2. Tom and Mary Whelan

The Census of 1860 has Felix Thomas Whelan at 18 working on his father's farm in Meade County. By 1870, Thomas Whelan is found living and working on the farm owned by older brother Charles Kendrick. Father Michael is still listed as a farmer in Garnettsville in 1870 and is married to his second wife Isabella. On 5 November 1872, Thomas Whelan married Mary Melissa Brown, daughter of Valentine Brown and Eliza Ann Elder. The Brown family is another Irish Catholic clan that has made the journey to Maryland and then Kentucky. Thomas Whelan's own mother had been Anne Ellen Brown of Marion County, Kentucky. Between 1873 and 1884, Thomas and Mary had six children, Ann Elizabeth, Hilda E., Alice F., called Flonnie, William Alexander, James Augustine "Gus", and Francis Peter "Frank". In the 1880 Census, Thomas and Mary are living near George Washington Corbett, wife Mary and their children James, Catherine, Fladget, Ambrose and two-year-old Philomena Corbett. Thomas' first wife Mary Whelan died in 1884 giving birth to twins. 

The next year Thomas married Lucinda French and their children were Eva Genaose, Thomas A., Mary Dora, Joseph Karl, Sallie Bell, Olive M., Martha E., and Frances Lucille. Lucinda "Lucy" French was the younger sister of Sarah "Sallie" French, who was the second wife of Thomas' brother John Alexander Whelan. The French family is one of the oldest in Kentucky, descended from Ignatius French, who emigrated with the League of Catholic Families in 1785 to the Pottinger's Creek of Nelson County. The 1900 Census shows a very large household headed up by Thomas and Lucy that includes Anna 26, William James 19, Peter 18, Eva 14, Thomas A 13, Mary 11, Joseph 8, Sallie 6, Ollie M 5, Martha 3, and baby Francis, 12 months. The 1920 Census has Felix living with son Karl on a farm surrounded by relatives. 

Of Thomas Whelan's children with Mary Brown, Flonnie married Pius Fackler in Feb 1900, Gus married Minnie Augusta Mattingly Sep 1906 and Frank Peter married Alvie Hardin in 1909. Of Thomas' children with Lucy French, Eva Genaose (Jane) married Martin O'Connor Shircliff and son Tom is found living in Benton, Indiana in that 1920 Census with wife Ida M Peak and daughter Mary G Whelan. Mary Dora married Marion T. Ray in 1906 and they had son Ernest in 1908. Karl's wife was named Margaret Lancaster, Sallie Bell married Henry Shircliff and Ollie married Guy Osborne. Daughter Martha became an Ursuline Sister and named herself Sister James Louis Whelan after Father James Louis Whelan, a nephew of Michael Josiah Whelan Jr. Thomas and Lucy's youngest child, Frances Lucille married C.K. Ray and died after childbirth in 1924 at age 25.