Hi, Faye: I don't know that area of Clare well, but I looked up O'Dea in Clare on eircom.ie and found 122 listings. You could check a map of Ireland and see if any are near your family's old homestead, then try writing them. (New Quay is not near Kilkee, so there may be no connection between the nine children who drowned and your family.) Finally, you could ask the Clare Champion to post an inquiry for you about Thomas O'Dea, or ask the Lisdeen postmaster (if there is one) if there are still relatives around. 1948 was not that long ago--there probably are. Finally, if you post again, you should change the subject line to something like O'Dea from Kilkee. Some people read only subject lines, and you want to catch the eye of people who might know the family. Good luck! Diane