|
|
 |
|
|
WELCOME TO THE COONEY FAMILY WEBSITE.
We trace our Cooneys back to a small farm on Cairn Hill (or "Cornhill") in Dooroc, Drumlish, County Longford, Ireland. Pictured below is the entrance gate to that farm with the fields shown in the distance. Our Cooney ancestors can be positively identified on this farm only to about 1800 because there are few records in Ireland in which to search, subsequent to
| THE GATE TO "CORNHILL", ITS FIELDS IN THE DISTANCE |
|
the fire in the Four Courts records depository in Dublin in 1921, in which birth, marriage and death records for all of Ireland were destroyed. The earliest relevant record we've found is the "1796 Flax List", which records bounties paid to farmers in Ireland to grow flax to support the production of linen. On the list is found Philip Cooney of Dooroc, Longford; therefore, he owned a farm in Dooroc and planted flax on it in that year. This Philip Cooney may have been the father of our earliest positively identified ancestor, John Cooney, who, with Arthur Cooney (a brother?), appear in the 1806 land and tax records as owning separate 41 acre farms in Dooroc, reflecting, perhaps, the equal division of Philip's larger farm to his sons. In any event, John Cooney married Mary, and they had at least five children, Ann, Philip, John, Edward and Owen. This website is devoted to those five, and in particular to the descendants of the brothers Philip and John.
THE DRUMLISH COONEYS. Click here, or on "Drumlish Cooneys" in the left margin, for more on John Cooney, our first positively identified ancestor, and the family he raised on "Cornhill", his farm in Dooroc. From that page you may also access further information on the beautiful lakes and vales and ancient sites of Drumlish and Longford, as well as the significant events in Irish history that took place there.
COONEYS IN IRELAND. John Cooney's son John married Mary O'Rourke and fathered what would become a dynastic family in Ireland, prominent in law, medicine, politics and business. To view more on that extensive family, click here or on "Cooneys in Ireland" in the left margin.
COONEYS IN RHODE ISLAND. John Cooney's son Philip married Mary Murphy, and their son John Patrick Cooney came to America and Rhode Island in 1857. He married Anne McCabe, also from Drumlish, and their family and their descendants were prolific and successful in business, medicine and law. Click here, or on "Cooneys in RI" in the left margin for more on this branch of the Cooney family.
OTHER DRUMLISH COONEYS. Parish records and the old graveyard for Killoe Parish indicate there were many other Cooneys we haven't accounted for here. For instance, a John Cooney married Ann Loughey in 1835, a Michael Cooney married Mary O'Hara in 1842. There are Eugene Cooneys, Hugh Cooneys and other John Cooneys, as well as indications of earlier Andrew and Owen Cooneys. All of them are probably related, and we are interested in connecting with their descendants. We know also from US Census records that a Mary and an Eleanor Cooney resided in Fr. Edward's Rectory in Providence in1862 and 1881 respectively. They may be daughters of Eugene Cooney who married Bridget Donohue and raised a family in Dooroc in the 1820's and 1830's. We'd like to research this connection further. There may be other Cooneys from Longford, Leitrim and Cavan who are part of our extended families. Please sign in our Guestbook, and we'll check it out. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
How To Navigate This Website The list in the left margin is of the separate pages of this site. Just "click" on the page you want to visit next. Access to these and other pages also may be had by clicking on "links" found within individual pages. We hope eventually to have a page for each family of both the Cooneys of RI and of the Cooneys in Ireland, down to the present time. On these pages we hope to include a brief bio-sketch of each member, to give a sense of who they were (and are), and include photos, recent as well as historical. Anyone who would like to take on the task of editing a page is most welcome. Contact us at JoanTer@juno.com or by signing in on our Guestbook. Comments, corrections and additions are most welcome.
Please sign in! Our Guestbook is now open.
Just click on Guestbook here or in the left column. We'd be particularly interested in any information you can add to our site. If you're listed on the "Family Tree" page (or should be listed there), we'd be very pleased to get contact information. We're finding there are Cooney cousins everywhere!
Most of the research on which this site is based is the result of many trips to Ireland and to our cousins in Longford and Athlone, Ireland and extensive research of tax, marriage, immigration, census and Parish records in Ireland and the US by Eileen Cooney, Agnes Cooney Chretien, Anne Cooney, and Edward J. Cooney. Special thanks also to Margaret Wall for editing the Cooneys in Ireland pages, for all photos and research on those pages and the pages on Fr. Mark and Fr. Pat, and on the wedding of Sean McEoin and Alice Cooney in 1922. Thanks too, to Rev. Loras T. Otting, Director of the Archives and Historical Records, Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, and to Mike Gibson, Director, Center for Dubuque History, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa. Slainte! |
|
|