'unknown' SULLIVAN.

I'M INDEBTED TO MAURA O'HANLON FROM MOURNEABBEY, CO. CORK, A GREAT-GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF 'UNKNOWN' SULLIVAN, FOR ALL HER HELP WITH MY O'SULLIVAN RESEARCH.

It's believed 'unknown' was born in the townland of Caheraveelane in the civil parish of Kilshannig and in the Catholic parish of Donoughmore (near the village of Nad) in Co. Cork. The Sullivans from Caheraveelane were known as the "Cahera" (pronounced "kawra") or "Caher" Sullivans, presumably to distinguish them from the other Sullivan families in the area. They used the surname "Sullivan" prior to the early 20th century when they started using the name "O'Sullivan" which would have been their ancestors' original name.

The O'Sullivan surname is the third most common surname in Ireland, with four out of five O'Sullivan families in the country living in counties Cork and Kerry where O'Sullivan is the most common surname. The original Irish surname was 'O Suileabháin', deriving possibly from 'suil dubh án' meaning 'dark-eyed'. It's possible that the O Suileabháin families originated in South Tipperary from where they were driven out in the 13th century by the O'Briens and the Normans. Most settled in west Cork and Kerry. By the end of the 14th century, the O Suileabháins had split into at least seven different groupings, the most impportant of which were (i) Clann Gilla Mochuda of south Kerry, who in the 16th century, changed their name completely to McGillycuddy, (ii) the O'Sullivan Mór, based on the shores of Kenmare Bay, and (iii) the O'Sullivan Beare, rulers of the area around Bantry and of the Beara peninsula of Co. Cork. It's thought that our O'Sullivan family is descended from the O'Sullivan Beare.

John MASON.

According to the marriage certificate of his daughter, Maria, John was an "agent". Could this have meant a landlord's agent?

Edward HUDSON [Parents] was born in prob Tralee, Co. Kerry. He married Sarah HICKSON on 15 Aug 1838 in Blennerville, Tralee, Co. Kerry.

Edward, who was a "landed proprietor" (according to the marriage certificate of his son Robert), is listed in Griffiths Valuation of 1851 as landlord of some 440 acres in Kilbaha in the parish of Newtownsandes (now called Moyvane). My own Hudson family, from Kilbaha in Moyvane in Co. Kerry, is connected to Edward's family but the exact relationship has not yet been established. Edward's land, which was rented from the Sandes family, comprised the entire area of the townland of Kilbaha North (there's also a Kilbaha South, Kilbaha West and Kilbaha Middle) and it was on a parcel of Edward's land that my ancestor Richard Hudson settled as a tenant around the late 1840s. In 1915 a number of Richard's descendants purchased their Hudson land at a favourable price.

Edward lived in Gortmore House (now the Bon Secours Hospital) on Strand St. in Tralee (where my great-great-grandmother Johanna Hudson was married in 1847). According to Griffiths, Edward rented 11 acres and No. 25 Strand St. from Thomas de Moleyns, and four acres and No. 27 Strand St. from Sir Edward Denny); presumably Gortmore House stood on one of these properties.

There was another Edward Hudson in Kerry at the time who married an Elizabeth Kivell and had a daughter named Emma Jane who was born in the Tarbert area of Co. Kerry on 28 October 1871. Could this Edward be related to our Hudson family?

It's believed many of the older generations of the Tralee Hudsons, who were Protestant, are buried in Ballyseedy Churchyard just outside Tralee.

Further information on Edward and his descendants is available in 'The Hudsons of Tralee' one of a number of volumes written by William Hudson from Florida who was a descendant of the Kilbaha Hudsons (I have yet to take a look at this work). Beginning in 1956, William studied his Hudson family history right up to his death in 2008 and donated copies of the results of his research to the public libraries in Tralee and Listowel.

Sarah HICKSON [Parents] married Edward HUDSON on 15 Aug 1838 in Blennerville, Tralee, Co. Kerry.

Sarah was an only daughter.

Herbert Walter BURNHAM died 1997. He married Margaret (Tess) O'SULLIVAN.