Finding My Second Great-Grandparents: The Kilcullen Family of Sligo, Ireland

Sligo, Ireland

In 2023, I wrote this post about my paternal great-grandmother Sarah Kilcullen, who emigrated from Sligo, Ireland to San Francisco in the early 1900s. Over the years, I'd explored many avenues to try to learn more about Sarah, but hadn't been able to come up with much new information. Her parents were still unknown, as was her place of birth in County Sligo. 

In advance of a trip to Ireland with my family this summer, I dug into my Kilcullen notes again to see if I could make any progress on this mystery. I also searched family history resources in Sligo and found the County Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Centre. Since my upcoming travels included a stop in Sligo, I wondered if I might be able to visit the centre and look at local records, so I sent off an email query. 

Everyone encounters brick walls in their family history research. It can be frustrating and disheartening. It's easy to resign yourself to the idea that some mysteries just can't be solved. However, as I've learned many times in my genealogy work, you've got to keep trying, because the answers are out there. When you are stuck, seek assistance. I wrote the County Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Centre asking for help, and boy did I get it. I'd like to say a huge thank you to Theresa and Lorraine, who received my message two months before I planned to arrive in Sligo, and were immediately responsive. They emailed back and forth with me, they started researching, and then Lorraine met me in Sligo and delivered a treasure trove of information and a handwritten family tree. To say I'm grateful is an understatement, and I'm also deeply appreciative of how quickly they worked. They really went above and beyond for me.

When I first got in contact with Lorraine and Theresa, they recommended I revisit my previous research to see if there were any gaps. In particular, they asked if I had contacted the San Francisco church where Sarah Kilcullen married Thomas Lacey in 1908. There is a marriage license visible online which lists their names and the date, but Lorraine and Theresa reminded me that the church might have more information. Well, of course I'd reached out to the church. Hadn't I? This is a great reminder that a solid research checklist is critical. If I'd created one for Sarah, I might have realized this oversight in my research sooner. It turns out that I had not actually made contact with the church.

I found an email for St. Teresa of Avila in San Francisco and sent them a message. Honestly, I expected nothing. Sarah and Thomas were married in 1908, two years after the great San Francisco earthquake and fire devastated the city, burning over 80% of San Francisco. Would records have been kept as the city struggled to rebuild? If so, would the church still have them 117 years later? The church was moved in 1924 and partially destroyed by fire in 1932, making me skeptical that marriage records would have survived. If they did, would anyone at the church have time to go searching through the old books? Despite the odds, just two days later, I received an email from the church with a scanned image of my great-grandparents' marriage record.

This record was full of information I already knew, including the date of the marriage and the names of Thomas Lacey's parents. It also shows that Sarah's younger sister Annie was a witness to the marriage. There was no doubt that this was my great-grandparents. It also clearly lists the names of Sarah's parents, information my family has been trying to find for many, many years. Thank you, St. Teresa of Avila for keeping and sharing your records! Thanks to them, I finally learned that Sarah's parents were Dominic Kilcullen and Catherine Kerins. I had never heard either of these names before. In all the research I'd done on Kilcullen families in Sligo, they had never appeared as a possibility. I passed along the names to the County Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Centre and hoped they might be able to provide more information about the family.

Entering my busiest work moment of the year, I didn't have time to meaningfully research my newly-discovered second great-grandparents, so I showed up in Sligo in June hopeful that Lorraine and Teresa had been able to uncover more details. I can't really say enough about how lovely they were, and how deeply I appreciate all Lorraine's research and time. She put together a whole family tree, including Sarah's parents, grandparents, and siblings. She researched each sibling in detail, provided information about where the family lived and Dominic's occupation. She answered all my questions and gave me suggestions on what to search for next. It was such a fantastic experience, and I highly encourage anyone researching County Sligo ancestors to contact the County Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Centre. Below, in a nutshell, is what I learned from Lorraine.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Sligo

The Kilcullen Family in Sligo

Sarah Kilcullen's parents were married on November 30, 1858 at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in Sligo. Their marriage register lists them as Dominic Kilcullen of Knocknaganny and Catherine Keirnes of Old Pound Street. Catherine's surname, Kerins, is sometimes found with different spellings, but it is a popular surname in County Sligo, and it is traditionally spelled Kerins, so that's what I'll use here. The marriage registration also lists Dominic and Catherine's parents: Dominic Kilcullen and Alice Dunleavy, and Patrick Keirnes and Winifred Mulrooney.

