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Whelan and Connolly

I have been searching for information on my grandfather Thomas Whelan who lived in Maryborough at the time of the 1901 and 1911 census and have since found out that he was not born in Ireland but in fact Bega, N.S.W. Australia along with his brother and sisters.

I have since found out that their parents were actually married in New Plymouth, New Zealand on 24th June, 1885.

Their names were Thomas Whelan, place of birth listed as Kilkenny and Elizabeth Connolly, place of birth Longford, Ireland.

The 1885 marriage certificate states that Elizabeth's parents were Mary Anne (Bennett) and Robert Connolly and that Thomas's parents were Elizabeth (Dunne) and John Whelan.

I have no idea when Elizabeth Connolly or Thomas Whelan went to New Zealand or where they left from to go there.

At some stage after their marriage they went from NZ to NSW where their 5 children were born, the eldest in 1889.

At some stage after the youngest was born in 1895 the family returned to Ireland and were living in Maryborough where they are noted on the 1901 and 1911 census.

At some stage, my grandfather Thomas (jnr) returned to Austalia before the first world war.  He enlisted in the AIF in Melbourne in early 1917 and served in France/Belgium in 1918 where he was injured and taken prisoner. At the end of the war he returned to Ireland where he married my grandmother Julia (Tynan) at Emo in 1919 before returning to Australia.

I know this has been a bit "long winded" but I would love to be able to find shipping records for both Thomas Jnr and Snr and also Elizabeth Connolly if there is anybody out there who could point me in the right direction.

 

Anne Baker 1

2 replies

Anne, you will probably find they went from England, at the time it was all one country (Pre 1921) and this continued after independence as travel between Ireland and England is a free travel area (still is) so no travel records were kept, think they are now. Also it is unlikely there was direct sailings from Ireland to New Zealand (there was for convict ships but this is past all that). 

It is most likely departure was from Liverpool which is the nearest major port to Ireland and had regular services to Dublin.

I could not locate suitable baptisms to those parents in those areas, can find similar but not correct parents, there was an Ellen Dunn mother in one case, do you have any idea of ages to narrow year born. 

Good Luck

Pat

St Peters LouthIrelandXO Volunteer

Hello Pat,

sorry for the late reply. Much appreciate your interest in my last post about Whelan/Connolly.  You mentioned that the most likely departure point was Liverpool so I will keep that in mind however I don't have "years" in which Thomas or Elizabeth left Ireland, I think it was after 1854, so between 1854-1889  You also mentioned that it was unlikely there were direct ships to New Zealand so I will look into arrivals at Sydney, NSW.  I have no idea whether Thomas Snr and Elizabeth arrived in NSW or NewZealand as children or as adults, I estimate that Thomas was born about 1852 and Elizabeth about 1864.  I haven't been able to locate birth/baptism records for them either, however their marriage certificate states that Elizabeth was born in Longford, Ireland and Thomas  in Kilkenny, Ireland.  They returned to Ireland between 1895 and 1901.

As far as my grandfather is concerned, he left Ireland sometime between 1911 and 1917.He married my grandmother in Emo straight after WW1.  I don't know if they knew each other before he came to Australia or whether it was a whirlwind romance after the war. They were married on 27th January1919.  I believe she accompanied him to Australia on his return to Australia with the troops although I do not have any evidence of that.  My mother was born in Melbourne in January 1920.

It seems I take one step forward and three backwards in my research so I think it's going to be a very long process.

Thanks for your interest,regards Anne.

 

Anne Baker 1

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