Catherine (Kate) Brennan

My great grandmother Catherine Brennan was born and lived with her parents and siblings in Conahy townland in the Catholic parish of Conahy, which is also in the Civil parish of Grangemaccomb, County Kilkenny.

Her parents where Michael Brennan and Elizabeth Keogh (sometimes spelt Kahoe).

Michael Brennan was born around 1808 and Elizabeth was born around 1827. Michael’s parents were Pearce Brennan and Mary Commerford, and Elizabeth’s parents were John Keogh and Mary Gorman.

Michael and Elizabeth were married in Kilkenny probably in the late 1840s given that Catherine their first child was born sometime around 1848. Michael was in his early 40s and Elizabeth was in her early 20’s at the time of their wedding.

This was Michael Brennan’s second marriage. In June 1835 he married Mary Drennan and had a daughter Mary born around 1835/36. His first wife Mary Drennan died sometime in the period late 1830s to the mid 1840s.

Catherine was born around 1848. I haven’t been able to find a record of her baptism in the local Conahy church records, but I have identified the church baptism records of the of three of her siblings, Elizabeth, baptised on 20 September 1853, Denis on 10 May 1856 and Ellen on 8 July 1863. She had two other siblings John born around 1852 and James born around 1858. Again, I have been able to locate their baptism records.

The baptism records for her siblings Elizabeth, Denis and Ellen list their family residential address as Conahy townland.

The Griffiths Valuation for Kilkenny completed in 1840 shows a Michael Brennan occupying a house and small amount of land in Conahy townland.

The whole family parents and six children migrated to Australia in the mid 1860’s and settled in Bendigo a major town in the Victorian goldfields.

It is probable his daughter Mary by his first marriage did not migrate with the rest of the family to Australia. She would at that time have been a woman in her late twenties may have by that stage been married.

Initially Michael and Elizabeth ran a store in the centre of Bendigo and then became publicans running the appropriately named Kilkenny Arms in Mitchell St, Bendigo.

Michael died in 1873 from cholera and Elizabeth died three years later in 1876 from a heart attack.

Catherine married my grandfather Martin Meaney a native of County Clare in Bendigo in 1871. Martin and Catherine farmed land outside Bendigo for a number of years and then sold the farm and for a short period ran a hotel, ‘The Limerick Arms’ in Bendigo where they went bankrupt. Martin then until his death worked as a labourer at a local produce store.

They had 10 children including my grandmother Teresa Margaret Meaney born in Bendigo in 1884. Catherine died in Bendigo in 1892, her husband Martin died in 1900 during an operation, under chloroform at the local hospital, to remove a damaged eye.