In my last post about Sarah Kilcullen and her sister Annie, I mentioned that when Annie arrived at Ellis Island on October 10, 1907, she recorded her most recent address as Pound Street, Sligo, and her closest relative as Mrs. James Mulrooney, a cousin. This makes so much sense since learning that her grandmother's maiden name was Mulrooney and the Kerins family lived on Old Pound Street.

The location of Old Pound Street, just south of Sligo's city center

The area where the Kilcullen and Kerins families lived is just south of Sligo's city center. The area is called Knocknaganny, and Old Pound Street is located between R287 and Gallows Hill Road. When my family drove into Sligo this summer, we drove right through this neighborhood, not knowing yet that it was the Kilcullen family home. Now, it is filled with dense housing, just a three minute drive from the Garvoge River, flowing through Sligo's city center. Lorraine told me that when the Kilcullens lived there, it would have been farmland. 

Dominic Kilcullen is listed as a farmer on the baptismal records of his children, but Lorraine told me that at some point he transitioned to selling cattle. She also thought it possible that the Kilcullens may have originally come from Easky, a village located about 26 miles west of Sligo, right on the Atlantic Coast. There is a large concentration of people with the Kilcullen surname there. However, by the time Sarah was born, her family had been settled in the city of Sligo for some time.

A more detailed look at the neighborhood

The Children of Dominic Kilcullen and Catherine Kerins

Lorraine believes that Dominic and Catherine had twelve children:

1. M (perhaps Mary?) Kilcullen (b. 1859-1860)
2. John Kilcullen (b. 1861)
3. Bridget Kilcullen (b. 1863)
4. Dominic Kilcullen (b. 1865)
5. Thomas Kilcullen (b. 1867)
6. Catherine Kilcullen (b. 1869)
7. John Kilcullen (b. 1871)
8. Francis Kilcullen (b. 1873)
9. James Kilcullen (b. 1876)
10. Sarah Kilcullen (b. 1878)
11. Patrick Kilcullen (b. 1881)
12. Annie Kilcullen (b. 1883)

The first child for whom there are birth/baptismal records is John Kilcullen in 1861. However, Dominic and Catherine were married in 1858, and it would be extremely unusual to not have a child for three years after a marriage. Additionally, Dominic's death record was signed by a M. Kilcullen, stated to be his daughter. Lorraine proposed that M. Kilcullen was a first child whose records have not survived, and that her name was likely Mary, given naming patterns amongst Catholic residents in Sligo.

The second child, John, was born in 1861, but given that another John was born in 1871, it is almost certain that this first John died before that time, and the second John was named in his memory. Given that there were two other boys born after the first John, it sees likely that John died sometime between Thomas' birth in 1867 and the second John's birth in 1871, between the ages of 6-10. John's godparents are listed on his baptismal record as Michael Kearns and Margaret Kilcullen. This might be a brother of his mother, Catherine, and a sister of his father, Dominic.

Bridget, the third child, was born in 1862 and her godparents are recorded as Eugene Kilcullen and Anna Kilcullen. They may have been siblings or cousins of her father, Dominic. There are no further records for Bridget in Ireland, either marriage or death, and she does not appear in the Irish Census of 1901. Lorraine thinks this indicates that she either married and was never recorded with the name Kilcullen again, or she emigrated to the UK or America.

Dominic was born in 1865 and his godparents were listed as Eugene Kilcullen and Maria Kearns. On his civil birth entry, his father, Dominic Kilcullen Sr., listed the family's home as Marymount, Sligo. Marymount is a street in Knocknaganny, tucked right between Circular Road and R287, and around the corner from Old Pound Street. There are no further records for Dominic, Jr. in Sligo, and he does not appear in the 1901 census. Lorraine thought it was likely that he had emigrated, and I agree, because there are records for a Dominic Kilcullen in both Los Angeles and San Francisco in the early 1900s that I believe place him in America with some of his siblings.

