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

Absalom Lyons (1912 to 1921) This old, crumpled photo is one that stays with you when the story's attached. While I've seen a number of copies, this copy comes from  MyHeritage . It's been shared by a member of the Lyons family. Absolom is the great-grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney. He was born on 27 June 1912. He's the second child and only son of Absolom Lyons and Annie Killion. Annie was the daughter of John and Jane's son, Thomas. Absolom Lyons, 28, and Annie Killion, 23,  married in 1910 in Sydney.  Their first child's birth was registered in Sydney and the other three in Kempsey- Doris Marion - 6 November 1910 to 27 June 1996, Absolom - 27 June 1912 to 26 October 1921, Monica Mary - 14 February 1914 to 23 December 1977 and Kathleen Clare - 13 November 1918 to 20 October 2009. Young Absolom looks so angelic. He's about two years of age. The family had settled back on the Macleay by this time. The 1913 NSW Electoral Roll shows them living on the ...

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...

Charles was born on 29 June 1890 in Kempsey, NSW.  He was the oldest of the twelve children of Annie Quinn (nee Seward) and her husband, Thomas was the grandson of Jane Feeney and Thomas Seward.  You can read more about Annie and her family HERE .  Charles followed in his father's footsteps and became a tailor.   In 1924, Charles married Elizabeth Bella Sanders.  They had four children.  This photo is from the collection of their daughter, Betty, who still lives in Kempsey.   Their three sons were Charles (1925 to 1994), Bede (1926 to 1991) and Thomas (1934 to 2015). Elizabeth died in 1940 when their youngest child, Thomas, was just 6.  Charles died on 21 October 1960 and is buried with Elizabeth at West Kempsey Cemetery. There must have been a special connection between Charles and my grandmother, Essie, and her brother and sister, Frank and Rene, who lived in Sydney.  Here's his signature from a card sent to Rene a...

MyHeritage has introduced a new feature for subscribers....colouring your black and white photos in seconds!   Here are a few photos that we've seen before... Likely to be Rose Porter (nee Killion) with Cissy and Dattie Possibly Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion) Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) Annie Quinn (nee Seward) Annie's husband and sons outside their business in Kempsey

Matilda was the eight child of our many times great grandmother Jane Feeney and the third child of Jane's marriage to Thomas Seward.  Matilda was born at Port Macquarie and moved with her mother and 7 siblings to Kempsey when she was about 10.  In 1905, Matilda married John Hand and they had three sons - John, William and Bernard. We haven't found a photo of Matilda to date but here's a photo of her sons. You can read more about Matilda  HERE.

Like all family history enthusiasts, I'm keen to ensure the information recorded for our family is accurate and complete.   Recently, I was asked to check the information recorded for Francis Thomas (Frank) Quinn's wife, Elsie May Sheppard.   My first stop was a review of Public Members Trees on  ancestry.com.au.   Only one tree had the same details as mine for Elsie's birth date and birth family - while four had different details! The confusion has occurred as Francis's wife, Elsie May, was born in 1897 and her birth was registered in Queensland.  In 1898, "Elsie Sheppard" was born in Kempsey.  It's this birth that's attributed to Francis's wife in the other four trees on  ancestry.com.au. So here's a post for other enthusiasts to review.....   Elsie May Sheppard was born on 21 September 1897 to John Thomas Sheppard and Elizabeth Low You.  Her birth was registered in Queensland.   Click here to view.    Elsie married...

These three beautiful photos of T. F. Quinn's Tailor shop are from the collection of Betty, the granddaughter of Annie Seward and Thomas Quinn.  The shop was in Belgrave Street, Kempsey and operated between 1897 and 1937.  Thomas retired at the age of 74!  Annie died just prior to Thomas selling his business.   In the first photo, we see Thomas (in the middle) with 3 of his sons - Charles (second from the left), Francis (second from the right) and Henry (on the right).  Thomas is clearly visible in the other photos.  We're now working to identify the men in the other two photos. Charles, Francis and Henry were also tailors.  Jan, another granddaughter of Annie and Thomas, has this button from Charles Quinn's business.

Francis Joseph Macleay Gersbach (1890 to 1919) Home from another successful "field trip" to Port Macquarie and Kempsey! Thanks to  John  and  Ann  for their hospitality - including our visit to the Killion land  on the North Shore. Wonderful to meet Quinn and Hand cousins in Kempsey and receive some priceless photos - all over 100 years old. Here's one that my great uncle, Frank Gersbach, sent to his cousin, Charlie Quinn. Frank departed from Sydney on 12 May 1915 on HMAT Themistocles A32 (pictured) bound for Gallipoli. Part of the second landing, Frank was wounded at Lone Pine and evacuated to Malta. He rejoined his battalion in France and was wounded twice more.   Frank was invalided back to Australia in 1918 and died on 18 April 1919 - 4 months after discharge - aged 29.     ❤️

Ida Killion was the 5th of the 9 children of Thomas Killion and Mary Jane Wood.  She's the granddaughter of John Killion and Jane Feeney.  Ida was born on 16 July 1893 at Smithtown on the Macleay River, NSW. The family moved from the Macleay to Bellingen Heads.  Between 1913 and 1917, they moved to Sydney where Ida's father, Thomas, died on 17 December 1917.   Photo of Ida Killion kindly shared by "chinagirl828" on ancestry.com.au Ida was 38 when she married Russell Weir on 02 January 1932 at St Barnabas, Waverley, NSW.  Russell was born in Armidale, NSW in 1895 - the son of David McMillan Weir and Jane Maria Bowers.  At the time of her marriage, Ida records her occupation as a postal assistant.  The witnesses at the marriage were- Clarice Daphne Benson, Ida's niece, who was 21 at the time.  Clarice was the daughter of Ida's older sister, Maud, from her marriage to Edward George Benson.   William Henderson who was Maud's partner...

Late last year, we took a "field trip" to Port Macquarie and Kempsey. We visited sites of significance to our Killion, Quinn and Hand family. Port  Macquarie  Historical Museum, pictured  above, is thought to be the location of the 1851 marriage of our many times great grandparents, John Killion and Jane Feeney. Making our way to the North Shore of Port Macquarie where John and Jane Killion had their home and farm on 53 acres. John purchased the land in 1859. It's to the right of the ferry. Jane lived there with her second husband, Thomas Seward, until the late 1860s. Edward, Rose, Thomas, Mary Jane and Margaret Killion and William and Annie Seward lived on the land. We're pretty sure that the family had moved back to Port Macquarie prior to the birth of Matilda and the twins, James and Richard. The land as it is today! There was a water frontage to the river when the family lived there. It hardly seems like ideal farming land to my city eyes! It's difficult t...

On 11 August 1907, our many times great grandmother, Jane Moran (nee Feeny) died in West Kempsey. Jane was survived by Charles Moran, her third husband, and eight of her ten children - Edward John (56), Rosanna (54), Mary Jane (52), Thomas (50), Margaret (48), William (43), Annie (31) and Matilda (30). Her twins, James and Richard, had died in as infants in 1873.  The following day, 12 August 1907, Jane was buried at the Church of England Cemetery, West Kempsey. Jane's headstone in West Kempsey Cemetery  Local and General News. (1907, August 15). The Macleay Chronicle (Kempsey, NSW : 1899 - 1952), p. 4. Retrieved August 10, 2017, from  http://nla.gov.au/ nla.news-article18150976 Family Notices (1908, August 11). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 6. Retrieved August 10, 2017, from  http://nla.gov.au/ nla.news-article15017038

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. ...