1. Joseph NOLAN was born about 1821 in probably Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. He died on 3 Jun 1896 in Lenamore, Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.

Joseph was a farmer and lived in Lenamore (also spelled Leanamore), Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. While Griffith's Valuation (1848 to 1864) has no Nolans listed as occupying land in Lenamore, indicating that Joseph may have been born elsewhere, a Mary Nolan of Lenamore married a Thomas Shanahan in Ballylongford in 1836. Could Mary have been a sister of Joseph's?

By the time of the birth of his daughter Elizabeth (January 1862), Joseph was living in Lenamore.

The only Nolans listed in Griffith's Valuation for Aghavallan (equivalent to today's parish of Ballylongford) were the following:
Cornelius (Aghanagran Lower)
Patrick (Ballymacasy)
Timothy (Killelton)
Perhaps one of the above was Joseph's father.

Both Joseph and his wife, Kitty, had died by the time of the 1901 census and no Nolan households in Lenamore were found in eiher the 1901 or 1911 census suggesting that Joseph and Kitty had no surviving sons. There was only one Nolan household in the entire parish of Ballylongford listed in the 1901 census (none in the 1911 census), that of Tom Nolan in the townland of Tullahennell. Could Tom have been related to Joseph? The informant on Joseph's death certificate was his son-in-law Nicholas Madden of Lenamore so it is possible that Nicholas and his wife, Sarah, were left the Nolan family farm.

Joseph died of "paralysis" from which he had been suffering for nine months, according to his death certificate.

The Nolan surname is very common throughout Ireland, especially in the south-east. It is strongly linked to the Carlow area where it is an anglicised form of O Nualláin. The prevalence of the name in Mayo and Galway is explained by the migration of a branch of the Carlow family there in the sixteenth century. There was also a separate Ó hUallacháin family from west Cork, whose name was anglicised as Nolan. Could Joseph have been a descendant of these west Cork Nolans?

Joseph married Catherine (Kitty) HEALY on 1 Feb 1860 in Ballylongford, Co. Kerry. Catherine was born about 1829 in Clontubrid, Listowel, Co. Kerry. She died on 29 Aug 1883 in Lenamore, Ballylongford, Co. Kerry.

Very sadly, Kitty died just three days after her 22-year-old son Tom. She was 54 years of age and had been suffering from tuberculosis.

Unfortunately we know nothing about Kitty's parents or siblings, if any, apart from the fact that they were from Clontubrid (I have also seen Clontubrid spelled as Clountubrid, Cloontubrid and Cloontubbrid), near Listowel, Co. Kerry. However it is possible Kitty was related to two other Healys from Clontubrid in my family tree: Philip, born about 1830 and John who was born about 1870.

Healy is a very common surname throughout Ireland. For the most part, those bearing the Healy name today are descended from one of two Irish families, the Ó hEilidhe (from the Irish word "eilidhe" meaning "claimant") originally from south-east Sligo, and the Ó hEaladaighthe (from the Irish word "ealadhach" meaning "ingenious") from the parish of Donoghmore in Co. Cork. Given the proximity of Cork to Kerry, I imagine Catherine may have been a descendant of the Donoghmore Healys.

Marriage Notes:

Witnesses were Daniel Nolan and William Sullivan.