Thomas Kilcullen was born in 1867. His godparents were Eugene Kilcullen and Sarah Kerins. Thomas's civil birth entry was registered by his father with an address of Cornageeha, which was part of Knocknaganny. Unfortunately, Lorraine located a death entry for a Thomas Kilcullen from Knocknaganny who died on March 17, 1891 (St. Patrick's Day) in the Sligo infirmary from Bright's disease. If this is our Thomas, he would have been 24 years old at the time of his death. He was unmarried and working as a laborer.

Bright’s disease is an archaic term for what is now referred to as ‘nephritis’. Nephritis is an inflammation of the kidneys, caused by toxins, infection or autoimmune conditions. It is not strictly a single disease, rather a condition with a number of types and causes. In glomerulonephritis, the most common type of nephritis, the infection affects the renal basin. In interstitial nephritis, the inflammation affects the space between the renal tubes. There are three main causes of nephritis, each with their own nomenclature. ‘Pyelonephritis’ is kidney inflammation that can develop when an untreated urinary tract infection spreads to the kidneys. ‘Lupus nephritis’ is caused by an autoimmune response during a lupus flare. Nephritis can also be caused by strain and injury to the kidneys during exercise, known as ‘athletic nephritis’. [Source: University of Leeds]

Catherine Kilcullen was born in 1869. Her godparents were Thomas Kilcullen and Eleonora (Ellen) Kerins. Like her sister Bridget, there are no further records for Catherine in Ireland, meaning she likely either married or emigrated. The time period when Catherine was a young woman was a time of frequent emigration by young Irish people, looking abroad for better work opportunities. Lorraine thinks it likely that most of the Kilcullen children left Ireland in their late teens and early twenties.

John Kilcullen (the second) was born in 1871. Lorraine was able to find his civil birth registration but not a baptismal record, so we don't know who his godparents were. We are certain that John emigrated to America in 1898, as Lorraine found him on a passenger list arriving in New York. I'll share more details about the post-emigration lives of the Kilcullen children later.

Francis Kilcullen was born in 1873, and his godparents were John Kilcullen and Maria Kilcullen. This is not completely confirmed, but it looks possible that at the age of 19, Francis joined the military. There is a Francis Kilcullen listed in Militia Attestation Papers who enlisted in the Sligo Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner in 1896. Lorraine provided me with information about the military presence in Sligo and encouraged me to look at army records to confirm that this is the correct Francis Kilcullen. I'll be doing that soon.

James Kilcullen was born in 1876. His godparents were John Kilcullen and Maria Kilcullen. James can be found in the 1901 census living in Cornageeha with his mother and his younger brother, Patrick. He is listed as a farm laborer. It's unclear what happened to James after 1901. There is a James Kilcullen in the 1911 Irish census, living in a Sligo boarding house and working as a mason, but it's not certain that this is the same James.

Sarah Kilcullen, my great-grandmother, was most likely the next Kilcullen child, born in 1878. As noted in my previous post about Sarah, I have several different birth dates for her, ranging from 1883-1885. Her gravestone says 1883, a full five years after this Kilcullen child was born. Making this more complicated is the fact that the priest neglected to record the name of the female Kilcullen child baptized in Sligo on March 31, 1878. Civil records for this birth cannot be located, either. However, the two children born after this are clearly recorded, so this is really the only child that could be Sarah. Lorraine explained that while birth dates were noted accurately in baptismal records, ages often jump around in other records. For instance, Sarah's mother Catherine is listed as being age 50 in the 1901 Census. However, her baptismal record notes that she was born on January 13, 1841, which means she was actually 60 in 1901. Lorraine said that when the 1908 Old Age Pension was introduced, some people's ages jumped twenty years in the records, to ensure they'd qualify for the pension early. So, other than the initial baptismal record, ages and dates of birth can be taken with a grain of salt.

