Brennan-Fahey Family Update

 My great great grandfather, Ned (Edward) Brennan came to America from Ireland in 1860.  A few months later, his wife, Mary Fahey Brennan, arrived in New York and there had her first child.  Her widowed mother, Sally Finn Fahey, supposedly accompanied her on the journey. Mary Brennan's father, John Fahey, had died some years before the journey.  While I have a few names that may or may not be the parents of Ned Brennan, I have little else to tell me about his ancestors.  Since most census records prior to 1901 have been destroyed for various reasons, it is quite difficult to trace ancestry in Ireland.  So, six weeks ago I hired a research company in Ireland to see if anything could be found on my Brennan and Fahey ancestors.

Yesterday, I received the report and it was quite disappointing.  Griffith's valuation, an 1850 survey of landowners and tenants, lists an Edward Brennan leasing land in the townland of Gortnaclae, the area in which he had lived prior to emigrating.  However, there are no baptismal records for Ned Brennan in Gortnaclae, so this indicates he and his family may have come from somewhere else.  Where that might be, I have no idea.

Also, by 1858, according to the Cancelled Books, which update ownerships and land leases, Edward Brennan appears to have left the district. 

There are baptismal records for a Mary Fahey close to the area from which she came, and close to the approximate date of her birth in 1833.  The parents listed were John Fahey and Sally Finne.  John Fahy and Sally Finn or Finne had two other children, baptized in the same parish:  Patrick in 1835 and Judy in 1837.  These dates are close to the dates of the births of Mary's known siblings, who also came to America, but their names were John and Julia, not Patrick and Judy.  It is possible, of course, that Patrick's middle name was John and he went by that once he came to America, and that Judy used Julia once she arrived here.  But I can't be certain of that, so I'm not certain this is the correct family.  As for dates, Irish immigrants often were vague on their actual birthdates, whether by ignorance or design I'm not sure. 

We'll be leaving for Ireland in less than 5 weeks and hope to spend some time with a cousin there who has offered to take us to the old Brennan homestead.  Perhaps he or another family member can give me a better idea of how long the Brennan family lived there and where they might have come from before that.  At this point, that is the only remaining way for me to find more clues.