Dorahy Reunion - Newsletter #2 The Tyrone Dorahys and the Kerry Dorahys The Tyrone Dorahys – That’s us! The Dorahys in Australia can trace their ancestry to William Dorohy from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. William was a free settler. The Dorahy family came to NSW in 1837 on the Adam Lodge and in shipping records for this ship the spelling is Doroghy and Doraghy. The first known recording of the name Dorahy is for the baptism of baby William Dorahy, on 22 July 1837, in the registers of St Patrick’s Catholic Parish at Parramatta. Joanne has now got over 1500 descendants of William on the family tree and we know of no other family in the world using this surname. However, as explained in Helen Patterson’s book “A Dorahy Family History - 2004” the name “Dorahy” could have arisen from several sources. One is that the name is derived from the Gaelic words for “black oak” in Northern Ireland. Another is that it originated as a name for a branch of the Sullivan family around Sneem in County Kerry which is nearly 500 kilometres from the Dorohys farm near Omagh in Tyrone. We definitely came from Tyrone. But were our distant ancestors from Tyrone or migrants from Kerry who settled in Tyrone? The Kerry Dorahys – Are we related to them? Around Sneem and Kenmare in South West Ireland, near the Ring of Kerry, the name Dorohy and names like it such as “Donahy” arose to distinguish the many branches of the Sullivan and O’Sullivan families in the area. In Templenoe parish, (near Kenmare on the road to Sneem), some entries for the townland of Greenane, look like they could be Dorahy or Dorrahy but have been transcribed and indexed as Donahy and Dorohy. Dorahy Reunion Newsletter #2 Page: 1 of 3 Some Dorahy descendants have recalled being told that the original Dorahys came from County Kerry. This, however, does not explain if, how or why the Dorohys of County Kerry might be connected to the Dorohys from County Tyrone nearly 500 kilometres to the north. Maybe one of the Dorahy ancestors was a ‘blow-in’ from Kerry who met and married a Tyrone girl and stayed on in the area? Another theory proposed at the Wollongong Reunion in 2001 was that some of the Kerry Dorahys may have participated in the Battle of the Boyne near Dublin in 1690 and then settled in the North. I was very surprised last week when I found that Liz Graziani of New Jersey, USA responded to a query on Ancestry.com on 6th March 2011 as follows: “My family's sub-sept name in Ireland (Sneem, Co. Kerry) is Dorohy, but our true last name is Sullivan.” As far as I know this is the first evidence we have of the recent use of “Dorohy”. We must try and make contact with Liz to find out the origins of her family. Other Dorahys in Australia I got a big surprise last year when casual searches of NSW records revealed that other Dorahys got to Australia before us! Margaret Dorahy arrived on the City of Edinburgh in 1828 she had been tried in County Cork and sentenced to transportation for life on 26th August 1825. Cork is 95 Km from Kenmare. She received her conditional pardon in 1850. Helen’s research has found that unfortunately this Margaret Dorahy is the same person whose name appears elsewhere as Denohy, Donohy and Danahy and it would seem that the name appearing as Dorahy is an error in transcription. Her name cannot be found again in any known indexes. John Sullivan alias Dorahy arrived on the St Vincent in 1837 aged 20. He had been tried in Kerry on the 18th July 1836 and was also sentenced to transportation for life. He received his ticket-of-leave in Murrurundi (40 Km North of Scone in NSW) on 13th February 1845 and his conditional pardon in 1850. Helen’s research on John has found that unfortunately John does not seem to have used his alias at all after the convict period as there are no records of such a John Dorahy ever marrying or dying in NSW. He probably used the surname Sullivan and it is impossible to know which of the many persons named John Sullivan might have been him. This John would not be closely related (if related at all) to the Dorahys from County Tyrone, but it does reinforce the theory that Dorahy might be a County Kerry name connected with the Sullivan surname. If you have any further information or can do further research, we would be fascinated to hear of your progress. This article was written by Michael Dorahy and Helen Patterson relying on material researched by Helen Patterson. Dorahy Reunion Newsletter #2 Page: 2 of 3 Don’t Forget 1. By 31st May – Register and send your payment – email: [email protected] for the registration form. 2. By 15th June – Send family tree photos to Joanne – email to: ([email protected]) by post to: 49 Primrose Circuit Claremont Meadows NSW 2747. 3. July 15th 2012 - The reunion. Any queries please call Mike (03 9421 1689) or Helen (02 8084 4721). Future Newsletters Future editions of this newsletter will include: The oldest Dorahy photos Why did the Dorahys migrate to Australia? An introduction to the reunion organisers. Contributions, feedback and suggestions for future newsletters are welcomed Dorahy Reunion Newsletter #2 Page: 3 of 3 .