Patrick Kilcullen was born in 1881. His godparents were Dominic Kilcullen and Bridget Kilcullen. Patrick can be found in the 1901 census living in Cornageeha with his mother and his older brother James. Unfortunately, seven years later, Patrick died at the age of 27. His death record was registered by his brother James, so James was still living in Cornageeha in 1908. On the death record, Patrick is listed as a laborer. It says his cause of death is bronchitis and throwing up of blood, and indicates that he had been suffering from this condition for two years.

Annie Kilcullen was the last of the Kilcullen children, born in 1883. Her given name appears to have been Anne Maria. Like her sister Sarah, Annie's birth date varies wildly in records after her baptism. Immigration records indicate a birth anywhere from 1887-1889. It appears that Annie may have emigrated to America in her late teens, returned to Ireland, perhaps to care for her ailing mother, and then left for America permanently after that time. I'll provide more detail on this in an upcoming post about the Kilcullen children in America.

The Deaths of Dominic Kilcullen and Catherine Kerins

Dominic Kilcullen died on December 15, 1890, at the age of 66. The cause of death was Hemiplegia, which can mean many things, but likely refers to a stroke. His death record was signed by M. Kilcullen, his daughter, who resided on Circular Road. This road is adjacent to Old Pound Street. My great-grandmother Sarah would have been about 12 years old when her father died. Her sister Annie, the youngest Kilcullen sibling, would have been just 7 years of age.

Catherine Kerins Kilcullen died on March 30, 1907, at the age of 66. The cause of death was Influenza. Her death was registered by Annie Kilcullen, Sarah's younger sister. 

Lorraine believes that Dominic and Catherine would have been buried in Sligo Cemetery, just a 10 minute walk from Old Pound Street, but that their graves are likely unmarked.

Sligo Cemetery

The Kilcullen Children in America

A number of the Kilcullen children emigrated from Sligo to America. We know for certain that Sarah and Annie moved to San Francisco, married, had children, and died there. John and Dominic also went to America, and perhaps other Kilcullen siblings, as well. In my next post, I'll share the research I'm doing on what happened to the Kilcullens who left Ireland.

Again, a huge thank you to Lorraine and Theresa at the County Sligo Heritage & Genealogy Centre. I had not even hoped to receive this much information about the Kilcullens, who've been unknown to us for so long. I'm very grateful, and I know the cousins who read this will be, too.

Searching for the County Sligo Origins of Sarah Kilcullen

** Important Update ** In 2025, I was able to break through the Kilcullen brick wall and identify Sarah Kilcullen's parents and siblings. Please see detailed info about the family here.

The Sligo coastline at Mullaghmore
By Aonghus Flynn - originally posted to Flickr as Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, CC BY 2.0, Source

My great-grandmother, Sarah Kilcullen, has always been an enigma to me. She died in 1939, when her son, my grandfather, David Austin Lacey, was just 21. When I was growing up, forty-some years later, my relatives and I occasionally talked about the Lacey family, the family that Sarah married into, but I don't recall discussing the Kilcullens much. This may have simply been because Sarah had been gone for so long at that point and memories had faded. By the time I became seriously interested in genealogy, my grandfather had passed, and the only person I could ask about Sarah was my father. He told me what he knew, or thought he knew, but I never had any success piecing together a family tree for my great-grandmother based on that information. I've also never seen a photo of Sarah. I feel badly that she appears so lost to history, and that I can't seem to learn more.

What We Know/ Don't Know

This is what I learned about Sarah from my father. She was born in County Sligo, Ireland. My dad thinks she may have been from Carrowhubbock, but he can't remember if someone told him that, or if he Googled Kilcullens at some point and saw Carrowhubbock as a possible location for the family. He also thinks her parents were named Patrick and Bridget, but this is another tidbit that doesn't appear to have a strong source and likely came from internet searches. My father also has a suspicion that Sarah had a brother named Owen, but it's just a hunch based largely on the fact that Sarah named one of her sons Owen. So, we have a lot of maybes here, and not a lot of certainty.

There are a few things that are definitely known to be true, however, and can be backed up with documentation. Sarah was born in County Sligo, Ireland. She arrived in America from Ireland in the early 1900s, met Thomas Lacey in San Francisco and married him there in 1908. They had eight children together. Sarah died in Alameda, California in 1939.

