REVIEW: This book contains a real success story and shows the value of family oral histories to genealogists, see below. Perhaps you can locate a copy of this book published in 1998 if the subject interests you, "The Story of the Rebellious O'Kennedys," Brian Patrick KENNEDY, Gaeltachta Publishing, POB 7030, Holland Park East, 4121 Australia. There are 38 chapters in this book, and per book review by the editor of "Irish Roots" magazine, most of the book is a history of the Kennedys from earliest times to the present - how the Kennedys fared through the various episodes of Irish history. There are chapters on Kennedy churches, churchmen, castles and cottages, there is a well-informed chapter on the Kennedy coats of arms and seals. One of the most interesting parts of the book is a chapter in which the author recounts in detail how he located the place in Ireland from which his own Kennedy ancestors set out for Australia. Brian Kennedy already knew from Australian records that the family was associated with the parish of Doon, Co. Limerick, but the parish priest had not been able to trace the marriage record years before. The real breakthrough came when the author's cousin remembered that her grandmother, who had purchased a farm in Brisbane at the turn of the century, had the name "Foilaclara" painted on the board at the farm gate. She remembered trying to pronounce it as a child and being told that it was the name of the place in Ireland from which her grandmother had come. The significance of this name became apparent when, checking through the townlands of Griffith's Valuation, Brian Kennedy came across the name Foilycleara with two Kennedy families listed as landholders! Further research at the Land Valuation Office in Dublin enabled the author to find the old Kennedy homestead. Clearly, it was worth the long search. "It was a cold drizzly afternoon when we stopped the car on the road outside and walked into the yard. I cannot describe my feelings as I stepped over the threshold into the cottage. To think that my great-grandparents had left here to go to Australia. Every genealogist's dream!"