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The society must ultimately be judged by its members and
these are some of the comments that have been received. Rod
would be very grateful if people would let him know (rod@odonoghue.co.uk)
when the society has helped.
1-15 | 16-21
| How the society helped |
What helped |
Member/guest |
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I really want to thank Rod and The O'Donoghue Society for their help in finding my grandparents' grave in Rathmore; it was the highlight of the trip for me. |
Contacting Rod |
Ellen M. Donoghue |
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When I first contacted the O’Donoghue Society it was, I admit, more in hope than expectation. I had scant knowledge of my forebears - just my grand-father’s name and a few other personal details. The reason I did not know more was because my grand-mother would not speak about him and my father, who was only 2 years old when his father died, was not interested. All I really wanted to know was the name of our home town or village in Ireland.
Now retired and with more time on my hands I found details of the O’Donoghue Society while surfing the net. I sent off an e-mail with what little I knew and was amazed when by return I was told that our branch of the family had been thoroughly researched by ‘a chap in Essex.’ I
have met this chap, Rod, who is my grand-father’s great grand-son. Thanks to his researches I now have details of our branch of the family going back hundreds of years. I have also met Rod’s aunt Sheila, my grand-father’s grand-daughter. So Sheila and I share a grand-father but do not have the same grandmother. These skeletons in the cupboard are why I had so much trouble finding out anything about the family. Now, thanks to the O’Donoghue Society many questions have been answered, I know we come from Glenflesk and my Christmas card list is that much longer .. and I am very pleased about that.
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Contacting Rod |
Kevin O'Donoghue |
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The society helped me find direct descendants of Steve Donoghue. Steve was a famous jockey and a family celebrity. He was my grandad's cousin and greatly revered in family mythology. My nephew Steve was named for him! |
Contacting Rod, Researcher Names listings and the Message Forum |
Anne Ahmad |
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How the society helped:
My objective was to learn where in Ireland my great-grandfather, John Donoghue, was born in 1850. With the help John Michael O'Donoghue and Rod O'Donoghue both of the O’Donoghue Society I now know the answer: the Cools town land, which is east of Killarney and north of Killaha. It was a fairly exhaustive process of obtaining birth, marriage and death certificates; reviewing U.S. census records from the early 1900’s in Salt Lake City, reviewing the Casey volumes in the Killarney Library, joining the Y-DNA project, etc. But, the key break through came when John remembered that my great-grandfather’s mothers maiden name, Healy, listed on his death record was synonymous with her maiden name, Kerrisk, which was listed on his birth record in the Casey volumes. A great feeling came from this team accomplishment. At various times during my research I considered giving up, but the helped I received from the O’Donoghue Society gave me the necessary encouragement. Although I achieved my objective I hope to continue my genealogy search and learn as much as I can about my ancestors.
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John O'Donoghue (Killarney society coordinator) and Rod O'Donoghue |
Mr William Donoghue |
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I just thought I would let you know that I found my dad through your site. We hadn't seen each other in 25 years. Now I have a half brother and a million aunts etc. Just thought you would like to know your site is bringing people together. |
Message forum |
Ms Kathy Fooker |
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Way back in 1998 or 1999 I found Rod’s O’Donoghue website and posted a message in the messages forum saying that I was looking for other Grandchildren of David and Mary Donohue from Red Bank NJ. Well I was in and out of the forum during that next year suddenly one day, 2 answers appeared. One was a friend of my cousins, the Lithcos, who knew how to get in touch with them and apparently he immediately called my cousins and told them I was looking for them. And directed my Cousin to the message because there was a second message from her.
We made arrangements to meet in North Jersey and we exchanged a lot of information, deaths, burials, weddings, new children and grandchildren etc. . We both brought pictures and she has way many more than I, and we both brought questions. We haven’t gotten together lately but we still touch base periodically and if one of us finds some new kernal of info, we share it with each other and all the various brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile, I posted, later, more questions and got an inquiry from someone in Ireland. Turns out she’s married to a cousin and he’s related to a local cousin of my father and she was able to straighten out some tangled family threads, about which Donahue/Donohue married which Heston, which Nolan etc. . Unfortunately, that’s not a currently active conversation. Hopefully she’s still reading and just not answering. But just from posting my interests I have cleared away some cobwebs, found 4 cousins and some jr. cousins (children of the cousins who’ve been born since the last time our parents were in contact) and found some solid leads to more family history and connections.
Just from 3-4 posts in the message forums. So – post your interests.
