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...

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...