Elizabeth Carberry

Elizabeth Carberry was born in Galway in 1832 to Michael and Sarah Carberry. She had a sister named Mary, born in 1834. It is believed that both of Elizabeth's parents died in 1852. In that same year the two girls were transported to Australia. 

Elizabeth, along with 31 other girls including her sister Mary, set sail on the Palestine. Each of the girls was an orphan from the Mountbellew Workhouse in County Galway. The journey was a difficult one. It began with travelling across the country to Dublin and then on to Plymouth where they remained for two days while they were processed. On the 29th of November, 1852, they finally set sail for a new life in Australia. Five months later the girls arrived in Freemantle, Australia on the 28th of April 1853. One can only imagine the hardships they endured on their long and arduous voyage. The girls were met as they disembarked the ship by an Immigration Agent who entrusted them to the care of an Immigrant Orphan Committee. 

Two years after arriving in Australia, Elizabeth married a man called James Maguire. The wedding took place on the 31st of May 1855 in Perth, Western Australia. James was a Limerick man, two years her senior. The pair would go on to have nine children together. Their names were John (1856), Thomas (b. 1857), Mary Jane (b. 1859), Sarah Anne (b. 1861), James (b. 1863), Michael (b.1866), Annie (b, 1868), Elizabeth Margaret (b. 1870), Michael (b. 1873).

Elizabeth died on the 24th of November 1886 in Dardanup, Western Australia at the age of 54. 

This Chronicle was created with thanks to the Mountbellew Workhouse Orphan Girls Project