My Hennessy Family History and Memoir

By Sister Lucy Hennessy SMG

Sister Lucy Hennessy, a member of the Servants of the Mother of God, became interested in her family history after her parents died.
With both of them gone, she wanted to connect with the relatives that walked the roads she walked, prayed in the church she prayed in, and who, in some cases, went to the school she attended.
What were their names? Where were they born? What were their hopes and dreams?
She explores those questions and more in this family history, revealing a hardworking, Irish-Catholic family who lovingly and courageously passed on the deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done.
They toiled and labored in difficult times and lived out their lives doing routine tasks. They were men and women like us who lived ordinary lives and struggled with ordinary problems – and in some cases, very difficult problems.
This book presents a history, including documents and photos, of the author’s parents (Patrick Reardon Hennessy and Annie Murphy Donovan), their parents and grandparents, and sketches of other family members.
Pause and reflect on your own family and its wonderful history as the author delves into the past to reveal the glory of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532055379

Sister Lucy Hennessy SMG

Sister Lucy Hennessy, SMG, is originally from Ballinlough, Kilteely, Co. Limerick, Ireland, and a member of the Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. She is the board chairman and CEO of Pennybyrn, a Retirement Living Community in North Carolina, since 2008. Lucy holds a BS in Business Administration and an MHA in Health Administration. She currently lives in High Point, North Carolina.

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Copyright © 2018 Sister Lucy Hennessy, SMG.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Psalm 78 Excerpt from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE

(Compact Edition), copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman &

Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

Reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NJB are from The New Jerusalem Bible, copyright © 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by Permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Book Cover Picture - Galtee Mountain Range in Ireland

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-5538-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-5539-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-5537-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018911665

iUniverse rev. date: 10/24/2018

To

my brothers and sisters who grew up with me and whose storytelling over the years brought to life remnants of sacred bonds and celebrated growing up together.

To our dear sister Helen, Sister Helen, FMSA, whose memoirs, written in 2008, revealed to us her beautiful mystical mind. She gave the best of herself each day as she reached out with a generous heart to everyone who needed help. To our brother Jim for the gift of his life, which enabled us to live our lives. And to our sister Mary who taught us that every life is sacred: as you now rejoice with all our ancestors in heaven, remember that you live on in our hearts always.

To my nieces and nephews, I hope to awaken in you an awareness of the sacredness of your own life stories as you mix and mingle with those whose lives you touch.

Contents

Preface

Prologue

Part 1:    Patrick and Annie Hennessy

Chapter 1   The Patrick Reardon Hennessy and Annie Murphy Donovan Family History

Chapter 2   Documents and Photographs Patrick Reardon Hennessy and Annie Murphy Donovan

Chapter 3   The Children of Patrick and Annie Hennessy

Chapter 4   Genealogical Charts Patrick and Annie Hennessy and Descendants

Part 2:    Hennessy Ancestors

Chapter 5   Patrick Lovett Hennessy and Johanna Carroll Reardon Family

Chapter 6   Documents and Photographs Patrick Lovett Hennessy and Johanna Carroll Reardon

Chapter 7   Genealogical Charts Patrick and Johanna Hennessy

Chapter 8   Michael Humphries Donovan and Margaret McEnry Murphy Family

Chapter 9   Documents and Photographs Michael Humphries Donovan and Margaret McEnry Murphy

Chapter 10   Genealogical Charts Michael and Margaret Donovan

Chapter 11   Cooper Chadwick Connection

Appendix: Maps and Hennessy Localities

Preface

It was after the death of my parents that the interest in finding out more about who my ancestors were really resonated with me. During my childhood I often listened to my mother relate stories about various members of her family. Likewise I listened to my father relate anecdotes about members of his family. But now that they were both gone, something within me wanted to stay connected with those real-life relatives who once walked the roads I walked on, who prayed in the church that I prayed in, and, in many cases, who attended the school that I attended. In my mind, I seemed to be connected with them, but then, What were their names? Where were they born? Such simple questions could be answered only by looking through dusty old church records or archaic microfilms.

The family I was born into and that God blessed me with is worthy of being remembered and not being forgotten. I know we will all one day meet in heaven, but I felt an urgency within me to find out who my ancestors were while I was still here on this earth. During my research it was very fulfilling to find their names and even more so to hear a little about their uniqueness and the gifts they possessed.

I never intended to write a book. I just felt happy about the information I had gathered in two jotters for more than thirty years. Patricia Tripp, a volunteer at Maryfield, introduced me to Family Tree Maker, showing me how to build a family tree chart where I was able to add so many names in an orderly fashion and take the information out of the jotters. Then in 2015, I was urged on by Hilary Rauch, a resident at Pennybyrn who was actively pursuing his genealogy interests, to put my information into some kind of book form. He also assisted with some Irish research and filled in some early gaps in my ancestry. Hence, with his encouragement and interest, you are now holding this book in your hands.

