Two Families, One Story: The Wexford Question
The Wexford Question
In Episode 1, we discovered that the Kenny and Connors families were neighbors in Newfoundland in 1832—their children baptized weeks apart in the same parish register. But a question remained: How far back did these families' connection stretch? The answer may lie not in Atlantic Canada, but in the parish registers of County Wexford, Ireland—and in the DNA of their descendants living today.
A Marriage in Revolutionary Ireland
On February 15, 1776—the same year the American colonies declared independence from Britain—a marriage took place in New Ross, County Wexford. The groom was John Kenny. The bride was Catherine Connors.
Parish / District: New Ross County: Co. Wexford
Husband: John Kenny
Address: New Ross, New Ross
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Wife: Catherine Connors
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Witness 1: David Kenny
Witness 2: Debora Connors
Officiating Priest: CAULFIELD JAMES
Register: M/1772-1817
The witnesses tell us this was not a marriage between strangers. David Kenny—likely John's brother—stood for the groom. Debora Connors—likely Catherine's sister—stood for the bride. Both families were established in New Ross, rooted enough to appear in the parish register together.
Wexford in 1776
County Wexford in 1776 was characterized by a rigid social hierarchy and increasing political restlessness. The Protestant Ascendancy maintained control over a disenfranchised Catholic majority under the Penal Laws—laws that stripped Catholics of property and political rights since 1695. The Kenny and Connors families, both Roman Catholic, married in a world where their faith marked them as second-class citizens. Yet they persisted, their names recorded in the parish registers that would one day help their descendants find them.
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Marriage record of John Kenny and Catherine Connors, New Ross, County Wexford, 15 February 1776. Source: Waterford Heritage via rootsireland.ie
A Pattern of Intermarriage
The 1776 marriage was not an isolated event. Searching the Wexford parish registers reveals a pattern: Kenny and Connors families intermarrying across eight decades.
Three Kenny-Connors marriages in Wexford over 82 years. And then, on Prince Edward Island, three more Kenny-Connors marriages within just two years (1866–1868). Was this coincidence—or continuity?
The Pattern
Wexford: John Kenny & Catherine Connors (1776) • William Connors & Mary Kenny (1857) • Stephen Kenny & Catherine Conner (1858)
Prince Edward Island: James Kenny & Margaret Connors (1866) • Bridget Kenny & Edward Connors (1867) • Lawrence Kenny & Bridget Connors (1868)
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Marriage record of William Connors and Mary Kenny, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, 21 February 1857. Source: Wexford Genealogy via rootsireland.ie
The DNA Evidence
Documentary evidence can show us marriages—but can it prove family connections across centuries and continents? This is where genetic genealogy enters the story.
Through genetic testing, we've identified DNA matches who descend from Connors families in Wexford. These matches share DNA with descendants of the PEI Connors family—the family of Hugh Connors and Mary Henesy, who went from Wexford to Newfoundland, on to the Miramichi in New Brunswick, and only then to Prince Edward Island. Episode 1 follows that route.
The question is: Do these DNA connections point to a common Connors ancestor in Wexford?
Two Connors Lines, One Connection
Our DNA analysis reveals two distinct clusters of matches—both connecting to the Hamall sisters, who descend from Hugh Connors and Mary Henesy through Margaret Connors, her son Thomas Patrick Kenny, and his daughter Margaret Kenny. Margaret Kenny was Hugh and Mary's great-granddaughter; the Hamall sisters are their great-great-granddaughters, four generations down from Lot 34:
DNA Match Analysis: Connors Line Connections
Shared matches between Wexford Connors descendants and PEI Connors descendants
Johanna Connor
- W.C. (primary match) 40 cM
- T.B. 21 cM
- L.B. 17 cM
- B.M. 18 cM
- G.F. 9 cM
Mary Henesy
Hugh c.1800–1890 • Mary c.1803–after 1891
- T.C. 170 cM
- P.B. 45 cM
- M.H.M. 25 cM
The Critical Question: All Wexford matches trace to John Connors (1776–1855) of Ballycullane/Tintern. Hugh Connors was born in Wexford about 1800 — his obituary gives his age at death as ninety. John Connors would have been about twenty-four when Hugh was born, so father is possible but tight; brother, cousin or nephew fit the span at least as well.
The Shared Matches Tell the Story
When we examine the shared matches between W. C. (whose tree traces to John Connors of Wexford) and descendants of the PEI Connors family, a pattern emerges. Multiple individuals match both lines—suggesting a common Connors ancestor in Wexford.
Shared Matches: C.H.M. & W.C.
