09/27/2023
Our first post is simple yet significant. These two documents were able to connect the dots for me, from Canada back to where the Kimmett's were from in Ireland. I always knew that Nathaniel Kimmett was from Ireland. I had no idea where....just that he had come from Ireland. Some time in the early 2000's I heard a talk show radio program on the CBC about Irish genealogy and specifically an estate in Ireland where many Irish had left to come to Canada. The name of the estate stuck with me. In 2021 I had some time to begin family genealogy, and started to look into the Kimmett clan in more detail. I contacted relatives, started asking questions, and also recalled that radio program from 20 years before. I googled the 'Fitzwilliam Estate' in Ireland. Wow...what a Pandora's box that opened. Much to my surprise found a record of a John Kimmett and his family leaving the estate in April of 1851 and arriving in Quebec May 30th. About the same time, I found Nathaniel Kimit and his wife Jane, along with the first of their 4 children on the 1851 Canada West census form. Living on the same lot and concession just North East of Newburgh, is John Kimmett and his family, exactly as described, child for child, by the Fitzwilliam Estate, as they are leaving Ireland. In early February of 2023 my wife and I stayed at a BnB, between Tinahely, and Knockananna, in County Wicklow, Ireland. We knew by this point the Kimmett's were from Knocknaboley, a small townland in this area. It is similar to our Township's only much smaller. It's farmland in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. A beautiful place. On our last day in the area, after a week of hiking, exploring, meeting folks in pubs....I got lucky. I met Kevin Lee and his wonderful wife Eleanor Lee. In a matter of minutes (after a lifetime of teaching history and studying the Fitzwilliam Estate), they produced this incredible handwritten record of John Kimmitt, his wife Dolly, and children Thomas, Maria, Dolly, John and a Jane Valentine, leaving Knocknaboly and Ireland. They are taking a chest likely made on the estate by local carpenters, using pine from Quebec (Canada East at the time). They are sailing on the Glenlyon, out of New Ross. We now know that this ship left Ireland on April 15th 1851, and arrived in Quebec on May 30th. They would have been assisted by the estate in leaving, which often meant a chest was made for them, and possibly clothes and money were given to them to help when arriving in the New World, What fate awaited John Kimmitt and his family?!? Stay tuned for more on the Kimmett's.
