Castleblayney & Castleshane: records search for Thomas McKenna (1772)

• No RC baptism record is remotely accessible for 1772. The Muckno Catholic parish register begins in November 1835. If Thomas was baptised Catholic at Muckno, that event is not in the register surviving at the National Library of Ireland.
• McKennas were definitely tenants in Muckno parish in the early 19th c. The 1827 Tithe Applotment Book (scans now downloaded) shows 5 McKenna tithe-paying households in Muckno parish split between two townlands: three in the townland the page headings read as Dumallard/Drumallard (Jn, Val-or-Pat, Wm McKenna), and two in the adjoining townland of Killycard (Peter and Ed McKenna, holding 10 and 12¾ acres respectively — between them 22% of Killycard's tithe-paying acreage). Thomas himself is not among them — he was in Kerry by then — but these are highly plausible kinsmen (brothers/cousins/nephews remaining in the home townland).
• The Blayney estate rent book for 1772 — Thomas's exact birth year — has been obtained and read in full (Peadar Livingstone, Clogher Record X/3, 1981, pp. 414–418; verbatim at raw/livingstone-1772-castleblayney-rent-book.md). No McKenna appears among the 105 lease-holders on the principal rental, nor in the 35-name Castleblayney town roll, nor in Livingstone's 19-family "FAMILIES" dossier, nor in his named list of "fewer than 20" Catholic-surnamed tenants. The Drumillard acres that later (1827) carried three McKenna tithe-households were in 1753 held by Rev. John Walsh (C of I curate under the 8th Lord) on a 31-year lease, and earlier (1737) by Charles Molloy the middleman. Thomas McKenna's father in 1772 was therefore a cottier sub-tenant under a middleman, not a direct Blayney lessee. The clean-negative is diagnostic: it explains why zero Muckno McKennas appear in the Registry of Deeds 1700–1850.
• The wider Blayney archive (PRONI ref. D1421, with D1406 and D971, ~3,000 items, 1639–1950) contains further rent rolls, lease books, and maps. The PRONI finding-aid PDF has now been retrieved (raw/blayney-hope.pdf); the full series breakdown is at ../raw/proni-blayney-hope-intro-extract.md. The key series for Thomas's birth year is D1421/1/68 — a single box covering c. 1749–1790 that contains the Blayney estate rentals, accounts, bonds, extracts from leases and wage books. This is the physical source Livingstone transcribed from.
• Killycard was Blayney land, not Templetown land. The 1723 sale to John Upton covered only the northern portion of Muckno parish. The 1838 Templetown rental schedule (PRONI D/585/60) lists 19 townlands, and Killycard is not on it — so the 1827 McKenna tenants in Killycard held directly from Lord Blayney.
• Part of the Blayney archive is filed under D2433 (Caledon papers) — leases, deeds, reconveyances of mortgages, and marriage settlements including those of the 9th Lord (1766–67) and 11th Lord (1797). A parallel search of D2433 is worthwhile if D1421/1/68 proves thin.

A May 2026 Castleshane-focused pass changes the priority order. The National Archives Tithe Applotment Books return exactly two McKenna hits in Clontibret parish, both for Thos Mckenna in 1830. These are later than Thomas's 1772 birth, but they are the first same-name hits in the Castleshane / Clontibret record field.

These entries do not prove they are the same Thomas McKenna who died at Kilshenane in 1835. The working interpretation is more careful: Castleshane / Clontibret may preserve a same-name relative or home-branch clue that explains the family's broader "Castleblayney" origin. Full note: raw/castleshane-clontibret-records-thomas-mckenna-2026-05.md.

The Clann McKenna article Were They Defending McKenna Country is now preserved in raw form at raw/clannmckenna-were-they-defending-mckenna-country-2011.md. It focuses on Donagh parish, especially Cloncaw near Glaslough and the Drumcaw / Balderg / Drumgahan townland cluster, reading their Irish names as evidence of remembered battle sites.

For this page, the useful point is not that the article proves any specific battle. It does not. The useful point is that the Clann McKenna tradition frames Donagh as part of the southern half of "McKenna Country", adjacent to Glaslough and close to the same Donagh / Doagheys / Old Donagh proof lanes now being pursued for Thomas-1772's Monaghan origins.