DNA matches in common between PEI Connors descendant and Wexford Connors descendant
| Match | cM to C.H.M. | cM to W.C. | Tree MRCA | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T.B. | 21 cM | 366 cM | John Connors & Johanna Connor | Wexford |
| G.F. | 9 cM | 295 cM | John Connors & Johanna Connor | Wexford |
| L.B. | 17 cM | 239 cM | John Connors & Johanna Connor | Wexford |
| B.M. | 18 cM | 26 cM | John Connors & Johanna Connor | Wexford |
| P.B. | 45 cM | 21 cM | James Kenny & Margaret Connors | PEI |
| T.C. | 170 cM | 23 cM | Hugh Connors & Mary Henesy | PEI |
Pattern: Wexford matches (T.B., G.F., L.B., B.M.) show high cM to W.C. but low cM to C.H.M. PEI matches (P.B., T.C.) show the reverse. Both groups match both testers—which is what a shared Connors ancestor would look like.
What This Evidence Can and Cannot Carry
The shared amounts are small. The four Wexford matches share between 9 and 21 centimorgans with the Prince Edward Island line. Below about twenty centimorgans a meaningful proportion of reported matches are not inherited from a common ancestor at all, and those that are can descend from one many generations further back than the tree suggests. Nine centimorgans is at the level where a single segment cannot be relied on by itself.
Shared matching shows relatedness, not the path. Four people matching both testers establishes that the two lines are connected somehow. It does not, on its own, place the connection on the Connors side, or in Wexford, or in any particular generation. The shared segment could come through any of the other lines these testers carry.
Irish ancestry raises the background. Two people with deep roots in the same corner of south Wexford will often share small amounts of DNA through several distant paths at once. That inflates exactly the range of matches this analysis is working in.
What would move it forward: testing further descendants in known branches of both families; checking whether the Wexford cluster also matches the testers' non-Connors lines, which would undercut the reading; and triangulating the shared segments to see whether the same stretch of chromosome is involved in each case. Until then, the Wexford connection is a well-supported hypothesis with documentary reasons to believe it — not a proven descent.
Where the DNA Leaves Us
The DNA is consistent with a connection between the Wexford Connors family of John Connors (1776–1855) and the Prince Edward Island family of Hugh Connors (c.1800–1890), and it agrees with the documentary evidence rather than contradicting it. That is worth something. But the shared amounts are small, the relationship is unidentified, and no segment has been triangulated. The honest position is that these two families are probably connected in south Wexford, and that the generation at which they connect is not yet known.
The Question Remains
We have documentary evidence of Kenny-Connors intermarriage in Wexford from 1776 to 1858. We have DNA evidence linking descendants of both Wexford and PEI Connors families. We have Hugh Connors' obituary stating he "emigrated from County Wexford, Ireland."
What we don't have—yet—is the documentary proof that directly links Hugh Connors to John Connors of Ballycullane/Tintern. The parish registers of south Wexford may hold the answer. Griffith's Valuation of 1847–1864 may reveal landholding patterns. Further DNA analysis may narrow the connection.
A word about the name "Dad Connors," which circulates in several online trees as the father of John Connors. It is not a name. It is what a compiler types into a tree when a parent is known to exist but has not been identified, and it propagates from one copied tree to the next until it starts to look like evidence. This series does not treat it as a person. The father of John Connors is, at present, unnamed.
"The intermarriage of Kenny and Connors families wasn't a coincidence that happened twice—once in Wexford, once on Prince Edward Island. It was a pattern. And patterns, in genealogy, are clues."
The Wexford Question remains open. But the evidence we've gathered points toward a profound possibility: that the three Kenny-Connors marriages on Prince Edward Island in 1866–1868 were not the beginning of a new alliance, but the continuation of a relationship between two families that stretched back nearly a century—to Revolutionary-era Ireland, to a Catholic church in New Ross, to a marriage between John Kenny and Catherine Connors on February 15, 1776.
Document Gallery
1776 — Kenny-Connors Marriage
John Kenny & Catherine Connors, New Ross
Marriage
1857 — Connors-Kenny Marriage
William Connors & Mary Kenny, Enniscorthy
Marriage
1858 — Kenny-Conner Marriage
Stephen Kenny & Catherine Conner, New Ross
MarriageAre You Connected to the Kenny-Connors Line?
If you descend from the Kenny or Connors families of County Wexford, the O’Connor family of Castleisland, County Kerry, or the Casey or Corcoran families — or their branches in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, or Chicago — I’d like to compare notes. Documented trees, DNA matches, family papers, and even half-remembered stories have all moved this research forward.
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