Catherine Heneberry

Catherine Heneberry was baptised in the parish of Ballyporeen, in County Tipperary, on 28 May 1848. She was the second child for her parents, David Heneberry and Mary Cronage.

David and Mary had been married in Ballyporeen on 5 February 1846, and had a first daughter, Mary, who was born in November that year.

On 8 April 1852, David, Mary and Catherine are recorded as passengers on the “Agincourt”, to N.S.W. Australia. Catherine was then aged 3, but her sister Mary was not listed.

The family is known to have lived at Myer’s Flat, just out of Bendigo, for a time.

Catherine’s brother David was born at Myer’s Flat, and he later married Ellen Broderick. Catherine’s sister, Mary, married Thomas Burns, and they owned the “Golden Fleece” Hotel in Bendigo for a time.

On 6 August 1864, at St Kilian’s Church in Bendigo, Catherine married Giuseppe Scettrini (originally from Corippo, a mountain village in Ticino, Switzerland.) Their first daughter Johanna (my great-grandmother) was born at Bendigo in 1865, and their son John was born in 1867. Catherine emigrated with her husband and young family to the West Coast gold-rushes in New Zealand, leaving her Australian extended family behind. They lived first at "Big Dam" near Goldsborough, but later settled in Kumara. They had at least nine more children.

On 6 January 1887, Catherine died, aged 38. She is buried in the Kumara Cemetery, along with her husband Giuseppe and at least two of her children.