The Great Ferriter Family

Creation of the new Ferriter Family website moved me to a review of certain items that I had in hand, for inclusion on the site. A number of these are now posted as blog entries, including the following. None of these observations, speculations, and theories have been altered by the time that has passed between having been written and now…enjoy reading, and comment, please!   ARMORIAL SYMBOLS of the FERRITER FAMILY The Ferriter Family has been known in Ireland since one generation following the advent of the Normans, and in Kerry within another generation following. Although information regarding those who came to Ireland with the... Read More

For the Feirtears, no doubt those years of famine, and the longer decades of poverty and degradation came enshrouded in grief and loss. Beyond that there was the family. For twenty generations perched at the tip of the peninsula, itself on the edge of the island, on a windswept and sometimes harsh landscape, a landscape possessed of a raw grandeur and sweeping beauty. Home.   Home. From Mount Brandon, westward down to the sea, along the rocky shore, with the small coves and harbors, and for some centuries the abandoned fortress, once the family’s seat and symbol of power. All lost, yet lingering in memory... Read More

During the 1950s and 1960s, my family lived in a house with a formal sitting room, across an entry hall from a formal dining room. The sitting room was something of a repository for certain heirloom items, and a number of family portraits hung upon the walls. In the far corner of the room stood a walnut étagère, with graduated display shelves, largest on the bottom, getting smaller higher – five shelves total. The middle shelf was the most prominent, and upon this shelf were several items of family historical importance: a small flat stone, a chunk of peat with a green silk ribbon tied... Read More

A few months ago, I posted a piece that focused upon certain events early in the life of my grandfather, John Patrick Ferriter, (1873 – 1957). In that first story, I described his early military service, as a Private in the U.S. Army on the high plains during the early 1890s. Subsequent to that experience, “Pop” as my cousins called him, took advantage of his skills with codes and electrical devices and became a telegraph operator. By account, his abilities were “first rate”, and he made his career working as a telegrapher during the two decades leading up to the U.S. involvement in WWI. When... Read More

A look into the past, from Morgan Ferriter, Donegal, Ireland. These are two shots I scanned from a book called West Kerry Camera. I am not sure exactly who the Ferriter men in the shot below are, someone else may be better able to shed light on this.   All these men but one, are from the parish of Ballyferriter. Front row, from left: Tomas O Fearghusa, Séan Feiritéar, Tomas Óg Feiritéar. Back row, from left: __?, Tomás Feiritéar, Séamus Feiritéar (with son Brendan), Johnny Ó Guithín (Dunquin)   Trif ghIdin Feirtarach Thforabhin i bPariste an Fheirtaraigh 1907. (Feirtear family in Ballyferriter parish taken 1907.... Read More