Over the years I have run countless online searches looking for more information, but nothing has matched up with what I think I know about my great-grandmother. In searching immigration records, there are many Sarah Kilcullens that are presented in search results, but they're either the wrong age, hail from the wrong location, or have parents with names that are unfamiliar to me.

I decided to go back to the drawing board with Sarah, forget what I think I know, and look only for things that I could prove with documentation. I started with trying to learn Sarah's birthdate. Here is what the records indicate:

1910 U.S. Census: born about 1883, age 27
1920 U.S. Census: born about 1883, age 37
1930 U.S. Census: born about 1885, age 45 
Death index: born about 1883
Gravestone: born 1883

It's not conclusive, but it's a strong indicator that Sarah was born in 1883.

Next, I looked for Sarah's death date, and this was easy, because The San Francisco Examiner published her obituary on December 4, 1939, stating that she died on December 3 in Alameda. The obituary also says that Sarah was a native of Ireland, and that she had a sister in San Francisco, Annie Duffy. This was new to me. I had never heard anything about a sister named Annie. 

A Surprise Sister

I was able to find a number of records for Annie, including census records and a death record indicating that she was born on June 29, 1889 in County Sligo, Ireland. I also found Annie on a passenger list, arriving at Ellis Island on October 10, 1907, on the ship Teutonic. That record states that Annie was 20 years old at the time of her arrival and worked as a servant. She was headed to San Francisco upon her arrival in America, and her last address was Pound Street, Sligo. The relative she listed as her closest was Mrs. James Mulrooney, a cousin. Typically, that column would indicate the closest relative in the immigrant's home country, so this could be a hint that Annie's parents were either no longer living in 1907 or had left Ireland by that time. By 1909, Annie had married Matthew Duffy, also an Irish immigrant, in San Francisco. They would have five children together. Annie was working in a laundry in San Francisco in 1920, per the U.S. Census. She died in 1944.

I have run a number of searches for Mrs. James Mulrooney in Sligo without turning up anything helpful. 

As I mentioned in a previous post about the Lacey family, we know that Sarah and Annie had a cousin in San Francisco, as well. Elizabeth McCormick King was the wife of Valentine King, who supported Sarah's future husband, Thomas Lacey, when he arrived in America. We believe Valentine was related to Thomas. His wife Elizabeth was the daughter of Patrick McCormick and Margaret Kilcullen. Margaret was from County Sligo, and while I haven't determined her exact relationship to Sarah and Annie Kilcullen, they were definitely family.  

San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake
Source: Eadweard Muybridge/Bonhams

Searching Immigration Records

My belief is that Sarah immigrated to America either before Annie or around the same time. The U.S. Census records list very different immigration years for Sarah, as seen below, so I'm not sure exactly when she arrived.

1910 U.S. Census: 1902
1920 U.S. Census: 1907
1930 U.S. Census: 1903

When I search Ellis Island records for Sarah Kilcullen, I get the following matches

The Sarah that arrived in 1906 from Ballina was going to Pittsburgh to meet a brother, Thomas. This Sarah was born around 1884. I don't think this is my Sarah, because Ballina is in County Mayo, not County Sligo, and I've never heard anything about Pittsburgh or a brother named Thomas in relation to my great-grandmother. The year of birth is close, though. 

By 1927, my great-grandmother was married and raising children in Alameda, so the second Sarah isn't her.

The fourth Sarah arrived in America in 1879, several years before my great-grandmother was born, so this doesn't appear to be her.

The third Sarah is interesting. This passenger manifest lists Anne Kilcullen, age 52 and a widow, traveling with her 20-year old daughter Sarah. Two lines below them is Owen Kilcullen, age 23. They arrived at Ellis Island on October 29, 1901. According to the record, this Sarah was born about 1881, two years earlier than I think my great-grandmother was born. Anne lists that she had last been living with her son, aged 17, in Templeboy, County Sligo. She and Sarah are going to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and it appears they are going to meet Anne's son John Kilcullen there (abbreviated as Jno in the record). Owen is also going to Scranton to meet a brother, but I cannot read the writing of the brother's name. It looks like it could possibly say Pat Kilcullen, but I can't tell for sure. 

