John and Jane Killion's marriage - 1851 to 1864

We have very few details of John and Jane's marriage other than the births of their five children.

Edward John (Jack) was born about 1854 and Rosanna (Rose) about 1855.  However, we can't find any birth or baptism registrations for Jack or Rose.  Jack's granddaughter had his birth date recorded as 20 October 1854.

Thomas was their third child.  His birth registration shows he was born on 10 April 1857 at "North Shore opposite the Town of Port Macquarie", John shows his occupation as "settler" and there were two "previous issue", John and Rosanna "both living".

Mary Jane, their fourth child, was born on 25 October 1859.

Margaret, was their fifth child.  Her birth registration shows she was born on 10 February 1862 at "North Shore, Port Macquarie".  Again John is shown as a "settler" and the previous issue are John (9), Rosanna (6), Thomas (5) and Mary Jane (2).




Edward John is top left and Margaret is top right.  At this stage, we're still looking for evidence to verify that Thomas is bottom left and Mary Jane is bottom right.  We don't have a photo of Rosanna...so the search continues!

Martyn Killion's research has revealed that on 19 July 1859, just prior to the birth of Mary Jane, John purchased 53 acres of land for the sum of fifty three pounds.

The land that John purchased is shown as "1" below and is on the North Shore of the Hastings River.



Today, there's housing and bushland on the site which is to the right of the Settlement Point Ferry berth on the North Shore.  A stay at Bliss Beach House would see you on the very land that the Killion and later the Seward families lived.



Five years after purchasing his land and with 5 children aged between 2 and 9, John died on 21 July 1864 at his home.  John was about 59 years of age and had been in Australia for just over 30 years - half his life.  He's been married to Jane for almost 13 years.  

My hope is that "these were the best years of his life"!  

 John's death registration shows he was a farmer.  Asthma, which he'd suffered for three years, was the cause of his death.
There is no evidence of John's exact burial site. However, John's name is listed on the memorial at Port Macquarie Historical Cemetery which is close to St Thomas Church in Gordon Street. 



Most popular posts

Our Family Blog

The central person in this blog is our 2nd great-grandmother, Jane Feeney.  When we commenced in early 2017, we were focussing on Jane, her husbands - John Killion, Thomas Seward and Charles Moran - and their children and descendants.  After a DNA breakthrough later in the year, we reunited Jane with her mother, Jane, and four siblings - Eliza, Ann, Edward and Thomas - and the scope of the blog expanded. Are you a Killion, Seward or Feeney descendant?  If so, why not join our blog to share information and find out more about our families. John Killion arrived in Sydney on 19 January 1834 .  He was transported from County Westmeath, Ireland.  John received his ticket of leave on 10 July 1848.  On 29 September 1851, he married Jane Feeney in what is now the Port Macquarie Historic Museum. John and Jane had five children before John's death on 21 July 1864.   Jane arrived in Sydney on 4 April 1849.  She left the South Dublin Work House for her new life as part of the Earl Grey Famine
Read more

"An Irish Famine Orphan in Australia" - Jane Feeney, "My woman of importance"

Today I again "virtually" joined other members of the Society of Australian Genealogists.  With Mothers' Day on Sunday, the topic was "Women of Importance".  You might the interested in reading about Jane Feeney, our many times great-grandmother and great aunt. Jane Feeney came to Sydney in 1849 on board The Digby.  She was part of Earl Grey’s Famine Orphan Scheme.  So many of us are descendants of these young women that I consider they are truely women of importance. We owe a lot to Trevor McClaughlan and Perry McIntyre for the work they’ve done to bring the stories of these young women to us.  Over 4000 “famine orphans” came to the Australian colonies during 1848, 49 and 50.  Most were teenagers.  They were from workhouses in all 32 counties throughout Ireland. All were destitute and many had lost their parents and families. Others were simply unable to support themselves within the family. In a male-dominated society, these young women
Read more

From Feeny to Feeney - Our DNA discoveries!

You may have noticed that we've changed the spelling of Jane's family name from Feeny to Feeney and welcomed descendants of Edward and Thomas Feeney in a recent post..... Genetic genealogy, commonly referred to as DNA testing, is one of the new tools being used by family historians.  Quite a few of the Killion cousins have tested and we're looking forward to Quinn and Hand cousins testing!  So it's been a busy few months on the DNA front following matches between Killion cousins and descendants of two brothers, Edward and Thomas Feeney.  We've been working hard to piece together the story.  With all the evidence that we've gathered, we're confident that Edward and Thomas were Jane's brothers!!  We also appear to have found Jane's mother, also named Jane, and two sisters, Eliza and Ann.   The search continues and the DNA matches keep coming.  However, it seems a good time to share an overview of the Feeney family.... Jane Feeney snr arr
Read more