Descendants Of Jack McKeown's Sister, Mary

Jack McKeown's brothers (Jack The Blacksmith is my grandfather), James and Michael also emigrated to America but not at the same time. Unlike Jack, they married and settled there (both without issue). Jack had in addition one surviving sister (- the twins Bridget and Michael, born two years after Jack, had both died in infancy.) This girl was called Mary. She also had emigrated to America and returned. In adult life she married Hughie Kelly. They settled in Culloville, where they raised two children, Thomas and Mary. I will mention Tom shortly. Mary is my chief informant at this stage, to whom several references have been made in the last few pages.

Mary Kelly was an occasional visitor to our home when we were growing up in the “Meadow”. She was, and of course still is, my mother's first cousin. Mary is the child of mum's aunt Mary - the sister of her father Jack. Mary lives alone now in Bessbrook. Her husband Eugene (they married in the late forties) died in a road traffic accident in 1978. She was welcoming and informative when I called on her to aid my research.

The children of my mother's first cousin are quite distant cousins of mine. Nevertheless since I have learned their names I will now briefly outline who they are. Peter Anthony Maguire, born in 1950 is settled in London with his wife and child. His wife was Anna Mangan from Achill Island (the holiday paradise for Flo and I for almost twenty years!). Hugh Maguire lives in Mayo with his wife Rose and son. Winifred, born in 1953 lives in Belfast with her husband Stephen McCaul and two children. Paddy and Maura Maguire live in Dublin with their two children. Cecil is separated from his wife and four children in Dublin. Ambrose and his wife Anne McNally from Kildare live in Birmingham with their two sons and a daughter. Jacinta and David McKeown live in Ballymena. She's a haematologist in Antrim hospital - he's an executive with the IDB. Jerome Maguire is married but separated. The youngest child, Bronagh lives in Derby with her husband Philip Cassidy.