The Byrne Family

Probably 80 per cent of Irish people with the surname Byrne or Burns are descendent from the Leinster Clan O'Byrne. In its Gaelic form it was Ua Broin or O'Broin, meaning 'descendent of Bran' who was an eleventh century chief of the UI Faelain clan who were associated originally with Kildare but were forced from their lands and moved to Wicklow where they played a leading role over the centuries in opposing the Anglo-Norman invasion.

Our great-great grandfather, Matthew Byrne (1805 - 1874) was married to Maria Bergin ( 1805 - 1874) and one of their seven children, Maria Byrne, was our great-grandmother who was married to Patrick Kavanagh of Sleighduff. Another child, Bridget Byrne ( - ) married a Daniel John Kavanagh of Johnstown.

A brother of Maria and Bridget, Michael Byrne, married Bridget (Birdie) Kavanagh who was a sister of Daniel John Kavanagh; so a brother and a sister (Daniel John and Bridget Kavanagh) married a sister and a brother (Bridget and Michael Byrne).

Daniel John Kavanagh was a close relation of Patrick Kavanagh but, as yet, we have been unable to establish the exact relationship. However, we know that he was, at one time, the bookkeeper in the local grocery shop in Coolgreaney, currently owned by the Somers family. We have a copy of the weekly account kept for local families buying their groceries in the shop in the 1880's and Daniel Kavanagh who was living in Johnstown at the time appears in it in 1883.

Entry in Grocery Book in 1883 Daniel Kavanagh's Account

Daniel Kavanagh's Account

Daniel Kavanagh and Bridget Byrne went to the USA, married and had four children. Their eldest, Agnes Marie Kavanagh (1893 - 1978), was born in Chicago, Illinois. Eventually, the family went west to North Dakota where their immediate descendants currently reside.

Michael Byrne who married Daniel Kavanagh's sister, Bridget Kavanagh, also went to Fargo, North Dakota, where he had a church named after him, 'St.Michaels' as he had most to do with the building of it. A son, Patrick and a daughter, Elizabeth visited our aunts in Seafield Road, Clontarf in the 1970's.

It is interesting to note that our American cousins spell Kavanaugh with the 'u' which is an old Irish spelling of the name.

Agnes Marie Kavanagh, who grew up in North Dakota, married John Carroll ( 1887 - 1961) in 1922. John was born in Carrigdangan, Macroom, County Cork and had gone to the USA as a young man. John and Agnes had a son and two daughters and we are in touch with their daughters, Eileen Marie Carroll (1924) who is a widow and was married to Kenneth Flanders ( 1920 – 1988), and with Kathleen Bridget (1925) Carroll who is married to Quintin Norine (1920). Eileen lives in Paynesville, Minnesota and Kathleen lives in Wilmar, Minnesota.

Once again, there are very close relationships between all the families living in the localities of Johnstown, Sleighduff and Barnacleith in County Wicklow. In particular, there appears to have been many intermarriages between the Sheehan, Kavanagh and Byrne families over the years. Indeed, all of these families, who are cousins, still reside in the locality.

Matthew Byrne and John Sheehan in Griffith's Valuation Survey 1848