This is the second part of my reflections about returning to one of our ancestral homelands. Various members of two families, the Hicksons and the Byrnes, left the County Kerry in the southwest of Ireland some 150 years ago to make new lives for themselves … Continue reading Back to Kerry. Part 2
Category: Travels and sojourns
Back to Kerry. Part 1
A good few of my ancestors came from County Kerry in southwest Ireland. They went by various names - Hicksons, Needhams, Ruddles and Byrnes. I visited Kerry for a few days in August and found myself thinking a lot about them, my forebears. I marvelled … Continue reading Back to Kerry. Part 1
Tom’s ships
Tom Needham joins the Navy Tom was 13 when he joined the navy in 1864, a young Irish boy who had grown up beside the sea on the coast of County Kerry. His father George Needham had at one time been a captain in the … Continue reading Tom’s ships
Missing home
In November 1865, 14 year old Tom Needham wrote a letter home to his older sister in County Kerry, Ireland. Tom was a 14 year old sailor on the HMS Narcissus, a frigate in the British Navy, which was, at the time of writing, deployed … Continue reading Missing home
“My dear sister…” November 1865
A letter home from a young sailor, an Irish boy on a British ship, in 1865: Addressed to "My dear sister..,” this letter was probably written to Belinda Needham, Tom’s older sister, the one of his five sisters to which he seems closest. A transcript … Continue reading “My dear sister…” November 1865
Forgotten tales 