Ancestor #9: Finding the Flannery FAN Club

 

Sometimes, it takes a village to find an ancestor. In the case of my father-in-law's Ballina bunch from County Tipperary, Ireland, my only hope of isolating the right Flannery ancestral line for the wife of Denis Tully may be to explore the entire village. At least, the work will call for a re-examination of the F.A.N. Club—Family, Associates, and Neighbors—of Irish emigrants Margaret Flannery and her husband, Denis Tully.

I had worked before on Margaret Flannery, my father-in-law's great-grandmother who married Denis Tully in Ballina, County Tipperary. It was far easier to find her with her family after they immigrated to Canada, but there were certainly signs that the Flannerys had lived in Ballina. The question still remains, though, about Margaret's parents and siblings—and who among them also made the voyage to Canada.

Fortunately, since the last time I worked on this ancestor for my Twelve Most Wanted in 2023, I've connected with two DNA matches researching the same surnames in the same county—an excellent bonus from genetic genealogy companies which provide the research tools to reach out to our distant DNA cousins. By the time I get to researching Ancestor #9 this fall, I will have covered quite a bit of background information through books and videos, thanks to a lively exchange of emails with these two researchers, in preparing to tackle this ninth challenge.

Unlike my goal for the other months during this Twelve Most Wanted sequence, September will enable me to broaden my horizons in searching for the parents of Margaret Flannery by taking into consideration those associates and neighbors whose names kept popping up along with hers, from Ireland to Canada. Even if we don't discover Margaret's parents' names, we'll hopefully build a network of relatives and other associates whose connections may help move the process forward another step or two. 

Ancestor #8: Hoping for D N A Clues

 

There are some ancestors for whom we can handily point to several records in confirmation of our connection. Not so with this one of my Twelve Most Wanted for 2025. My father-in-law's great-grandmother Johanna Falvey, my choice for a research focus this coming August, had proven hard to find the last time I tried to pursue her story. That was five years ago. It's about time to see whether any further clues will turn up.

That said, I'm sorry to say it, but I don't think there will be much more in the way of paper confirmations. Johanna Falvey was an Irish immigrant who came to Fort Wayne, Indiana, with her husband, John Kelly. Now that's a name to try your research hand at. I would have just about given up the chase for John Kelly's wife, except for two things. One was that her obituary tantalizingly mentioned that she had left several sisters behind in Ireland—plus another sibling who had immigrated to New Zealand. The other detail? Well, I've found some DNA matches who lead to Falvey ancestors in New Zealand.

And yet, it can't really be just that easy. I've tried finding the connections before. Frustratingly, the chase always seems to lead back to the same records void in Ireland. Here's hoping that now, five years later, there will be more DNA matches leading to more possibilities of finding records pointing to the right location and family circle back home in Ireland. I may be clutching tightly to my positive attitude mantra for this ancestor, but I'll never know if I can find any more details on Johanna Falvey unless I give this brick wall pursuit another try.

Ancestor #7: Those Flanagans

 

At the turn of the second half of this year, attention for my Twelve Most Wanted for 2025 will turn to the ancestors of my father-in-law. That means grappling with the shrouded identities of Irish men and women from before the time of the Great Famine. Worse, it means trying to trace the identities of Catholics in a land which by then had long become unfriendly towards Catholics.

Bottom line for all this: finding any clear direction regarding the roots of my father-in-law has long meant facing a struggle with lack of documentation. When it comes to finding his Flanagan ancestors, my approach has been to trace any collateral lines. This I had done in 2023, in hopes of finding a clue in the families of siblings—but those hopes have not yet materialized into anything helpful.

Still, I'm willing to give it another try. Reminded by the advances in search capabilities in programs like FamilySearch's Full Text and AI programs, I realize there may be more to come with such developments by next July. So I will not sell my goals short by limiting my research plans based on what is currently available at the beginning of January. This may, however, turn out to be a journey based on faith, not certain availability.

So, who are the Flanagans I hope to find? First is my father-in-law's great-grandmother, Anna Flanagan. She it was who received the enigmatic letter in 1849 from her husband Stephen Malloy with the message—likely an unexpected one—that he was sailing to America within hours. As you can imagine, it was not long after receiving that word that Anna, along with her toddler daughter Catherine in tow, set out to find her husband in America. 

In that quest, she never succeeded. Instead, she joined her bachelor brother in Chicago and raised her daughter there. Eventually, another Flanagan brother joined them in the Windy City, along with a niece and her family.

Who that mystery brother was, I can't yet say. But I suspect that, finding his name and learning more about his family will add to the collection of Flanagan names in that family circle which may point us to the right direction, back in Ireland.

While I can't vouch for Irish records from that time period in the suspected location of their home—County Limerick?—at least I can expand my search on the American side of the research equation for the relatives of Anna Flanagan Malloy.