I owe very special thanks to my brother Father Willie Hennessy, who was at my beck and call when I needed to visit various parish churches, graveyards, or even the townlands where our ancestors came from—Emly, Ballyfireen, Ballinlough, and Ballinagranagh. We enjoyed our expeditions together and the excitement of discovering any new information we had not found previously. He was most helpful in contacting Father Matthew Gaffney, the contact person for information about the Rosminian Order. Father Matthew gave valuable details about the record of our father’s stay in the Rosminian Congregation during the 1920s.

My brother Michael Hennessy, who lived in Chicago, was a great source of information, particularly about the early years of our family, especially for times before I was born. He shared with me many of his recollections of those early days. He also shared some anecdotes. The priests in the parishes I visited were always very helpful in assisting with information from parish records. To all those others who helped and who have not been thanked, my apologies.

As I fix on my mind the names and settings of the people I have written about, I think of them as the carriers of the torch of faith and the knowledge of the Lord. In Psalm 78:2–4, the psalmist says, I will utter … things from of old … things we have heard and things our ancestors have told us. And the psalmist goes on to say, We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done.

In this book you will find that our ancestors were hardworking people who lovingly and courageously did what they could to pass on the deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done. They toiled and labored in difficult times and simply lived out their lives doing daily routine tasks. They were men and women like us who lived ordinary lives and struggled with ordinary problems—and in some cases very difficult problems. Some very young members of the families died over three generations. Our ancestors were afflicted with great crosses, such as the death of an infant, the death of a two-year-old, the death of a fourteen-year-old, and two people who died in their early twenties. We know that tears of great sorrow were shed. At other times laughter filled the air. But it is evident that they found their strength in their unwavering focus on God. Throughout the records I searched, it was evident that children were baptized, prayers were said, family came first, and church was the center of their lives. Their faithfulness was a witness to their love for God.

Psalm 78, verses 3-7

What we have heard and known,

What our ancestors have told us

we shall not conceal from their descendants

but tell to a generation yet to come.

The praise of God, his power

the wonderful deeds he has done.

He commanded our ancestors

to hand it down to their descendants

that a generation still to come might know it,

children yet to be born.

They should be sure to tell their own children,

and put their trust in God,

never forgetting God’s great deed,

always keeping his commands.

Prologue

I have always felt driven by the desire or curiosity to know who my relations were apart from my immediate family, parents, and siblings. It just fascinated me that I was born and raised where literally hundreds of my relatives were also born and raised in the same townland.

All those who are mentioned in this book are members of my family whose lives have spanned three centuries, and these people are my relatives, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, granduncles, grandaunts, and sponsors at baptisms and at weddings. I was compelled to remember their presence here on earth. In my mind, I seemed to be connected with them. But what were their names? Where were they born? Answers to such simple questions could be found only by speaking to relatives who would have been alive in recent times and by looking through dusty old church records or archaic microfilm.

With the help of my brother Willie, I began my search locally in Kilteely with Norma Lysaght, a second cousin of ours. Norma began by telling us the story of my mother’s people, the Donovan family, the big family that was born and raised in Ballinlough and the wonderful parents who raised them. I could not believe all the details she was able to share with us. In her bedroom she actually had the trunk that our great-great-great-grandmother Ellen Regan brought with her when she married into the Humphries family around 1800. In those olden days it was customary that all the trousseaux belonging to the bride was contained in her trunk and taken to her new home.

So here we were actually looking at and touching Ellen Regan Humphries’s bridal trunk. Norma also had one of the first Singer sewing machines, which Ellen’s husband, Thomas Donovan, bought soon after they were married, and they had a certificate to prove it was among the first. Then she told us what a wonderful carpenter our grandfather Michael Donovan was and that we were actually looking at the table that our grandfather had made and given to his sister Anne as a wedding gift when she married Norma’s father, John Lysaght. We could not believe all the details she shared, especially the final part of the story—how our great-grandmother Ellen Humphries Donovan, who gave birth to and mothered so many children, set sail for the United States at the age of seventy. She lived for six full years in Dearborn, Michigan, and she had the opportunity to travel to see several of the big American cities, such as New York and Chicago. I was totally blown away. And so began my search.

I started with the Donovan family since they were closest to where I lived. I was very familiar with the Ballinlough home of the Donovan family, and I had actually stayed there a lot as a child. Almost all during my growing up time, we made visits to that farm house, and the occupant, Sarah Ryan Donovan, had married the eldest son of the Donovan family, Patrick (Pat). She had shared with me what her husband had shared with her—the daily family routine of the Donovan household when they were growing up. From the time the day began to its ending, Ellen Donovan, the woman of the house, as she stated it, was a very organized and fastidious person. Consequently, she made sure that order prevailed in the house. She spoke of the dairy house, the vegetable garden, and the hired hand who took the milk to the creamery. Not too far from where the Donovan homestead stood, there was a well-known site known as the Rock of Corrigean. This spot was a social gathering place, where dances were held and young people came together during the lovely evenings during the long Irish summer. Many a match was made in this romantic spot.