Gerry's Genealogy Blog

Gerry's Genealogy Blog

This Blog is an interesting read especially for those interested in genealogy.  It refers to many surnames including mine: Sheehan

Shee

Shee is an anglicized version of a word once used in Ireland to name beings magical, spiritually potent, unusually skillful and wise.

Shee has also been used to mean fay or fairy-like

I am sure that I have posted these notions before. My surname is Sheehan and I have said that in Old Irish the suffix -han had been used to indicate a plural. So, it seems, that one of us had been called a fairy and that in the aggregate we came to be called fairies. I'm old and fairly mellow; however, there are relatives of mine who are certain to prefer to be called skillful, potent, and wise.

I prefer not to hear my mother or sister called a banshee. Still, there are shee happenings and shee beings that it were not bad to be associated with. The Tuatha De Danann and peoples before them have been called shee. Certain holy mounds in Ireland have been described as shee. I have head a place called Tir na nOg described as shee. One might get there in a skin boat were it shee.

I have been attracted to knives from early youth, but I know deep in my heart that neither cold steel nor iron were the best metals for me. Fairies are like that. I am allergic to bread of wheat and, so it is said, is a fairy. I am fond of small bells as are fairies.

I am willing to tell you that a 'shotgun house' is a protection from even a displeased fairy. A fairy will tend to support one who maintains a clean well-kept house.

King Author is said to  have had his kingship and reign blessed by fairies. Leprechauns and Lugh are surely shee.

My paternal line was not always called shee, but it was very long ago that others began to call us so. We have been known to be 'good folk.' peaceful people,' and more Irish than Pat's piggy.

Of course I'm not Irish; still, there does seem to be something in the blood.

Shee has named a people. Those people have been called 'guardian spirits' and 'law givers.' They have been considered to be a conquered people living in hiding. We weren't numerous even in the Age of Bronze, but we had some understanding of configurings.

We have been considered honest, but also able with words.

There is more to tell

Family Tree Notes: Margaret

An ancestor of mine by the name of Margaret was born in Ireland ca. 1831 and died in Jackson County Missouri in 1889. She immigrated to the United States in about 1850 and settled in Iowa.

I believe that Margaret married Martin Carroll in Ireland. I think that her family name was Hennessy.

My main source for the information in these notes are from research recorded by my sister Gerry Hook.

However, some of it may have been supplied by my cousin, Kevin O'Carroll.

It seems Martin and Margaret parented two daughters in Kerry, Ireland in the town of Doon in Valley Bunion Parrish of Valley Bunion. Their daughter Mary was born there ca 1841. Their daughter Bridget was born their in 1844. It seems that Honora Fenaghty was a godparent for Mary and that a Margaret was a godparent for Bridget. Was that Margaret Carroll, Martins sister?

Margaret's daughter Mary married my great-grandfather, Mago William Sheehan, in 1860 in Des Moines County, Iowa and bore nine children.

Does anyone know of a town of Doon or a Valley Bunion in Kerry. Doon is not Dun is it. There are plenty of duns in Ireland. There Are fewer bunions that there once were.

Oisin

There are Irish stories and legends about Oisin. Oisin is sometimes called Ossian and pronounced oh-sheen and sometimes written Osheen. Doesn't this seem to be reminiscent of Sheehan?

You might have fun looking into the literature and history of Oisin on-line or at your library.

Gerry's Genealogy

Gerry's Genealogy

Thanks to the excellent research of my sister Gerry most of my known direct line ancestors can be reviewed by clicking the link above.

This Isn't the Whole Shebang

Writers of some authority have stated that the Tuatha De Danann are a race in Irish mythology. One acceptable translation of Tuatha De Danann is 'people of Danu.' The Tuatha De hav also been called 'people of God' and 'people of the goddess.' The "Labor Gabala Erenn" is a respectable source for things Irish before about 400 BC. It puts the Tuathe De Danann as the fifth of a series of people to settle within the boundaries of the Emerald Isle, the isle beyond the western isle.