The Finding Hugh / McKenna Clann article History of the McKenna Clann is now preserved at raw/hughmckenna-history-of-the-mckenna-clann-2026-05.md. It collects the Hugh McKenna / Liskenna legend, Tully Hill headquarters, Donagh Old Graveyard, Patrick McKenna of Truagh, Niall McKenna, Phelemy McKenna, Major John McKenna at Drumbanagher, and the Willville / Don Juan McKenna branch.

For the Castleblayney search, it mainly reinforces boundary control: the named clan-history sites cluster in the Truagh / Donagh / Glaslough / Emyvale area, while Thomas-1772's inherited "Castleblayney" label remains a separate south-Monaghan market-town or administrative clue unless a record links him back into the Truagh chieftain line.

The NAI index returned 5 McKenna hits for Muckno parish. On downloading and reading the actual page images (raw/tithe-muckno-1827-transcription.md), the picture is slightly different from the NAI hit list:

Two corrections to the earlier summary:

• The NAI indexer returns "Killycard — Ed ×2, Peter ×2" because the same two-page spread was scanned twice (PDFs 198 and 199 are duplicates). Killycard contains 2 McKenna tenants, not 4. But they are substantial — Peter and Ed between them hold 22 acres out of Killycard's 101 acres, a 22% share of the tithe-paying townland.
• The NAI indexer maps page 193 to "Muckno townland (Pat)" but the page itself is headed for another townland reading as Dumallard / Drumallard, and it shows three McKenna households on that page (Jn, Val-or-Pat, Wm).

So the true 1827 Muckno-parish picture for the surname McKenna is 5 households across 2 townlands: 3 in Dumallard/Drumallard and 2 in Killycard. Tithe pages themselves carry no landlord column — the occupier-only ruling is a feature of the 1823 Act — but Killycard was Blayney-estate land (per D/585/60 Templetown rental of 1838, which does not include it), so the 1827 Killycard McKennas were Blayney tenants.

For scale, there are 761 McKenna tithe-payers across Co. Monaghan — the surname is extremely common in the county — so presence alone is not proof of kinship. But the geographic concentration in the immediate parish of Thomas's birth is.

Griffith's Valuation for Muckno parish (c. 1858, raw/griffiths-valuation-muckno-mckenna.md) lists only two McKenna occupiers anywhere in the parish:

• Charles Mc Kenna — Tullycaghny townland (a new lead — this is the only rural Muckno McKenna in 1858).
• Philip Mc Kenna — Castleblayney town, York Street.

Killycard has no McKenna in Griffith's. The 1827 Peter / Ed holdings have vanished by the 1858 survey — the most likely reason is Famine-era emigration or clearance, consolidated under the Hope estate after its 1853 purchase. This is consistent with Thomas's son James being raised in Kerry, not Monaghan, and with no wider Killycard McKenna cousin network surviving to the Griffith's horizon.

Update (2026-04-20) — immediate lessor for Philip McKenna identified. A user-supplied scan of the printed Griffith's volume, page 35 (raw/griffiths-muckno-printed-scan-p35.md, image at raw/griffiths-muckno-printed-scan-p69.png), supplies the column the failteromhat transcript omits. Philip M'Kenna's immediate lessor is James M'Mahon — a Castleblayney middleman who himself held a cluster of York-Street properties directly under Henry T. Hope. Tenure chain: Henry T. Hope (proprietor) → James M'Mahon (head lessee) → Philip M'Kenna (occupier, "house and yard"). Philip is therefore a modest urban sub-tenant — no land, no offices — consistent with a labourer or small-trades household, not a farmer. Charles McKenna's lessor at Tullycaghny is on a different page of the printed volume and is still open.

Update (2026-04-20) — Philip M'Kenna of York Street (Griffith's, 1858) appears to be the same man recorded in 1901 as "Frs Philip McKenna", 74, retired National Teacher (raw: raw/philip-mckenna-castleblayney-1901-1911.md; original Form A scan preserved at raw/philip-mckenna-1901-form-a.pdf). Castleblayney Urban DED, Fork Street or Broad Road, household 1629861. The transcriber's "Fns Philip" is a misread of the manuscript's "Frs Philip" — i.e. Francis Philip McKenna, the head-of-family signature reading "F. P. McKenna". Born Co Monaghan c.1827; in 1901 living with his niece Mary Anne McKenna (25, also Co Monaghan) as housekeeper. R. Catholic, English-speaking.

