The Killion, Quinn and Hand Families of Port Macquarie and Kempsey and their Feeney Family

Like all family history enthusiasts, I'm keen to ensure the information recorded for our family is accurate and complete.   Recently, I was asked to check the information recorded for Francis Thomas (Frank) Quinn's wife, Elsie May Sheppard.   My first stop was a review of Public Members Trees on  ancestry.com.au.   Only one tree had the same details as mine for Elsie's birth date and birth family - while four had different details! The confusion has occurred as Francis's wife, Elsie May, was born in 1897 and her birth was registered in Queensland.  In 1898, "Elsie Sheppard" was born in Kempsey.  It's this birth that's attributed to Francis's wife in the other four trees on  ancestry.com.au. So here's a post for other enthusiasts to review.....   Elsie May Sheppard was born on 21 September 1897 to John Thomas Sheppard and Elizabeth Low You.  Her birth was registered in Queensland.   Click here to view.    Elsie married Francis Thomas (

These three beautiful photos of T. F. Quinn's Tailor shop are from the collection of Betty, the granddaughter of Annie Seward and Thomas Quinn.  The shop was in Belgrave Street, Kempsey and operated between 1897 and 1937.  Thomas retired at the age of 74!  Annie died just prior to Thomas selling his business.   In the first photo, we see Thomas (in the middle) with 3 of his sons - Charles (second from the left), Francis (second from the right) and Henry (on the right).  Thomas is clearly visible in the other photos.  We're now working to identify the men in the other two photos. Charles, Francis and Henry were also tailors.  Jan, another granddaughter of Annie and Thomas, has this button from Charles Quinn's business.

Thank you to "chinagirl828" for sharing this photo of Mervyn on ancestry.com.au on 19 February 2011 Mervyn Reginald Killion was born on 02 October 1918 in Lismore, NSW.  He was the older son of George Killion and Ethel May Kay.  Mervyn is the great-grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney.   When he was 21, Mervyn join the AIF and served in the Second World War.  In 1944, Mervyn married Bernice Ellen Peace Benson in Kingsford.  Bernice was also from the Lismore area.  They divorced in 1947.   In 1949, Mervyn married Marie Josephine Petra Hoban.  The marriage was registered at Canterbury.  Mervyn and Marie lived in Sydney where he worked as a dogman, fireman and storeman.  In the early 1980s, Mervyn and Marie moved to Port Macquarie.  Marie died on 08 July 1986. Mervyn died on 2 August 1994 at Port Macquarie.

Francis Joseph Macleay Gersbach (1890 to 1919) Home from another successful "field trip" to Port Macquarie and Kempsey! Thanks to  John  and  Ann  for their hospitality - including our visit to the Killion land  on the North Shore. Wonderful to meet Quinn and Hand cousins in Kempsey and receive some priceless photos - all over 100 years old. Here's one that my great uncle, Frank Gersbach, sent to his cousin, Charlie Quinn. Frank departed from Sydney on 12 May 1915 on HMAT Themistocles A32 (pictured) bound for Gallipoli. Part of the second landing, Frank was wounded at Lone Pine and evacuated to Malta. He rejoined his battalion in France and was wounded twice more.   Frank was invalided back to Australia in 1918 and died on 18 April 1919 - 4 months after discharge - aged 29.     ❤️

Ida Killion was the 5th of the 9 children of Thomas Killion and Mary Jane Wood.  She's the granddaughter of John Killion and Jane Feeney.  Ida was born on 16 July 1893 at Smithtown on the Macleay River, NSW. The family moved from the Macleay to Bellingen Heads.  Between 1913 and 1917, they moved to Sydney where Ida's father, Thomas, died on 17 December 1917.   Photo of Ida Killion kindly shared by "chinagirl828" on ancestry.com.au Ida was 38 when she married Russell Weir on 02 January 1932 at St Barnabas, Waverley, NSW.  Russell was born in Armidale, NSW in 1895 - the son of David McMillan Weir and Jane Maria Bowers.  At the time of her marriage, Ida records her occupation as a postal assistant.  The witnesses at the marriage were- Clarice Daphne Benson, Ida's niece, who was 21 at the time.  Clarice was the daughter of Ida's older sister, Maud, from her marriage to Edward George Benson.   William Henderson who was Maud's partner and the fathe

Traditional "sleuthing" has come up trumps again!  Margaret, a grandchild of Margaret Mary (Cissie) and Charles Wright, and her daughter, Megan, are the latest "Killion cousins" to join our Facebook group . Cissie is the oldest child of Henry Porter and Rose Killion. Margaret and Megan were able to give us the first photo that we've seen of Cissie (second from the left). The photo was taken at the 1950 marriage of her son Walter (left) to Ethel Hook at St Aidens Church of England, Annandale, NSW.  Ethel's second from the right with her mother, Ellen Hook.   From left - Walter Wright, Cissie Wright (nee Porter), Ethel Wright (nee Hook), Ellen Hook Kindly provided by Margaret and Megan We're delighted to have this photos as we've located a photo of three women simply named "Porter women" at the Kempsey Museum. We're working to establish if the photo shows Rose Porter (nee Killion) and her two daughters, Cissie and Dattie (Mary Ja

Family historians' interest in genetic genealogy is growing exponentially with over 10 million people testing at AncestryDNA, the largest of the testing companies.  Here in Sydney, the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) has a very active DNA Research Group.    Here's the article about our recent Feeney DNA discoveries that appears in the Society's journal,  Descent , this month.  We're looking forward to more discoveries about our family as more people take DNA tests!  Will we reunite John Killion with his birth family in County Wesmeath, Ireland?