Of the four Ellis Island records, the last one is the most promising. It's entirely possible that Sarah went on to San Francisco after initially settling in Scranton. However, searches for Anne, John, Owen, and Patrick Kilcullen in the Scranton area have not turned up any records that conclusively appear to be this family, or that connect to my great-grandmother. I am still considering this family a possibility, but at this point there is no proof.

Searching under alternate spellings, I also found an Ellis Island record for a Sarah Kilcullon, who arrived in New York from Ireland on September 11, 1902. This Sarah was born in 1880 and hailed from Carraroe, Sligo. She was headed to Los Angeles to see her brother, John Kilcullen. I found John Kilcullen, Sarah Kilcullen, and a Domick (possibly Dominick?) Killcullen living together in Los Angeles in 1903, at 455 E. 3rd Street in what is now Little Tokyo. After that time, I cannot find conclusive records for any of these three individuals. It's possible that this is my great-grandmother, and that she went to Los Angeles before moving up the coast to San Francisco, but again, there's no proof.

It's also possible that Sarah did not arrive at Ellis Island, and thus is not recorded there. A records search for a Sarah Killcullen arriving at other US ports in the early 1900s turns up so many records that it is overwhelming, and there's not enough information in any of them to connect them to my great-grandmother.

Templeboy, County Sligo
(source: Airbnb)

Searching Irish Records

I've searched Irish records for Sarah and her family many, many times over the years. As new information is constantly being digitized, I frequently search again, hoping something new will emerge. Very early on in these searches, the record my father and I found online and assumed/hoped was Sarah provided the following information. 

Sarah Kilcullen

Born May 22, 1881 in Carrowhubbock North, County Sligo

Baptised May 26, 1881 in Kilglass, County Sligo

Parents: Patrick Kilcullen and Bridget Kilcullen (recorded in the church records as Patricius and Brideel)

This may be where the birthplace Carrowhubbock and parents Patrick and Bridget became part of what we believed we knew about Sarah. In revisiting this record, however, it really doesn't provide us enough info to tell us it's my great-grandmother.

The other mothers listed in this birth registry are recorded with their maiden names, not married names, so this record also provided the suggestion that Bridget's maiden name and married name were the same, Kilcullen.

I was able to find this same family in the 1901 Irish Census. 

Unfortunately, this census record does not mention a daughter named Annie or Anna, and we know that Sarah had a sister named Annie Kilcullen. I don't think this entirely rules out this listing, as I have sometimes seen children be left off census records when they were living with grandparents or cousins elsewhere, which certainly happened in Ireland. It's just that, other than the name Sarah Kilcullen and the location of County Sligo, there's nothing here to definitively connect this Sarah to my great-grandmother. Also, this Sarah was born in 1881, not 1883. Again, there can be some wiggle room on the recording of dates in various records, but it's another reason this Sarah Kilcullen can't be proven as my great-grandmother at this point.

The only Kilcullen household I found in Sligo that listed sisters named Sarah and Annie in 1901 is the following.

In this record, sisters Sarah and Annie Kilcullen have a 6 year age difference, which I believe was the gap between my great-grandmother Sarah (born 1883) and her sister Annie (born 1889). However, the record indicates that this Sarah would have been born in 1878, five years earlier than what I believe is correct for my great-grandmother. This family was living in Carrownrush, near Dromore West and Easky.  I wondered if this could be the same family that emigrated to Pennsylvania in October 1901, and whose Ellis Island record was the most intriguing. The mother in the immigrant family was Anne, aged 52, as is the mother in this Carrownrush family. She was traveling with a daughter, Sarah, age 20 and a son Owen, age 23. The Carrownrush family has a daughter Sarah, age 23, and a son Owen, age 27. In the Carrownrush family, there's also a son named Patt, and the immigrant Kilcullen family may have been going to see a brother named Pat in Scranton. The ages are a little off, but it's possible this is the same family group.

At this point, I still cannot conclusively prove where my great-grandmother came from in County Sligo or who her parents were. I would really love to solve this mystery and give Sarah's story more definition. Until I can find an immigration record or Irish census record that is identifiably my great-grandmother, that won't be possible. I will continue to research.