I am most pleased to report that it seems I have finally traced our John Kenefick back to somewhere more specific that County Cork, Ireland. This morning I called the man who runs the kenefick.com site and spoke with him about our line; he offered to check the parish records that he had in his possession for Keneficks in County Cork. So I sent an e-mail with all pertinent information, and within half an hour he had e-mailed me back with a summary transcription of baptismal records for John and his four siblings. Yippee! (By the way, we do not know of any connection at this time between the Keneficks on the site referenced above and our Keneficks; if one exists, it will be back in Ireland rather than in America.)
We already knew, from John Kenefick’s obituary, that his parents were named Thomas Kenefick and Bridget Toomey. The baptismal records indicate that John was the 3rd of five children: oldest was Patrick (Grama has always said that John Kenefick had a brother named Patrick who settled in Boston, Massachusetts), then Honora, John, Thomas, and Andy (probably Andrew). They lived in Rathanker, which appears to be a townland in the parish of Passage West, although I need to look into it a bit further (it may be Monkstown—I’m not up on Irish stuff).
It is very satisfying to finally have an Irish record that pinpoints where John Kenefick’s family came from and provides proof that they really did come from where it was said that he did (many families said they came from Cork when in reality they were from a different part of Ireland and simply sailed out of Cork Harbor).
Posted by elizabeth at February 2, 2004 01:37 PMCongratulations! That is quite a find - an interesting name for a parish "Passage West". I wonder if it refers to a passage west within Ireland or if it was named when emigration west to America started.
Posted by: Cynthia on February 3, 2004 06:40 AMI found the Kenefick.com site interesting. I sent you an e-mail yesterday about a tidbit of information I came across while perusing the queries section of the site.
Justin Micheal Kenefick wrote on Oct. 31st, 2000
that he is from Ohio and that is grandfather was John T. Kenefick. He was inquiring about any other Keneficks in Ohio.
Justin Micheal finally received a reply Nov. 17th,
2001 from Patrick J. Kenefick, and he lives in Steubenville.
You would think that at least one of them, especially Patrick J. Kenefick, is related to our Kenefick's.
Posted by: Theresa on February 3, 2004 08:13 AMTheresa, I did get your message--I had seen that as I went through nearly all the forum messages the previous night. I do have a Justin Kenefick in my database (b. 1985 & his grandfather was John Thomas Kenefick, so nearly 100% certainty the same person) who is my 3rd cousin once removed, and Patrick J. Kenefick is my 3rd cousin (so he and Justin are 1st cousins once removed). Maybe I'll send a message to Justin telling him about the Kenefick reunion, since he apparently has never been or heard of it.
Mom, I don't know about the history of the parish name, but I suspect it's been called that long before emigration to America specifically--looking on a map shows that it is right by Cork Harbor (it's the little cross between Cork City & Suburbs and Cork Harbor, so as long as the Irish have had a harbor it's probably been known as Passage West.
Posted by: Moi on February 3, 2004 12:42 PM