The York Street / Fork Street alignment works: the 1901 Castleblayney Urban index lists "Fork Street or Broad Road" (no York Street), while the 1911 index lists York Street under both Connaberry and Onomy townlands — an intervening re-designation, not a move. Philip's age c.31 in 1858 fits a young urban householder holding "house and yard" under a middleman; his never-married status and retired-teacher occupation explain the absence of land or outbuildings on the Griffith's line.

Philip is not present in the 1911 Castleblayney Urban census (exhaustive sweep of all 16 sub-DED index pages — single McKenna mention is an unrelated 6-year-old niece at Onomy / Market Square 12). Most probable explanation: Philip died 1901–1910. His niece Mary Anne is also gone — probably married or emigrated.

Key implications for the wider McKenna family tree:

• Philip has no direct descendants (never married). Any continuing McKenna line through him is collateral, via Mary Anne's parent — i.e. one of Philip's siblings.
• The single most productive next document is Mary Anne McKenna's marriage certificate (if she married 1896–1915), which would name her father — i.e. identify Philip's sibling. Search civil-reg marriage index at civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie, Castleblayney SRD, surname McKenna, forename Mary Anne.
• Philip's own death certificate (1901–1910, Castleblayney SRD) will give exact date, cause, and informant — the informant is often a relative naming their relationship.
• The "Retired National Teacher" occupation opens a records route not otherwise available: Commissioners of National Education papers at NAI (ED series) — teacher salary books (ED/9), school registers (ED/2), and inspection reports will identify the school Philip taught at and the years of appointment. These records are free to consult at the National Archives in Dublin and are well-indexed by teacher surname.

Four other McKenna households were enumerated in Castleblayney Urban in 1901; the full tabulation is in the raw file above. Of note: Patrick McKenna (29, horse trainer) living with his wife Rose Lennon at her father Corney Lennon's house (Fork Street 11) — Patrick's parentage is not on the 1901 form, but his 1893–1895 marriage certificate would name his father, and is the obvious next check to see whether he is Philip's nephew or an unrelated Castleblayney McKenna. Owen McKenna (32, butter merchant, Henry Street) had three children born in the USA between c.1893 and c.1899, placing him and wife Maggie in America through the 1890s and returned before March 1901.

A consolidated April 2026 sweep (full log: raw/philip-mckenna-ancestor-trace.md) tested every remotely accessible record and printed-book reference that could attach a pre-1827 ancestor to Philip. The summary:

