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

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 le...

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...

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...

In our last post, we followed Jane from the South Dublin workhouse to Port Macquarie staying at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney after she disembarked from the Digby in 1849. If you're ever in Macquarie Street with a few hours to spare, a visit to Hyde Park Barracks is highly recommended. You'll find Jane's name inscribed on the Australian Monument to the Great Irish Famine. In the Museum, there's a wonderful display on the Irish girls includ ing the story of a girl who also arrived aboard the Digby. You can read more information about the Irish orphan girls  here. The 18th Annual Commemoration at the Great Irish Famine Monument will take place on Sunday 27 August 2017 at 12pm. At a small cost, you can attend the event and visit the Museum. You can get the  information  here.

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. ...