Keenan Cousins!

Well, actually the name is Keena, not Keenan.

When John Keena and his wife Ellen Doyle came to America with their children (including Helen, Rusty Dunlap’s mother) they changed the name from Keena to Keenan. They immigrated from “Western Athlone”. Counties are big deals in Ireland and Athlone is on the western edge of Westmeath county with the river Shannon forming the western border of the county. The Keena’s lived in Western Athlone, across the Shannon River in Roscommon County. Sort of like Wenatchee - East Wenatchee and Chelan vs. Douglas County. The records for the Keena family are in Roscommon County (alas, another round of expensive genealogists). We found a ton of information, and met some actual Keena cousins!

The Keena family were farmers in the country a few miles west of Athlone in the township of Lisdillure. The Drum Catholic Church is where they were baptized and the Drum Monastic Cemetery is where they were buried.

We had made arrangements through the brilliant genealogist at the Athlone Public Library to meet the caretaker of the Drum Cemetery. The caretaker, knowing we were coming, invited the Keena brothers to meet us. On the far left is Michael Keena and his wife. On the right is his brother John Keena. John and Michael are grandchildren of Michael Keena brother of our John Keena. That makes Rusty 2nd cousins to those in the picture. Michael’s daughter is pictured with Linda. They are 3rd cousins. Anna is a third cousin “once removed”. Linda and I are 2nd cousins to Michael and John “once removed”.

Michael drove us to his farm in Lisdillure and showed us the ruins of the old family homestead where the Keena family lived 2 generations ago. Electricity and plumbing came late to Ireland and both John and Michael remember the arrival.

The old homestead was a safehouse for the IRA in the 1920’s and was burned out by the British as part of the “troubles” (as the Irish refer to those times).







The Keena’s were thrilled to meet us and were surprised that we knew so much about the Keena family. We actually had more genealogy then they had. :) John came to our hotel the next day and spent another hour visiting with us. He is most interested in keeping alive the family heritage and has set aside 20 acres of the family farm as forest in memory of the Keena family gone before. Most impressive people. The Keena family are great relatives to claim.

The old photo is children of Michael Keena (brother to our John). Back row left to right: Michael, Brian, Malachy, John. Front row left to right: Kathleen, Bernice, Mary. Budding genealogists beware, there are lots of Johns, Michaels, and Malachys spread through the generations.