• Confirmed anchor — Francis Philip McKenna, b. c.1827 Co Monaghan, retired National Teacher, never married, d. 1901–1910 Castleblayney.
• Strongly likely father pool — one of the 5 McKenna tithe-paying heads in Muckno parish in 1827 (Jn, Val/Pat, Wm in Dumallard/Drumallard; Peter or Ed in Killycard). All 5 farmed under the Blayney estate. None is named "Philip" — so Philip was a c.1827-born son, not a head of house.
• Parish register is closed — Muckno RC register begins November 1835, 8 years after Philip's birth; his baptism is not recoverable from church records.
• Printed-book "Philip McKennas" that are NOT ours, now ruled out so the next researcher does not re-chase: (a) "Philip McKenna of Londonderry" in O'Hart's Dundalk pedigree (1892, p.948) — son of James b.1754, wrong era and wrong place; (b) "Philip of Tobago, d. unm. Bristol ~1832" in O'Hart's Lr. Trough pedigree — died before our Philip was a teenager; (c) "Philip McKenna" listed as a Dundalk FC supporter and in modern Castleblayney commercial directories — all post-2000.
• One interesting collateral lead — Peadar Livingstone's 1980 acknowledgements in The Monaghan Story (p.404) thank "Philip McKenna of Corrella, Kimmage Road, Dublin". This is a 20th-century Dubliner, not our Philip, but a plausible grand-nephew or further descendant via Mary Anne's parent — the name "Philip" re-surfacing in a Dublin branch would be consistent with a naming tradition. Livingstone's archive at the Clogher Historical Society may hold the correspondence.
• Background context from O'Hart (1892) — Patrick MacKenna of Lower Trough (d. before 10 Jun 1625) held 32 townlands in northern Monaghan under a 1591 grant from Elizabeth I; three are named in Shirley (Ballydavough, Ballymeny, Ballylattin). His son Shane / John McKenna sold 5 townlands to Thomas Blaney before 1626; his brother Tool sold his portion to B. Brett of Drogheda. Verbatim text: raw/ohart-shirley-mckenna-trough-pedigree.md. Important correction — an earlier note here conflated two distinct Blayney acquisitions. The 1626 Shane/John sale was of land in the Barony of Trough (far north of the county, ~25 km N of Castleblayney), NOT of the Castleblayney estate. The Castleblayney estate originates from a separate 1611 Plantation grant to Sir Edward Blayney at Muckno — ex-MacMahon land never held by McKennas. The 1626 Trough buyer Thomas Blaney is likely a Welsh kinsman of Sir Edward but the link is not proved in Shirley/O'Hart. So the 1827 Muckno McKenna tithe-payers were not tilling land their own sept had once owned — they were on original-grant Blayney land, as Catholic tenants post-Plantation. Pender's Census of 1659 records 91 McKenna heads of household in Co Monaghan, the densest in any Irish county; Shirley adds that in 1640 there were 16 landed McKenna proprietors in the Barony of Trough (3 of them Protestant).

Three next-step records, none remote-retrievable, could close the gap: Mary Anne McKenna's marriage certificate (1896–1915, Castleblayney SRD; names her father = Philip's sibling); Philip's own death certificate (1901–1910, Castleblayney SRD; informant relationship); and the NAI ED-series teacher salary book (ED/9) for Philip's appointment, which typically records place of birth and next-of-kin.

The free volunteer index at irishdeedsindex.net has been searched exhaustively for the surname McKenna in Co. Monaghan. Full results at raw/registry-of-deeds-mckenna-monaghan.md. Key numbers:

• 23 McKenna memorials in Co. Monaghan 1700–1850 — clustered in Truagh and Errigal Trough in the north (the McKenna sept homeland), plus a Monaghan-town merchant family (Francis McKenna, 1739 onward) and scattered entries elsewhere.
• Zero Muckno / Killycard / Castleblayney McKenna entries — in any of: surname+residence, surname+comment-field, or residence alone.
• Seven Blayney-landlord memorials are in the index, of which the 1723 Cadwallader 7th Baron lease of 200 acres at Carrickaslane, parish of Muckno (vol 38 p 315, memorial 24377) is the Registry-of-Deeds echo of the Upton purchase described in the PRONI finding aid.

The negative is diagnostic rather than surprising: McKennas holding under the Blayneys in Killycard / Dumallard would have been on yearly tenancies or short, unregistered cottier leases — the normal position for pre-Famine Catholic smallholders. Registered memorials in this corpus are for leases-for-lives, mortgages, marriage settlements and freehold sales, none of which Thomas's father would have executed. This confirms that the Livingstone 1772 transcript is the only realistic remote path to identifying the head of house.

The answer is almost certainly yes, in general: the Blayneys owned essentially the entire land of Muckno parish in the 18th century, so any farming household in Killycard or Muckno townland in 1772 would have held under them. The more specific question — was Thomas's father a direct Blayney tenant named on the 1772 rent roll, or a sub-tenant holding under a middleman — is what the Livingstone transcript should resolve.

Things to check in the 1772 rent book when accessible:

• Any tenant surnamed McKenna, Mc Kenna, M'Kenna, Kenna, holding in Killycard or Muckno townland.
• Whether the 1772 rent book uses townland-by-townland listing (typical) — if so, cross-reference with the 1827 Tithe tenants to see if the same McKenna names recur 55 years apart.
• The type of tenure recorded (at will, lease for lives, lease for years) — this suggests family status.

