could find out more about his origins in Timahoe and the Irish Quaker colony he was a part of. So far I haven’t found a lot that was terribly substantial online, but I did discover that the National Library of Ireland provides a family history service to help you research your own family history in Ireland. I have booked an appointment with a consultant there, so it should be interestingto see how it goes!

I also discovered that apparently Richard Nixon had a family history connection to the Quaker colony in Timahoe, Ireland:

Hodgestown, Timahoe, just a few miles from Naas, was elevated from rural obscurity to international attention for a surreal three-quarters of an hour as Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president of the United States — and arguably its most controversial — embraced his roots with awkward enthusiasm.

Apparently Nixon visited Timahoe during 1970 and left a stone monument:

Nixon then unveiled a stone monument to sustained applause. It read: “In memory of the Irish Quakers of Timahoe. Dedicated October, 1970 by Richard Milhous Nixon, President of the United States of America, whose maternal ancestors are resting here.”

I’m definitely not a huge Richard Nixon fan, but it would be interesting to visit the Quaker cemetery as well while we’re there and see if there is any additional information to be found there about the Quakers who once resided there. It took some scouring, but I was able to find it on Google maps :

I’m sure it’s unrelated but I also discovered there is a bar in Timahoe called Kelly’s Bar (or used to be, it shows up as Powers of Timahoe on the map but a photo says Kelly’s Bar). I’ll have to check it out as well!