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

Last October, we were approached to write an article on our many times great-grandmother and great-aunt, Jane Feeney.  Jane's story is the ninth in a Famine Orphan Series to be published.  Click  HERE  to read the article.

The Society of Australian Genealogists' "Hang Outs" are giving me the opportunity to systematically record my research and then turn it into blog posts!      Yesterday was the opportunity to tie together the stories of the past two weeks with my favourite topic - genetic genealogy.  If you've done a DNA test and would like any assistance, please contact me at the above email.  You can read the story of Jane Feeney, my second great-grandmother,  HERE.   You can read the story of Anton and Margaretha Gersbach, my second great-grandparents,  HERE .  I'll show  how DNA is helping me find my genetic make up from Essie Woodlands, my paternal grandmother.   Genetic evidence is necessary to “prove” our pedigree.   Louise Coakley is an Australian genetic genealogist, member of SAG and publisher of Genie1 .  DNA does indeed have amazing power and I hope the information in this p...

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 y...

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?

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...

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...