Building the first Tree of early Families

In 1924 My uncle Jack Balfry (JCK, son of Charles and grandson of William) wrote to his uncle Arthur inquiring about the Balfry origins. The reply was disappointing in that it only confirmed that the family originated in Caherconlish, Limerick and that William’s mother's family name was O'Mealy. No mention of either grandparent's first names. Later in 1934 Jack wrote to the parish priest of Caherconlish asking to be put in touch with any Balfrys in the community. This resulted in an exchange of letters with John Balfry (1877-1957) who gave details of his own ancestry.

Key phrases were as follows:-

“My grandfather Ned was a brother to William that went to England.”

“Grandfather was born in the year 1803 and died in 1873, his family was William, John, George, Ned and four daughters”.

“My own father was born in the year 1833 and died in 1906, his name was William, he had a family of six children, 5 girls and one boy.”

“My own name is John and I have three children, William, Ned and Noreen”

“my great grandfather’s name was Ned”

In a later letter (March 1935) he wrote “my great -great grandfather was born in the year 1738, his name was Phillip, great grandfather was born in 1768, both were born in Dunvullen.”

“my own father had four sisters that went to the States, Bridget, Katie, Hanoba, and Mary Anne.”

From this information Jack constructed the tree in Fig 1. (items in black).

At that time Jack knew that his grandfather William, born in Caherconlish, Limerick, had moved to England before his marriage in 1938, and that his great grandmother was an O’Mealy. He therefore made the reasonable assumption that the “William that went to England” was a son of Ned (1768), and that Ned’s wife must have been an O’Mealy and so he added the details shown in brown in Fig. 1

This became the accepted line of succession until very recently. However Mike Balfré, (who had constructed an extensive tree) and myself were becoming suspicious of this situation for the following reasons.

1. In the English census returns William gave his year of birth as 1819 (his “brother” Ned was born in 1803 - a big difference, although possible).

2. On his marriage certificate William gave his father as William, occupation farmer, not Ned.

3. The English census returns for 1841 and 1851 show a William Balfry born Ireland 1794, wife Ellen and family living in Lambeth, London. Later his marriage to Ellen Leonard in 1828 was found in the records of St. John’s Church, Limerick. Their first child was born in Lambeth in 1832, so they must have moved between 1828 and 1832.

Could this have been the “William that went to England”? If so, it changed the line of succession considerably and begs the question Who was William’s father if he was not Ned? Should we be looking for a William born between about 1770 and 1795 who married an O’Mealy? Then came a lucky break, we were contacted via the rootschat internet forum by Nicole Thomson in Australia who revealed that her great-great grandmother Bridget Belfry, born Limerick emigrated to Australia in 1853 aged 20 (born 1833) and that Bridget’s parents were William Belfry, a farmer, and Bridget Mally/Mailey. Was this the missing link? If this was a misspelling of O'Mealy then this new Bridget was most likely a sister to William (b. 1819) linked by the O’Mealy/Mally name. However we need to be cautious because there were both O'Mealy and Mally families living in the area at that time.We can now re-draw the tree as shown in Fig 2. It is assumed that William and Ned were brothers and sons of Philip, but this is still unconfirmed. The Balfry line is now split into two main branches with Ned (1768) and William (farmer) at the head of each..

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