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...

Well I couldn't let the day pass without remembering Ann who died 170 years ago at just 24 years of age.  She's the second child we know of our many times great-grandparents, Edward Feeney and his wife, Jane. Ann's only been mentioned before when we reunited "our" Jane (Feeney/Killion/Seward/Moran) with her birth family.  You can read the earlier post HERE . It seems that Edward Feeney senior had died before his wife, Jane, set out from Dublin in 1841 with her daughters, Eliza and Ann.  They arrived in Sydney on 3 December 1841 on board the Columbine.  Ann was 15.   It seems that Ann settled with her mother and sister in Sydney.  They were joined by brothers, Edward and Thomas, two years later leaving "our" Jane back in Ireland until her arrival in 1849.  The family settled around the Kent and Clarence Street area in Sydney. On 18 December 1848, Ann married Richard Wilkinson at the York Street Chapel.  In this precious document, you can see the si...

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...

My great-grandmother, Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) died at her home, 19 Northumberland Street Stanmore...the fourth victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic in our Killion family.  Margaret was 57.  Her cause of death is shown as "chronic bronchitis, pneumonic influenza and heart failure".  She's suffered from influenza for 10 days.  Margaret is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery. Margaret Gersbach (nee Killion) about 1915 What a sad time it was for the family with the death of the three daughters and a grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney in under three months.  John was 59 when he died in 1864 leaving Jane with their five young children.  He died at the family's home on the North Shore, Port Macquarie from "asthma" and all the children suffered from bronchial issues. My grandmother, Essie, was just short of her twenty eight  birthday when her mother died.  In April, she'd seen her brother, Fran...

Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion) died at her home, 574 Crown Street Surry Hills, six weeks after the death of her older sister, Rose Porter.  Mary Jane was 59.  Her cause of death is also shown as  "pneumonic influenza" which she had for 6 days... another victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic.  Mary Jane is buried at the Church of England Cemetery, Waverley. During the week, I caught up with Sue, Mary Jane's great grand-daughter.  We chatted about what a sad time it was for our family.  Sue's family still have Mary Jane's prayer book.   I'd not realised that it was Sue's father, Francis Percival Thomas (Frank) Newton, who was the informant on Mary Jane's death certificate.  After the breakdown of his parents' marriage, Frank lived with his grandparents.  He was 5 weeks short of his fifteenth birthday at the time of his grandmother's death.  Frank never talked with his children about this period of his life.   We're s...

Possibly Rosanna Porter (nee Killion) Rose Porter (nee Killion) died on 29 April 1919, aged 64, at her home in Telfourd Street Glebe.  Her cause of death is shown as "pneumonic influenza" which she had for 7 days. Rose was buried the following day in the Catholic  Cemetery at Rookwood.   Rosanna (Rose) was the oldest of the three daughters of John Killion and Jane Feeney. She was born in Port Macquarie about 1855.  We've never found a birth or baptismal registration for Rose. On 6 September 1882, Rose married Henry Porter in West Kempsey and their five  children were born there over the next 15 years. The family had moved to their home in Glebe by 1911. Their oldest son, Clement,  married Effie Wright in Glebe on 15 March 1911.   You can read more about Rose here. Rose was the first of the three daughters of John and Jane to succumb to the 1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic. The next daughter, Mary Jane Newton, died at her home...

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...

Francis was the son of Francis Gersbach and Margaret Killion...the grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney.  He was born on 25 January 1890 at Grey Street,  Glen Innes - the only son of Francis and Margaret and my great uncle. Francis returned from the First World War an invalid and succumbed to the Spanish Flu Pandemic.  He died at the family's home, 19 Northumberland Avenue Stanmore, after an illness of 7 days.  His cause of death is recorded as "Pneumonic influenza; general debility due to gas 9 months on active service".  Here's the letter Margaret, his mother, wrote on 22 April 1919 to the "Minister of Defence" advising of Francis's death.   On 5 July 1919, Margaret, died at the family home.  Her oldest sister, Rosanna Porter (nee Killion), had died on 29 April 1919 at her home in Glebe and her other sister, Mary Jane Newton (nee Killion), had died on 15 June 1919 at her home in Surry Hills.  All three daughters ...

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...

Thank you to "chinagirl828" for sharing this photo of Mervyn on ancestry.com.au on 19 February 2011 Mervyn Reginald Killion was born on 02 October 1918 in Lismore, NSW.  He was the older son of George Killion and Ethel May Kay.  Mervyn is the great-grandson of John Killion and Jane Feeney.   When he was 21, Mervyn join the AIF and served in the Second World War.  In 1944, Mervyn married Bernice Ellen Peace Benson in Kingsford.  Bernice was also from the Lismore area.  They divorced in 1947.   In 1949, Mervyn married Marie Josephine Petra Hoban.  The marriage was registered at Canterbury.  Mervyn and Marie lived in Sydney where he worked as a dogman, fireman and storeman.  In the early 1980s, Mervyn and Marie moved to Port Macquarie.  Marie died on 08 July 1986. Mervyn died on 2 August 1994 at Port Macquarie.

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...