The pre-1835 baptism and marriage register for Muckno RC parish does not survive in the NLI's digitised collection. If the original survives in the parish itself (St Mary's, Castleblayney), it's not indexed online. This means the standard genealogical method of pinning a birth via baptism record cannot be applied to the 1772 date — which makes the rent books and Tithe records the primary path to identifying Thomas's family.

The Church of Ireland Muckno register may hold baptisms of that date range (many Monaghan C of I registers survived the 1922 PRO Dublin fire because they were still at the parish); worth checking the Representative Church Body Library (Dublin) list of surviving parish registers. If Thomas was baptised in the Established Church despite later associations, this would be relevant.

1. Retrieve and read Livingstone, Castleblayney Rent Book 1772 (Clogher Record X/3, 1981, pp. 414–418). Done 2026-04-20. Verbatim at raw/livingstone-1772-castleblayney-rent-book.md. No McKenna on the rental — Thomas's father was a cottier sub-tenant under a middleman, not a direct Blayney lessee.
2. Because no McKenna appears on the Livingstone transcript, consult the underlying manuscript at PRONI (D1421/1/68, Blayney estate papers c. 1749–1790) only if seeking middlemen's sub-tenant lists (bonds, lease extracts, account/wage books). The principal rental itself is covered — further names would only emerge from fragmentary loose papers in the same box.
3. Parallel PRONI search of D2433 (Caledon papers) for Blayney leases and marriage settlements pre-1790, especially the 1766–67 settlement of the 9th Lord Blayney.
4. Pull the scanned 1827 Tithe pages for Killycard and Muckno townlands — done (see Tithe section above and raw/tithe-muckno-1827-transcription.md). Remaining refinement: confirm the uncertain townland name on p193 (Dumallard / Drumallard) and the uncertain forename (Val or Pat) with a higher-resolution render.
5. Griffith's Valuation (ca. 1858–60) for Muckno parish — done (see Griffith's section above and raw/griffiths-valuation-muckno-mckenna.md). Philip Mc Kenna's lessor now identified as James M'Mahon (middleman under Henry T. Hope), from a user-supplied scan of page 35 of the printed volume (raw/griffiths-muckno-printed-scan-p35.md). Charles Mc Kenna's lessor at Tullycaghny is on a different page of the printed volume and still needs the corresponding scan.
6. Registry of Deeds (Dublin) — McKenna memorials/leases for the baronies of Cremorne and Farney — done, negative. The irishdeedsindex.net volunteer index returned zero Muckno / Killycard / Castleblayney McKenna memorials (see RoD section above and raw/registry-of-deeds-mckenna-monaghan.md).
7. RCB Library (Dublin) — confirm what of the Muckno C of I register survives pre-1835.
8. Castleshane / Lucas estate records — search estate maps and rentals for Greenmount and Tullycumasky, especially 1763, 1838, 1845, 1869, and 1870. Look for McKenna, M'Kenna, Kenna, and variant spellings.
9. North Kerry side: Tithe Applotments for Kilshenane / Lixnaw ca. 1827 to see whether Thomas (still alive then) or his son James appears on the Kerry side.

A machine-retrieval sweep in April 2026 confirmed that every remote automated route is blocked for the article text itself: JSTOR serves a CAPTCHA Access-Check wall to curl and a 403 to WebFetch; Google Books returns "did not match any documents" for the article title in its preview of Clogher Record Vol. 10; HathiTrust responds 403 to the catalogue record; FamilySearch's catalogue holds Clogher Record on digitised microfilm but volume 10 no. 3 is not in the explicitly inventoried filmed span and access requires a FamilySearch login. None of the volunteer Irish genealogy archives (from-ireland.net, IGP Archives, cotyroneireland.com, rootsweb Monaghan) holds a transcript.

However, crawling the Clogher Historical Society's own site (clogherhistory.ie/publications.html) established that the 1981 back-issue is physically in stock at €16 via the Society's own cart system. That is now the recommended route.