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Message Forum |
Beth Donahue Cherkowski |
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By providing my research interests the society put me in touch with Tom Donahue. Through him I virtually have been able to find out everything regarding our family history in Ireland of which very little was known before. Since then I have made a trip to Ireland, met long lost cousins including The O'Donoghue, and even walked on the very ground where my ancestors walked. This was pretty special. |
Research Interests and contacting Rod |
John Michael O'Donoghue |
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You helped me by encouraging me when I was frustrated by the research, you gave me freely of your ideas for systematically researching the dark corners of my family story, you inspired me to begin to write it and then again to improve it, and you provided the finishing touches of inserting my photos where they would help tell the story. And then you published it in the Journal and I can't tell you how happy that makes me to have this precious part of my family "published on the website" in such an attractive manner where it may inspire others. |
Rod & journal |
Mr Norman Donoghue |
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Thanks mainly to the society I have been able to trace my ancestors generation by generation back to
1770. I have also made contact with a branch which immigrated to Deleware Co. U.S.A. in 1861.
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Shared resources |
John O'Donoghue |
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I have enjoyed several gratifying experiences as Society coordinator for Kerry and group administrator of its yDNA project. I will select two of them for discussion here. The first is an example of what can be accomplished when a member of the Society whose roots are in Kerry approaches Rod for help, and Rod hands the case off to me. Then, using the internet site of the Church of Latter Day Saints, records published in my 16 volumes compiled by A.E. Casey, M.D., entitled “O Kief, Coshe Mang, Slieve Lougher and Upper Blackwater in Ireland,” and the special fund of knowledge owned by local experts on the ground in Kerry , I can sometimes discover the ancestors and living relatives of those members, where they lived and where they are buried. The best example was the successful search for the family of John Michael O Donoghue of Sydney, Australia and Father Robert Hayes of Cupertino, California, recounted in a pair of articles published in the Journal, one in April, the other in December, 2001. John and Bob are both great-grand children of Daniel Donoghue and Mary Carey who, in the mid 1800s, lived in Coomacullen Townland, where, coincidentally, they were neighbors of my great grandparents’ family. Before 2001 when John and Bob approached Rod, they were utterly unaware of the other’s existence. In this case Bob got in touch with Rod after John and I had begun to reconstruct the birth- places and dates of his grand father, his siblings and a family of cousins who also emigrated to Australia. Bob’s information bolstered and augmented the case John and I were building. I turned to Glenflesk expert, Brother Domhnal (The Gates) O Donoghue, to supply the names of some living relatives and to pinpoint the location of the farm where the family of Daniel and Mary lived in Coomacullen. Another local expert, Jimmy Gleeson, eventually removed some lingering genealogical ambiguities. Consequently, when John and Bob joined me and other O Donoghues in Glenflesk in April, 2002, they were able to meet with a host of their local relatives and, with their help, to visit the farms in the townlands of Coomacullen and Gortdromakerrie where their great grandparents lived and to visit the graves where they are interred at Muckross Friary. Best of all was to discover a new set of O Donoghue friends, even though, as it turned out, we were not all closely related.
The successes of our yDNA project are recounted elsewhere on this site and in the Journal. |
Society co-ordinator roles |
Thomas M Donahue |
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I am happy to say that within hours of joining the Society I was contacted from Australia with heaps of information and clues about my Donoghue family in Glenflesk. The Parish Priest
and I are now on first name terms! |
Society coordinator |
Mr Joe Kelsall |
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I began documenting the history of my branch of the Donoghue clan in the mid-1990s. I was quickly able to put together the story of my family beginning with the arrival of my great grandfather, Patrick Donohue in Chicago in the late 1850s. But I was never able to trace my roots back to Ireland. That was my motivation for joining The O'Donoghue Society.
Late last summer, I participated in the society's yDNA project. Through the project, I've learned that on the 37 marker test, I match up on 34 of 37 markers with society founder, Rod O'Donoghue and I match on 35 of 37 markers with John O'Donoghue who was born in Co. Kerry. By sharing what we know of our families, and with the help of the late Tom Donahue,
John, Rod and I have been able to narrow our search for our common
ancestor in Co. Kerry. And, I've made new friends as well. The highlight was a meeting in Chicago with John O'Donoghue, his brother, Tom and his son, Nick.
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yDNA project |
Mr Michael Donahue |
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The society has helped me get in touch with persons that eitherdirectly or indirectly provided me with more information on my O'Donoghue ancestors. I had had very limited information and they offered me their time and knowledge to provide me with more. |
Contacting Rod, Researcher Names listings and the Message Forum |
Patricia Lewis |
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I have gained a greater insight and understanding of the wider O'Donoghue experience. Also, I have been able to join the O'D DNA project, which hopefully, will enable the 'clan' to discover its links and origins. |
Everything |
Mr Gerry O'Donoghue |
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It has given me a better background of my ancestors. I enjoy reading the journals. I run my own businesses and don't have as much time as I would like to spend on the family tree. I want to support your efforts so that I have a source to go to and to learn about the family. I hope you can keep up the good work.I think you are doing a good job on the web site and you have always answered my comments well and promptly. |
Journal |
Patrick Thomas Donohue |
1-15 | 16-21
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