Kearns

As you can see I have my family crest above. So in case any one has any query my family comes from County Limerick. My family came to County Limerick from County Clare. They settled some of the settle in a small village called Shanagolden and more of them went to America. Here is some more information about the name Kearns .The sept known in Irish as O Ceirin was in early times in possession of the greater part of the present barony of Costello, Co. Mayo, of which their chiefs were paramount. During the mediaeval period they gradually became reduced in importance, though they remained in their native habitat in a more or less subordinate position and also spread into the neighbouring counties. an inquisition of 1609 describes them as then erenaghs of Killaghtee, in the diocese of Raphoe; and in the census of 1659 we find them in Co. Sligo. It is in Co. Mayo they are still numerous to-day. This Mayo sept anglicized their name Kearns. In Donegal it is sometimes Kerr to-day. An influential branch of it settled in Co. Clare about the year 1420. They prospered in their new home and have been prominent in Co. Clare since then. The anglicized form of the surname of this branch is Kerin or O'Kerin. The tomb of Teige O'Kerin (1685) is still to be seen in Ennis Abbey. Kearon in Wicklow and Kerrane in Mayo are other variants of the name.

The three best known men of the name were in fact none of them from Co. Mayo or Co. Clare. Father Moses Kearns, the intrepid leader in Co. Wexford in 1798, was executed in that year; a decade earlier he had been hanged from a lamp post in Paris by the revolutionary mob, but survived through the breaking of the rope and the fortunate presence of an Irish doctor. William Henry Kearns (1764-1846), a Dublin man, was a noted violinist, organist and composer. Richard Kerens (1842-1916), American Railroad builder, was the son of a Kearns from Co. Meath.