Kinsella's of Mooncoin Parish, County Kilkenny and Jersey County, Illinois

  When our ancestors met and married other immigrants from Kilkenny in Jerseyville, they were often familiar with the communities their families came from. Here is a map of the area of southern Kilkenny where most of our ancestral families lived.  The closest city was Waterford, just across the river Suir.   From Killinispic, it was only 6 miles to Garryduff, starred in orange in the top left corner of the map, and 4 miles each to the villages of Piltown or Mooncoin. Mullinavat was 5 miles away, and 8 miles to Rahillakeen and Bigwood (starred in orange to the lower right of Mullinavat.) So we see our ancestors who married into each other's families in Jersey County generally came from a very close communities in Kilkenny, Ireland. Kinsella's- Killinaspic Quinn's and Fitzgerald's- Bigwood (Rathnasmolagh) and Rahillakeen Durney's- Garryduff It is only the Allen's that came from a distant county 90 miles to the north-Summerhill Parish in County Meath.

Have you ever wanted to attend a church service in one of the parishes of our ancestors in Ireland? Believe it or not, now is a good time!  The Covid-19 Virus has unfortunately struck Ireland as well, so many of the churches are providing videos of services for members of their congregations who cannot safely attend in person. Besides seeing the parish church and enjoying the service (with a delightful Irish lilt) you may well be seeing people in the congregation who may even be our distant relatives. You will notice that the people in Ireland are facing challenges similar to our own- the need for masks and social distancing, etc. But the mass, of course, will familiar to all. Videos from Sunday Mass- Church of the Assumption, Piltown Videos from Church of the Assumption Mooncoin Live Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral Kilkenny City times listed at site (see other posts below for details on the churches of our ancestors in Kilkenny) Here are some of the parish churches of our Irish ances...

Kilnaspic Chapel is in Mooncoin Parish, Diocese of Ossory. Irish "Coill Na Easpag" meaning "Bishop's Wood." An online inquiry led me to a note from June Long, a descendant of a neighbor of Simon Kilmartin (Gilmartin) whose family were neighbors of John Kinsella and Margaret Grace in Barronswood. The Griffith's Valuation shows them sharing 166 acres of farmland- John Kinsella, James Kinsella, and Simon Kilmartin (Gilmartin.) She told me that her father showed her where Thomas Kinsella, John Kinsella's father and his wife were buried, in the Kilnaspic Cemetery near Barronswood in Clogga. His memorial was erected by his son, Thomas Kinsella (John's brother) who lived in Waterford at the time. She said that John Kinsella and Margaret Grace were evicted sometime between 1850-1855 and went to the poorhouse in Waterford. She also knows where the original house was, which is now just a crumbling wall. We later visited Mrs. Gilmartin in Ireland and she showed...