1. Buy the 1981 back-issue direct from the Clogher Historical Society — €16 + shipping. The Clogher Record 1981 volume (333 pages, 333 g, ships in a large envelope) is listed on clogherhistory.ie/publications.html with an Add-to-Cart button. The Livingstone "Castleblayney Rent Book 1772" article is pages 414–418 of that volume. This is the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable route: no paywall, no login, no travel, and the user ends up owning the whole volume of the journal. (The site also lists issues from 1978, 1986, 1999, 2005, and 2016–2019 at the same €16 price; 1982 appears to be out of stock.)
2. Email the Clogher Historical Society research service — €10 standard query fee. If only the five pages of the Livingstone article are wanted (rather than the whole volume), info@clogherhistory.ie — phone +353 47 71984 — offers a lookup service at a standard €10 per query. Ask them to scan pp. 414–418 of Clogher Record Vol. X, No. 3 (1981). Postal address: Clogher Historical Society, St Macartan's College, Mullaghmurphy, Monaghan H18 X704, Ireland. See also their genealogy partner site monaghangenealogy.com.
3. Monaghan County Library, Local Studies Collection, Clones Road, Monaghan H18 F067. They also hold the full run of Clogher Record. Email localhistory@monaghancoco.ie or phone +353 47 74713 (Mon–Fri, 11am–4pm) — they do look-ups and will scan/photocopy individual articles for a small fee.
4. JSTOR — Clogher Record is fully indexed on JSTOR. Issue: https://www.jstor.org/stable/i40103931 (Vol. 10, No. 3, 1981). Free options: (a) JSTOR "Register & Read" — free account gives 100 article reads / month; (b) many public and university libraries offer JSTOR access via library card (e.g. many US public libraries, all Irish and UK universities, Dublin City Library card-holders). Use this if already on a subscribing institution; otherwise route 1 is simpler.
5. National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 — free reader's ticket required. Reserve the volume online via the NLI catalogue and read in the Main Reading Room.
6. Inter-library loan — any university or large public library can order the article via the standard BL/IReL ILL system (~£10 in the UK, €5–€10 in Ireland).

Route 1 is the recommended one. At €16 including the physical journal in hand, it is cheaper than the JSTOR individual-article price (≥$10), requires no account registration, and delivers a keepable primary source.

PRONI's original records are not digitised. To consult D1421/1/68:

1. In person at PRONI, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast BT3 9HQ. Free visitor pass issued on the day with photo ID. The document is ordered via the search room request slips; D1421/1/68 is a box of loose papers and may take 30–45 min to retrieve. Photography (no flash) is permitted.
2. Remote enquiry — PRONI offers a limited paid research service: email proni@communities-ni.gov.uk or use the web form at nidirect.gov.uk — PRONI contact. They will do a single, targeted lookup for a fee (check surname Mc Kenna / M'Kenna / Kenna in the 1772 rentals within D1421/1/68). Turn-around: 4–8 weeks.
3. Hire a Belfast-based researcher — the Accredited Genealogists Ireland directory lists researchers who attend PRONI regularly. Rates typically £25–£40/hour; a single-box search of D1421/1/68 would be 2–4 hours.

Same access routes as D1421/1/68. Relevant sub-files are the Blayney marriage settlements filed with the Caledon archive — the catalogue-level description is in the Caledon papers finding aid at PRONI.

Free online — but the AskAboutIreland mirror is blocking automated fetches. Visit in a browser:

• askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation — search by surname (McKenna) + county (Monaghan) + parish (Muckno). Shows full print page with surveyor's sketch-map links.
• findmypast.ie — paid subscription, but the best indexed and searchable interface.

Free and already online at titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie — the search succeeded earlier (5 McKenna hits) but the JPEG pages themselves have not yet been downloaded. Each tithe entry links to a scanned book page showing the landlord column, acreage, and neighbours. Simply click the entry in the results list.

The Registry of Deeds, Henrietta Street, Dublin, holds abstracts ("memorials") of all registered deeds from 1708 onward. Surname indexes for Monaghan are available in the Reading Room. Open to the public, free, photo ID required. For a Blayney-era lookup, the lands indexes (by townland) are more productive than the grantor/grantee indexes — ask for Killycard and Muckno in the Monaghan lands index.

The Representative Church Body Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14. The survival list for Muckno C of I is published at ireland.anglican.org/about/rcb-library/parish-registers. If Muckno C of I baptisms survive pre-1835, the register is consulted in person; a remote lookup service exists for single dated events.