It seems that these people of Danu were relatively few in number and high in culture. They found the island to be inhabited by a more numerous people who have been called the Fir Bolg.

Some recent historians have called the Tuath De Danann gods because they have been related to god-like heroes and hero-like gods such as: Badb, Ogma, Lugh, Nuada, Manannan mac Lir, Aegus, Morrigan, the Dagda, Luchta, Creidhen, Goibniu, etc. I think that they were people much like you and yours and me and mine.

The people who were on the Island just before the Tuatha De and those who came just after, saw them as people of special ability and knowledge. Later they came to be associated with Faeries, leprechauns, she, 'people under the hill,' and 'the good neighbors.'

"Tuatha De Danann" was probably used to refer to more than one of the peoples who 'came before.'

I suspect my surname, Sheehan, came to us from others. I think that 'shee' may have been what some called a few of those who came earlier and had retreated quietly to the hills and barrows. I think that '..han' was the plural and that others came to call us Sheehan and that among those others we came to call ourselves Sheehan

list of faery mounds

list of faery mounds

Sheehan: Shee is who a person of earliest Ireland came to be called. Shee were probably a pre-Gallic people. ..han is the plural.

Shee were mound people, barrow people, fairies, gods, leprechauns, hill people, first people, people of Danu and much earlier. Perhaps a sea people, a pre-flood people, a people of a time the gate of Atlas was closed. Shee were the people who came 'before.' They were called magic. They were called Iverni. They knew Nemed and Partholon.

Conversation with Neil Sheehan, p. 5 of 7

Conversation with Neil Sheehan, p. 5 of 7

The start of realization.

Insight into the nature of United States foreign policy.

Gerry's Genealogy

Gerry's Genealogy

Look for your family name here.


I found mine.

Direct Line Genealogy

 Joseph C Sheehan's Siblings

If you want to know more about who I am, this site should give you a running start.

Gerry's Genealogy

Gerry's Genealogy

My sister's genealogy sites may help you to figure out who I am; should you be interested.

You can get to one of them by clicking the link above and from there get to her other site.

Checking out the sites could help you learn about genealogy.

You could begin to learn a bit more about your family.

We could be related!

The Myth of Sheehan

Good folk arrived on the Island after us. Compared to us they were many. They brought iron and steel and their language.

There were among them those who were wise, reverent, and creative; and they respected those things. They were honest and true after their fashion.

We learned their language so well that we adopted their name for us. We began to form a unity with them.

The word Ollom or Ollamh was probably theirs; it was not ours. It was a prefix or title before a man's name as a mark of respect. It was used to indicate teacher or wise man. It was used as we now use Master to indicate one who has dominated his craft.

Although the newcomers thought us crafty and some of our knowledge made them a bit nervous, we did not adopt the title.

I suspect that the 'O' of Ollom is the source of the O' prefix before many modern Irish surnames.

The earliest documentation of the use of Ollamh or Ollom refers to the scholar of Fodla, Ollom Fodla.
If you know more or better, please inform me.

It seems that I remember the place name Fodla is traceable back to a daughter of the Tuath da Dannan; which may begin to take it back to times when Sheehan had other names.

Galesburg, IL

It's been a stopping place for Sheehans.
My sister, the family genealogist, directed my interest to Galesburg through some of her research. That is she has found documentary evidence that some of our family lived there for a time.


What follows below are some notes I have taken about the place to add to the fact that Sheehans have lived there. I've waited so long to offer these notes that I have forgotten which Sheehans were there and when they were there. 


It may have been that my great-, great- paternal grandfather was there in the mid-1800s.


Sheehans may have been a large percentage of the population. I think that census enumerators of 1850 found only 323 inhabitants in Galesburg.


Galesburg is what has been called a railroad town, and was once an important trail-head for the western frontier. Lake Storey is there.


