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

While we're all staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Society of Australian Genealogists have a webinar each Friday afternoon.  Today's theme was Anzacs.  I'm sharing a short presentation I made on our family to recognise a very different Anzac Day 2020. I t was only four years ago that I became immersed in the stories of my family but I’d always known the story of my great uncle Francis Joseph Macleay Gersbach.  I didn’t know the story of Frank’s cousin, Henry Joseph Porter. So four years ago I asked my cousin to give me access to the family bible.  To my amazement, the bible contained photos of Frank and his parents, my great-grandparents, Francis Gersbach and Margaret Killion, along with Frank’s birth certificate.  Frank was born in Glen Innes just over 130 years ago.  The family moved to the inner west of Sydney when Frank was a young child.   As I’ve come to know more, I wonder if these were the photos that Fra...

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 An...

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...

We're back with more information about the Killion, Quinn and Hand families.  We're also welcoming members of the families of Edward and Thomas Feeney but more on that in the next post..... Henry Joseph (Harry) Porter died 98 years ago today.  He was the victim of "an unprovoked one punch attack" in George Street Sydney a few days short of his 32nd birthday. Harry Porter was the second son and fourth of the five children of Henry and Rose (nee Killion).  He was born on 30 November 1887 in Kempsey.  The family had moved to Sydney in the early 1900s and lived in Glebe.  Harry enlisted for the First World War on 8 September 1914 but these papers are marked as "deserted" on 23 November 1914.  He re-enlisted on 27 July 1915 and joined the 4th Infantry Division of the 20th Battalion.  He is described as 5 feet 5 3/4 inches, 136 lbs, ruddy complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair with tattoos on both forearms.   Harry served...

Rosanna (Rose or Rosa) Killion is the second child and oldest daughter of John and Jane Killion. She was born in about 1855 in Port Macquarie, NSW. At this time, we can't locate either a photo or a NSW birth registration for Rose. On 06 September 1882, Rose married Henry Porter in Kempsey, NSW. Henry, the son of Clement and Mary Jane Porter, was born on 21 January 1853 in Port Macquarie. Rose and Henry had five children - Margaret Mary (Cissie), Clement William (Clem), Mary Jane (Dattie), Henry Joseph (Harry) and Walter Leo (Wal). The family of Rose and Henry Porter The 1913 Australian Electoral Roll shows that Rose and Henry were living at 21 Talfourd Street, Glebe, NSW. The three oldest children were married by this time. All were living in the inner west of Sydney. 1919 was a tragic year for the Killion family On 3 February 1919, Premier Nolman, referring to the Spanish Flu Pandemic, wrote- "A greater danger than war faces the state of New South Wales...