1. Mary DALTON (caution: not verified) was born abt 1810s in probably Athea, Co. Limerick. She died in probably Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry.

It's believed Mary was from the Athea area. Perhaps she was from the same townland as her husband which was Dirreen Lower. In case this is so, here's a little information we've acquired on a Dalton family from Dirreen to which it's possible Mary may have been connected:

Dalton is and was a common surname in the parish of Athea but at the time of Griffith's Valuation of that area (1852) there was only one Dalton family occupying land in Dirreen, that of Thomas Dalton who was renting a house, office and land from an H. de Masey. It's known that this Thomas married a Maria Sheahan. There doesn't seem to be any record of the marriage in Athea so it's possible Maria Sheehan was not from there since marriages usually took place in the bride's parish. Their farm was occupied after their deaths by their son Michael. Michael married a Mary Dillane but they had no family so the farm was given to Michael’s niece and Maria's nephew, John Sheehy from Templeathea East and Elizabeth Scanlan from Glenagragra in Glin, who were married to each other. Descendants of  the Sheehys still live on this farm.

There is however absolutely no proof that Mary Dalton was related to this family in Dirreen.

The Dalton surname is common throughout Ireland. Its early spelling was D'Alton and it arrived in Ireland with an Anglo-Norman family of this name that settled in Meath in the 13th century and became completely hibernicised.

Mary married Patrick O'CONNOR / CONNORS in Athea, Co. Limerick. Patrick was born abt 1800s in probably Dirreen Lower, Athea, Co. Limerick. He died in probably Kilbaha, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), Co. Kerry.

MANY THANKS GO TO JER KENNELLY OF KNOCKANURE, CO. KERRY FOR ALL HIS HELP WITH MY O'CONNOR RESEARCH AND WITH MY NORTH KERRY RESEARCH IN GENERAL.

It's thought Patrick may have been born in the townland of Dirreen Lower in Athea, Co. Limerick and later moved just across the county border to Kilbaha South, Newtownsandes, Co. Kerry. Note that Newtownsandes is now called Moyvane and that Dirreen is sometimes spelled Derreen, Direen or Dereen.

There are two entries in Griffith's Valuation (with a printing date of 1 July 1852) for a Patrick Connors occupying land in Dirreen. One or both of these could refer to our Patrick above. One entry shows that a Patrick Connors was renting a house from a Timothy Sullivan and the other shows a Patrick Connors renting a house and land from a John Connors. There's also an entry for a Johanna Connors in Dirreen who was renting a house and garden from a Daniel Liston.

However there's an entry in Griffith's Valuation (with a printing date of 15 December 1851) for a Patrick Connors in Kilbaha South. There are no other entries for Connors or Connor or O'Connor for the entire parish of Murher (name of civil parish, equivalent to Catholic parish name of Newtownsandes), so it's also a possibility that this Patrick Connors is our Patrick.  It's also a possibility that our Patrick may have farmed in both Dirreen and Kilbaha. The Patrick listed in Griffith's for Kilbaha was the lessee of a "Herd's ho.", presumably a herdsman's house, along with about 28 acres of land. The lessor was a Rev. Samuel B. Leonard. Nowadays there are a number of O'Connor families established in Moyvane, such as the "Slate Connors" (so named because at one time a member of this family had the only house in the parish with a slate roof) in Clounbrane, and the O'Connor family of Keylod, but there appears to be no connection at all between these families and our O'Connors.

Another O'Connor with Kilbaha connections was John Connor who was married to Catherine Connor (we don't know if Connor was her maiden or married name). They lived in Kilbaha and had a daughter named Hanora who was baptised on 2 January 1862 with sponsors Jeremiah Connor and Johanna (what looks like) Flahivan. Could John and his family have been connected to our O'Connor family?

Diane Kern in the U.S. has sent me information an another O'Connor family from Newtownsandes who are probably not related to our O'Connors but for the benefit of other O'Connor researchers, here is Diane's information on the family of Bryan O'Connor, her great-great-grandfather: Bryan was born in Newtownsandes (name of townland is unknown), one of the 15 children of Michael O'Connor and Catherine whose surname was believed to have been Flaherty. He left Newtownsandes for the U.S. (possibly via Canada) in the late 1840s / early 1850s and later married Margaret O'Keeffe from Duagh, Co. Kerry (with whose family he may have travelled to Canada). Family lore has it that Bryan had to leave Ireland because he was to be hung for stealing a sheep to feed his starving family. If you would like to get in touch with Diane regarding this family, please send an e-mail to dock9@adelphia.net.

The O'Connor surname is very common in all areas of Ireland, especially in counties Kerry, Limerick and Cork. The name is derived from the Irish 'O Conchubhair' from the first name, 'Conchubhair', meaning, perhaps, 'lover of hounds'. There were five septs: in Connaught (O'Connor Don), Offaly, north Clare, Keenaght in Co. Derry, and Kerry. In Kerry, the O'Connors were chiefs of a large territory in the north of the county. The Norman invasions displaced them further north to the Limerick border where they retained much of their power until the seventeenth century. Today the descendants of these O'Connors are by far the most numerous of all the descendants of the original septs.

Marriage Notes:

I have been given a marriage date of 31 July 1830 for Patrick and Maria, but this is the date I have been given for the baptism of their (presumably first) child, Maria. So we can assume that either this marriage date is correct or that they were married about 1829. Witnesses to the marriage were Maurice Scanlon and Thomas Sheahan. It is not known where Patrick and Maria were married.