Shane, Thank you for making such a great attempt to help. There are many small inconsistencies in my sources, these being mainly in her children’s birth certificates. Margaret dies in 1876 in NSW, aged 41 according to her daughters as informants to her death registration, and around that time her husband Thomas is murdered in Fiji. So for him there seems to be no death certificate as it was a lawless place at that time and his death is only strong family heresay. Margaret’s daughters say her father was Michael Hanning and mother Elizabeth Maguire.
Thus her father’s name is a poor match for what is on her wedding certificate but probably close enough for searches like yours to pick up his marriage because the mother’s name matches. We have to remember that the daughters providing the information, aged in their early 20s, had never met either maternal grandparent and they lived on the other side of the 1870s world. The information about Eliza/Elizabeth’s remarriage comes from Margaret’s youngest son, Thomas aged 34, who put an advertisement in the Irish Independent (Mon 18 Nov 1901, p.1) while he was working in England in the early 1900s. So I believe that he would have been reasonably knowledgeable about what he was suggesting about his parent’s Irish families.
The actual article said
“FITZPATRICK--Wanted to trace the Relatives of Thomas Fitzpatrick, who was born in County Down, about 1829; had three brothers (James, Michael and William), but no sisters; went to Australia prior to 1853. Information thankfully received by T. Fitzpatrick, 65 Myddleton square, Islington, London.
HANNON—Wanted to trace the Relatives of Margaret Hannon, born in County Wicklow 1832. left for Australia prior to 1853; daughter of Mathew and Eliza Hannon. The former died, and the latter married a man named White, by whom there were two boys (twins). In-formation thankfully received by T. Fitzpatrick, 65 Myddleton square, lslington. London .”
The core search message was repeated in the Perth (Aust) Sunday Times 5 Oct 1902, p.2.
Where Margaret’s parents married is unknown and their religion is unknown. Her husband comes from a Catholic family as he was baptised in a catholic church in Clonallon near Newry. We have that information with correct names from the church register. It would appear that none of the children knew exactly when their parents came out to Australia, only that it was before they married in Melbourne in 1853. We have discovered Margaret’s voyage information in recent times. We do not know if she had any siblings from her parent’s union. Maybe they never married. Maybe he was killed in one of the civil uprisings that occurred in the Wicklow area and never received a formal burial.
Unfortunately we also have no more information about Thomas’s family than what is in the marriage certificate, what was written in the paper, and a guess about his father’s farm based on Griffiths valuations. Both fathers were recorded on the marriage certificate as farmers but the daughters said their mother’s father was a shoemaker – just to muddy the waters more.
So I’ll continue to search and would, of course, welcome anything else that you might turn up. Again, your efforts are much appreciated,
Ric
