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

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...

The Society of Australian Genealogists' "Hang Outs" are giving me the opportunity to systematically record my research and then turn it into blog posts!      Yesterday was the opportunity to tie together the stories of the past two weeks with my favourite topic - genetic genealogy.  If you've done a DNA test and would like any assistance, please contact me at the above email.  You can read the story of Jane Feeney, my second great-grandmother,  HERE.   You can read the story of Anton and Margaretha Gersbach, my second great-grandparents,  HERE .  I'll show  how DNA is helping me find my genetic make up from Essie Woodlands, my paternal grandmother.   Genetic evidence is necessary to “prove” our pedigree.   Louise Coakley is an Australian genetic genealogist, member of SAG and publisher of Genie1 .  DNA does indeed have amazing power and I hope the information in this p...

Family historians' interest in genetic genealogy is growing exponentially with over 10 million people testing at AncestryDNA, the largest of the testing companies.  Here in Sydney, the Society of Australian Genealogists (SAG) has a very active DNA Research Group.    Here's the article about our recent Feeney DNA discoveries that appears in the Society's journal,  Descent , this month.  We're looking forward to more discoveries about our family as more people take DNA tests!  Will we reunite John Killion with his birth family in County Wesmeath, Ireland?

Mother's Day is appropriate to mark the first anniversary of our blog and Facebook group.  Jane Feeney, our many times great grandmother and great aunt, is the central person in our story.    We've made contact with more "Feeney cousins" than we expected - descendants of Jane from her marriages to John Killion and Thomas Seward and, more recently, descendants of her brothers, Edward and Thomas.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing photos and stories along with your comments and queries.   A special thank you goes to the "cousins" who came on our "DNA adventure" which allowed us to reunite Jane with her birth family and take our family tree back a further generation. There are still many mysteries to be solved:- Where and when was Jane Feeney born? Where's John Killion's birth family? Where and when did Thomas Seward die? After many years of collecting "likely" family photos, Martyn, our family historian, ...

With the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneaux today, I'll be remembering Thomas Arthur Feeney whose story seems to be barely recorded from my research in our Feeney family.   He was the grandson of Thomas Feeney ("our Jane's" brother) and Julia Cooke.  So "our Jane" was Thomas's great-aunt. Thomas was born on 7 May 1895 at Marrickville, NSW.  He was the oldest son and third of the twelve children of William Feeney (1868 to 1935) and Elizabeth Marion Faunds (1869 to 1955).   Thomas enlisted for the First World War on 14 August 1915 when he was 20.  He served in the 2nd Battalion, 12 Reinforcement of the Australian Imperial Force.  His unit embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A7 Medic on 31 December 1915.  They was briefly in Egypt before they sailed for France, arriving in Marseilles on 28 March 1916.   On 9 July 1916, Thomas received a gun shot wound to his left foot and was hospitalised for a period.  He ...

There was only one place for Australasian family history enthusiasts to be for four days from 9 March - the 15th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry at the International Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. Congress was hosted by the Australian Society of Genealogists. As president of SAG, Martyn Killion, our family historian, was Congress convenor. Martyn addressing delegates I was one of the lucky 620 delegates to attend. Local and international speakers covered a huge variety of topics with four sessions running concurrently for most of the day!  Often wanting to be in two or three sessions at once, I chose ones that aligned with my family history interests, using  technology  and genetic genealogy. I'm there amongst all the "geneabloggers" at Congress So after four days of excellent speakers talking on interesting subject and with lots of laughs and fun along the way, I've pencilled the date in my diary for 2021! My Congr...