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

Matilda was the eight child of our many times great grandmother Jane Feeney and the third child of Jane's marriage to Thomas Seward.  Matilda was born at Port Macquarie and moved with her mother and 7 siblings to Kempsey when she was about 10.  In 1905, Matilda married John Hand and they had three sons - John, William and Bernard. We haven't found a photo of Matilda to date but here's a photo of her sons. You can read more about Matilda  HERE.

My great-grandmother, Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) died at her home, 19 Northumberland Street Stanmore...the fourth victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in our Killion family.  Margaret was 57.  Her cause of death is shown as "chronic bronchitis, pneumonic influenza and heart failure".  She's suffered from influenza for 10 days.  Margaret is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery. Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) about 1915 What a sad time it was for the family with the death of the three daughters and a grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney in under three months.  John was 59 when he died in 1864 leaving Jane with their five young children.  He died at the family's home on the North Shore, Port Macquarie from "asthma" and all the children suffered from bronchial issues. My grandmother, Essie, was just short of her twenty eight  birthday when her mother died.  In April, she'd seen her brother, Frank, die in the family home and her aunt, Ro

Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion) died at her home, 574 Crown Street Surry Hills, six weeks after the death of her older sister, Rose Porter.  Mary Jane was 59.  Her cause of death is also shown as  "pneumonic influenza" which she had for 6 days... another victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic.  Mary Jane is buried at the Church of England Cemetery, Waverley. During the week, I caught up with Sue, Mary Jane's great grand-daughter.  We chatted about what a sad time it was for our family.  Sue's family still have Mary Jane's prayer book.   I'd not realised that it was Sue's father, Francis Percival Thomas (Frank) Newton, who was the informant on Mary Jane's death certificate.  After the breakdown of his parents' marriage, Frank lived with his grandparents.  He was 5 weeks short of his fifteenth birthday at the time of his grandmother's death.  Frank never talked with his children about this period of his life.   We're still mus

Possibly Rosanna Porter (nee Killion) Rose Porter (nee Killion) died on 29 April 1919, aged 64, at her home in Telfourd Street Glebe.  Her cause of death is shown as "pneumonic influenza" which she had for 7 days. Rose was buried the following day in the Catholic  Cemetery at Rookwood.   Rosanna (Rose) was the oldest of the three daughters of John Killion and Jane Feeney. She was born in Port Macquarie about 1855.  We've never found a birth or baptismal registration for Rose. On 6 September 1882, Rose married Henry Porter in West Kempsey and their five  children were born there over the next 15 years. The family had moved to their home in Glebe by 1911. Their oldest son, Clement,  married Effie Wright in Glebe on 15 March 1911.   You can read more about Rose here. Rose was the first of the three daughters of John and Jane to succumb to the 1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic. The next daughter, Mary Jane Newton, died at her home in Surry Hills on 15 June 1919. The third daughte

Kokoda Track during the Second World War - Wal Wright at the back with the hat Walter Leo Wright was the grandson of Rose Porter (nee Killion) and the great-grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney. Wal was born on 25 September 1925 - the second child of Charles Wright and Margaret (Cissie) Porter.  He was only 15 when he enrolled for service in the Second World War but showed his birth date as 16 September 1923.   Wal served in Papua and New Guinea including on the Kakoda Track.  Here's an undated newspaper clipping that Cissie kept until her death in 1972. Wal is numbered 10 in this photo Wal went on to marry Ethel May Hook on 2 September 1950 at St Aidens Church of England, Annandale.  He showed his correct age in his marriage registration! Wal, Cissie, Ethel and her mother In the late 1950s, Wal, Ethel and their two children, Margaret and Jim, moved to the Newcastle area.  Wal died on 27 November 1998 and Ethel in 2016. Thanks to Wal&#

Listening to the ABC News last night and I was back with the Killion's.  The 1919 Anzac Day March was called off in Sydney because of the Spanish Flu Pandemic!  The first commemoration of Anzac Day in Sydney was in 1916.  Four thousand returned service men took part.  It was followed by lunch and entertainment at the Sydney Town Hall. You can read more here.   NRS 12060 [9/4857] B20/2475, State Archives and Records NSW Today, I'm wondering if Great Uncle Frank (Francis Joseph Macleay Gersbach) and his cousin, Harry (Henry Joseph Porter) were part of an Anzac Day March in Sydney.  Their only opportunity would have been 1918.......and I think not! Frank saw very little active service but was injured three times - the first in the second landing at Gallipoli and twice in France.  He returned to Australia on 7 March 1918.  He was found medically unfit and discharged from the AIF on 10 July 1918.  Frank died a week before Anzac Day 1919.   You can read the earlier blog

Francis was the son of Francis Gersbach and Margaret Killion...the grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney.  He was born on 25 January 1890 at Grey Street,  Glen Innes - the only son of Francis and Margaret and my great uncle. Francis returned from the First World War an invalid and succumbed to the Spanish Flu Pandemic.  He died at the family's home, 19 Northumberland Avenue Stanmore, after an illness of 7 days.  His cause of death is recorded as "Pneumonic influenza; general debility due to gas 9 months on active service".  Here's the letter Margaret, his mother, wrote on 22 April 1919 to the "Minister of Defence" advising of Francis's death.   On 5 July 1919, Margaret, died at the family home.  Her oldest sister, Rosanna Porter (nee Killion), had died on 29 April 1919 at her home in Glebe and her other sister, Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion), had died on 15 June 1919 at her home in Surry Hills.  All three daughters and one

Jane entered the South Dublin workhouse on 14 July 1848 and left  on 02 December 1848 bound for her new life in Australia.   We don't know how Jane was "transported" from Dublin to Plymouth, England.   On 16 December 1848, Jane boarded the 787 tons Digby in Plymouth for Port Jackson.  On board, there were 22 married immigrant couples and 234 "orphan" immigrant girls.   After a voyage of 107 days, the Digby arrived in Sydney on 04 April 1849 with a 16 year old Jane Feeney aboard.  Two girls died on the voyage. Another orphan on the ship was Margaret McCabe who went on to marry Jane's brother, Edward, in 1853.  We now know that Jane's arrival in Sydney saw her reunited with her mother, two brother and two sisters.  The girls were housed at the Female Immigration Depot at Hyde Park Barracks just a few streets from Kent Street where the Feeney family lived. We're unsure how long Jane spent in Sydney before she travelled to her new life in Po