The town has other things to recommend it. It was the place where the first anti-slavery society in Illinois was founded in 1937. It was a stop on the 'underground railroad.' In 1858 it was the site of the fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate. That debate took place on a temporary platform attatched to Knox College's old main building.


Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg.


The Marx Brothers may have first received their nicknames there at the Gaity Theater in 1914.


Below I name a few other notable inhabitants of Galesburg other than Sheehans:
~ Mother Bickerdyke, a Civil War nurse of some fame.
~ Ira Clifton Coply, founder of the Coply Press.
~ George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. inventor of the Ferris Wheel(my guess was that it was called ferris for being made of steel).
~ Ronald Reagan, 40th Pres.
~ Sewal Wirts, founder of modern population genetics.
~ Edgar Lee Masters graduated from Knox College.
~ Jack Finney, writer of "The Body Snatchers" was a Knox grad.
~ Rose Ponenzani,folk singer, and Knox grad.

Gerry's Genealogy Blog: Sheehan

Gerry's Genealogy Blog: Sheehan

I'd be very grateful for any information about the M. W. Sheehan mentioned on this site.

I'd also be pleased for any documentation referring to a Mago William Sheehan.

Mago Bill

gen04a


This is inside a genealogy site set up by my sister.

This little page features my the most remote direct line ancestor bearing my surname.

His name is M. William Sheehan or Mago William Sheehan.

If you have any information about him, please contact me.

A Sheehan Myth

It's better than a lie.

With the coming of the Milesians we moved to the hills. We knew them and knew about mining them.

Sometimes our homes were so built that they looked like green mounds of living earth. We had become the old magic people of the hills. Our house, to some, seemed courtly halls. We became leprechauns, fairies, and parents to Lugh.

Shee is what they called us and '...han' was the plural. She perhaps once meant wise or knowing, but came to mean fay, or magic.

"Ban" meant woman to them, so that banshe meant woman of the Shee.

We cured with water, herbs, and minerals.
We worked copper, gold, silver, tin.
We died frabrics and had a rare red.
We were few.
Much is forgotten, but there a still things to be told.
Much of what we know has been filtered through the minds, cultures, and languages of those who came after us.
Sheehan may be related to Tuath De Dannan and to Cian, but I don't know. I can't even name our ancient language.
I do know that we came to the isle beyond the western isle before the Celts, before the working of iron.

Tell Me More

Martin Carroll, father of Mary J. Carroll, may have been from count Kerry. He probably arrived in Burlington, Iowa ca 1852. He married Margaret ca 1840 in Ireland.

Mago William Sheehan may have been from Dingle. He was born ca 1939. He married Mary J. Carroll on November 27th of 1860. He died on April 5th of 1912.

Siblings of Joseph Carroll Sheehan

Who can tell me more about the siblings of my grandfather, Joseph Carroll Sheehan? Joseph, my paternal grandfather, was born August 26th 1884 in Des Moines co, IA. He was the son of Mago William Sheehan and Mary J. Carroll. He married Josephine Helwic on January 16th of 1907 in Cook Co, IL.

He was the eldest son of his parents as was my father of his and I was of mine.


The eight siblings Id like to know more about, Joseph's brother and sisters are:
~ James W. Sheehan, born 12861, died 1920, married Letticia Stafford.
~ Margaret C. Sheehan, born 1863, died 1931, Married James Cornelius Sheahan.
~ John B. Sheehan, 1866, died 1929, married Marie Timmins.
~ Thomas F. Sheehan, born 1868.
~ Martin Sheehan, born1870, died between 1880 and 1885.
~ Catherine/Kate Sheehan, born 1872, married E. W. Osborn.
~ Edward Michael Sheehan, born 1876, died 1929, married Zoa Pashel & Mary Goetz.
~ Robert Emmet Sheehan, born 1880, died 1957, married Adelaide Cora Smith.