Edward Feeney died on 03 June 1893 It's 125 years since Edward Feeney died at 64 Cooper Street, Surry Hills, NSW.  Edward was "our" Jane's older brother.  He was born about 1829 in Granard, County Longford, Ireland and came to Australia in August 1843 with his younger brother, Thomas.  Here they joined their mother, Jane snr, and sisters, Eliza and Ann.  Edward and Thomas worked as boot makers in the inner city - a trade that many of their male descendants followed. In 1853, Edward married Margaret McCabe at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney.  In 1849, Margaret arrived with "our" Jane on the Digby.  She was also an "Irish Famine Orphan".  Edward and Margaret had 8 children.  Their first, Edward James, died as an infant.  The other children were still living at the time of Edward's death and are shown in his funeral notice - William, Edmund, Matilda, Isabella (wife of Thomas Wilson), Alfred, Amelia (wife of Robert Walton) and Selina.  Edward i

Mother's Day is appropriate to mark the first anniversary of our blog and Facebook group.  Jane Feeney, our many times great grandmother and great aunt, is the central person in our story.    We've made contact with more "Feeney cousins" than we expected - descendants of Jane from her marriages to John Killion and Thomas Seward and, more recently, descendants of her brothers, Edward and Thomas.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing photos and stories along with your comments and queries.   A special thank you goes to the "cousins" who came on our "DNA adventure" which allowed us to reunite Jane with her birth family and take our family tree back a further generation. There are still many mysteries to be solved:- Where and when was Jane Feeney born? Where's John Killion's birth family? Where and when did Thomas Seward die? After many years of collecting "likely" family photos, Martyn, our family historian,

You've probably heard how DNA was used to apprehend the alleged Golden State Killer. Knowing that I use genetic genealogy in my family history research, friends and family have spoken to me about how this unfolded. Upfront, I should say that the Police didn't use one of the commercial testing companies like AncestryDNA. They used  GEDmatch.com  which allows people to upload their DNA data from the commercial testing companies to a common platform. Roberta Estes, a US based gene tic genealogist, has published a very detailed article today that some may be interested in reading. Roberta makes the point that there's been little coverage of the same process being followed to identify a murder victim just 13 days earlier. The victim, known as the Buckskin Girl, was found in 1981 and identified as 21 year old Marcia Lenore King earlier in the month. At the end of the article, Roberta details why she's keeping her DNA online. Mine's staying online as well. Plea

The story of Private Thomas Arthur Feeney was published on Anzac Day 2018.  You can read it  here.   After reading this, his great niece, Christine, told me about the First World War experience of Thomas's younger brother, William Leslie Feeney. Thomas Arthur and William Leslie are the two oldest sons of William Feeney (our Jane's nephew and son of her brother, Thomas) and Elizabeth Marion Faulds who had 12 children.   William was born on 14 June 1897 at Marrickville.  He enlisted on 6 March 1916, eight months after his older brother Thomas, and joined the 13th Infantry Battalion, 19th to 23rd Reinforcement of the Australian Imperial Force.  The unit left Sydney on 22 August 1916 on the HMAT Wiltshire A18 bound for England and further training.  William arrived in France in mid February 1917 and was reported missing on 11 April 1917.  Less than a month later, on 5 May 1917, Thomas was killed in France. William was taken prisoner by the Germans and imprisoned at the

With the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneaux today, I'll be remembering Thomas Arthur Feeney whose story seems to be barely recorded from my research in our Feeney family.   He was the grandson of Thomas Feeney ("our Jane's" brother) and Julia Cooke.  So "our Jane" was Thomas's great-aunt. Thomas was born on 7 May 1895 at Marrickville, NSW.  He was the oldest son and third of the twelve children of William Feeney (1868 to 1935) and Elizabeth Marion Faunds (1869 to 1955).   Thomas enlisted for the First World War on 14 August 1915 when he was 20.  He served in the 2nd Battalion, 12 Reinforcement of the Australian Imperial Force.  His unit embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A7 Medic on 31 December 1915.  They was briefly in Egypt before they sailed for France, arriving in Marseilles on 28 March 1916.   On 9 July 1916, Thomas received a gun shot wound to his left foot and was hospitalised for a period.  He rejoined his

Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day on which we remember all Australians who served and died in war and on operational service past and present. The spirit of Anzac, with its qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity. John Maurice (Jack) Porter was born on 21 August 1919 at Lidcombe, NSW.  Jack was the fourth child of Clement William (Clem) Porter and Effie Maud Wright and the grandson of Rose Porter (nee Killion).  The family moved to Goulburn when Jack was 10. After Jack finished school, he worked at the local wool stores.  Times were difficult as this was towards the end of the Great Depression.   When Australian entered the Second World War, Jack enlisted and was a member of the 2/3 Battalion, 16th Brigade of the 6th Australian Division.   Jack was 20 and was on the first troop ship to leave Australia on 10 January 1940.  Jack rema