Helen Yes the names Healy and Kerrisk are connected. My grandfather born in Gortalassa Firies was Denis Kerrisk and was married under the surname Kerrisk. However the eldest son was registered as Healy with other siblings registered as Kerrisk - in later years it caused a lot of difficulty with official forms etc. In my grandfather's time the family were often known in the locality as Healy Kerrisk . Now they only use Healy. Also searching parish records trying to disentangle Kerrisk families in the area between Tralee and Killarney I have come across numerous examples of Kerrisk being changed to Healy even within one generation. There are different versions of the origins of Kerrisk and I see that somebody has posted the McLysaght and Woulfe explanations earlier on the list. This is one version I have come across from Smith's History of Kerry which states that a branch of the Healy from the Blackwater area of Cork moved into Kerry and were known as the Healy "Ciar Uisce" branch - "ciar uisce" is a form of gaelic for Black Water and eventually were just called Kerrisk. I'm not sure if this is more accurate than the Woulfe McLysaght version. Clare Tuohy