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

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...

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 tra...

Jane Feeney is the matriarch of our family - the  hundreds of  descendants of Edward John (Jack) Killion, Rose Porter (nee Killion), Thomas Killion, Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion),  Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion), Annie Quinn (nee Seward) and Matilda Hand (nee Seward). Very few details remain about Jane's life.  We've relied on the records that exist which allow us to follow her voyage from Ireland to our young colony. Times were hard in Ireland between 1845 and 1852.  We know it as the time of the Irish Potato Famine.  Although, the Irish refer to it as the Great Famine or Great Hunger.  While pototo crops were ravaged throughout Europe, the impact was most severe in Ireland where there was mass starvation, disease and immigration.  During this period, about one million people died and the same number emigrated from Ireland to England, Scotland, South Wales, North America and Australia. ...