In tracing our ancestry it is sometimes, but not always advisable to go back into the past as far as possible. In America the shores of the Atlantic usually provide a convenient stopping place.

In the case of the history of the Cannedy Family we are able to go back a step farther, and cross the Atlantic to the shores of Old Erin.

John Kennedy, now spelled Cannedy, was born in Ireland in the mid seventeen hundreds, and came to America and settled in South Carolina when that state was still an English colony.

As to who and what he was, and why he came to the New World, we can only venture a guess, but it seems highly probable that he left Ireland and came to America seeking religious and political freedom, and to escape the severe penal laws and exploitation imposed upon the Irish by England after the Battle Of The Boyne, in retaliation for the support given to James II by the Irish.

It seems that John Kennedy was an educated man, and that his children received the benefit of this education. From all reports he was ambitious and adventurous, and always anxious to see what lay over the next hill.

He fought in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War, and at its close settled in Darlington South Carolina, where he married a lady of whom we know little, except that she was of Scotch descent.

In 1807 the Kennedy family moved to Warren County, Tennessee, and it seems that it was at this time that, for some unknown reason, the spelling of the family name was changed to Cannedy. There were probably several children in the family at this time, we know that there was one son, James, who at that time was a lad of seventeen.

It seems that the family lived in Warren County for several years, during which time the war of 1812 was fought, in which young James served as a Captain under Gen. Andrew Jackson.

At the close of this war the John Cannedy family continued their following of the frontiers westward, and later in life finally settled in Illinois when that state was first being settled. Here, according to family tradition, John Cannedy is buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in the north-western Greene County.

John Kennedy, the Irish emigrant, found in this country the freedom which he sought, but Tom Payne tells us that These were the times which tried mens souls, and it seems to us that John Kennedy, throughout his life, still sought something in this new country, but whither or not he ever found the end of the rainbow we will never know.

NOTE:Some branches of the Kennedy family trace their ancestry from the 11th century and regard Cinneide, nephew of Brian Boru-the Irish King- as their primal ancestor. They lived in County Clare until driven out by the O'Briens and the MacNamaras, leaving behind them what is still the civil parish of KilloKennedy. From there they spread throughout Ireland, particularly the counties in the South..

Excerpts from Greenfield,IL. Sesquicentennial 1834-1984