In search of my Dwyer and Ryan Connections
In 1853 my maternal 2nd great grandmother JOHANNAH aka JUDITH DWYER nee RYAN arrived in Sydney aboard the SS Beejapore having departed from Liverpool, England on 12.10.1982 as assisted immigrants. Accompanied by her seven children and an adult listed in the ship’s manifest as her husband named John age 36. £8 is said to have been paid for their passage. The vessel was immediately quarantined due to measles, scarlet fever, and typhus among the passengers. All the Dwyer family survived the journey and the quarantine period without disaster. They disembarked on 6.2.1853, and It is thought they then traveled to Galong in NSW where many Irish people had settled. Ref: NSW State Achieves Assisted Immigrant Index attached.
I have located the baptism record for all the children in the Irish Catholic Parish Records, and I have found what appears to be the marriage record for John and Judith Dwyer in 1828. [2 records attached]. One of the children, Matthew Dwyer 1838-1922, was my great grandfather. He married late in life at age 51 to a 16-year-old [Catherine Elizabeth Emily Hurley], and they had 14 children. Anne Johannah Dwyer their second-born [1891] was my grandmother. She married William Edward Davis in 1911. He died in 1935 from chronic chest disease and Nan died in 1988 at the age of 97. They had two children, my mother Catherine Ann Smith-Roberts nee Davis and my uncle William Edward Davis. Both are now deceased.
My query is this. It is said that shortly before John and Johannah and the children were to leave for Australia, John died. I cannot find supporting evidence for this event. Help, please! He is said to have been baptized on 24 June 1806 in Thurles, Tipperary. Again, not sure about this.
It is also said that John was a widower with three children at the time he married Johannah. Unconfirmed information has the children named Mary born 27.4.1816, Margaret born 28.3.1819, and John born 21.5.1825. Clearly, there is something askew with this information? If he were baptized in 1806 as is thought, he was likely born about that time so would have been an incredibly young father indeed! Help needed here, please! More likely to have been born in the 1790s, I think.
To add to the tale, the John listed on the ship’s [Beejapore] manifest as Johannah’ s husband is thought to be her step-son John. It has been suggested that a widow with a large family [ages from 4 to 18] would not have been a suitable ‘assisted immigrant.’ So, it is thought that John falsified his age and posed as the husband so the family could immigrate. Again unconfirmed.
Lastly, Johannah aka Judith Ryan is said to have been born to Jeremiah and Johannah [maiden name not known] in February 1809 in Clonoulty, Tipperary, but I have not been able to locate verifying evidence for this family either. Johannah lived to a grand age of 100 yrs. and seven months. She is buried in Eugowra, NSW where they lived.
Any help, guidance you can give me will be most welcome. Please let me know if any of this needs further clarification. I would love to fit this jigsaw puzzle together correctly sometime.
Thank you for your help and advice. Gillian