Two Women Called Elizabeth Kennedy: Untangling the Albatross Eliza

For many years, I believed I might have found the arrival of my ancestor Elizabeth Jane Bateman, also known as Elizabeth Kennedy.

When Elizabeth married James Murphy at St Matthew’s, Windsor in 1844, she gave her name as Elizabeth Kennedy.

Later records, however, identified her maiden name as Bateman and named her parents as Henry Bateman and Maria or Mary Alphonso. How Kennedy fitted into her life and how she reached New South Wales, remained uncertain.

Image: St Matthews, Windsor c1896. Wikimedia Commons

A promising candidate appeared in the immigration records of the Albatross, which arrived in Sydney on 30 November 1841. Among its bounty immigrants was fifteen year old Eliza Kennedy from County Limerick. The name, age, birthplace and arrival period seemed to fit. Elizabeth Murphy’s death certificate stated that she had lived in the colony for thirty-five years, suggesting an arrival around 1840. Her birthplace was recorded as Limerick. Could the young Albatross passenger have been my Elizabeth?

The answer initially seemed possible. A much fuller reconstruction of the Albatross Eliza’s life now suggests otherwise.

Eliza Kennedy aboard the Albatross

The immigration indent described Eliza Kennedy as a fifteen-year-old Roman Catholic child’s maid who could read. She was the daughter of Michael Kennedy, a plasterer, and his deceased wife Mary. Eliza travelled with two older siblings:

Margaret Kennedy, aged about twenty-one;
William Kennedy, aged about nineteen.

The indent also recorded that Eliza and Margaret were under the protection of Robert Fitzgerald and his wife.

In 2021, I discovered that Robert Fitzgerald and his wife, Margaret Dundon, had themselves travelled aboard the Albatross. They came from the Kildimo area of County Limerick. Robert was a shoemaker who established a shop and workshop in Market Street, Sydney, before later moving to the Braidwood and Araluen district.

This was not the prominent Robert Fitzgerald associated with Windsor and the Hawkesbury. There were two different men of the same name and earlier attempts to connect the Kennedy immigrants with the Windsor pastoralist had confused them.

The marriage to Thomas Willis

A New South Wales index records an 1844 marriage between Thomas Willis and Eliza Kennedy (Registration: V1844226 131, district LD). The index does not provide details of the church, the couple’s parents, residences or witnesses. The original church record therefore needs to be examined before all the details attributed to this marriage can be accepted. Jane Ison’s research states that Margaret Kennedy witnessed the marriage and that she holds a copy of the original record. This is strong evidence that the bride was the same Eliza who travelled with her sister Margaret aboard the Albatross. My only doubt being that Margaret was married by this time and presumably she would have signed her name Margaret Bull.

A convict named Thomas Willis was also assigned to an “R. Fitzgerald” in Sydney. If this employer was the shoemaker Robert Fitzgerald who protected Eliza, rather than the Windsor pastoralist, the connection explains how Thomas Willis and Eliza Kennedy met.

The Willis family

Thomas Willis and Eliza or Elizabeth Kennedy appear to have formed a family of their own. Their children included Thomas, Mary Ann, James, Anastasia and Rachel, as well as several children who died young. The surviving evidence is incomplete, but the family can be followed through baptismal, civil, institutional and gaol records.

The most important record concerns the youngest child. A daughter was registered as Margaret Willis after her birth at East Maitland on 22 April 1860. A child of the same parents and with the same birth date was baptised as Rachel Willis on 27 May. Ison concluded that Margaret and Rachel were the same child.

The Catholic baptism reportedly named her parents as Thomas Willis and Elizabeth Kennedy. The associated birth information identified her mother as Eliza Kennedy, born in Limerick City and her father as Thomas Willis, born at Trowbridge in Wiltshire. This evidence connects Rachel’s mother with both the Kennedy surname and Limerick. It does not, by itself, prove that she was the Albatross passenger. That connection comes from the later gaol records.

Eliza and Mary Willis

Rachel Willis entered the Newcastle Industrial School in July 1868 after her mother and sister had been imprisoned for keeping a disorderly house in Maitland. Earlier interpretations of the records suggested that Rachel’s mother used the names Mary and Eliza Willis interchangeably. Ison noted appearances by Mary Willis in the Maitland courts from about 1864 to 1866, followed by appearances under the name Eliza Willis from 1868. Because the names did not appear together in the material then considered, it seemed possible that they referred to one woman.

The original 1868 gaol admission records changed that conclusion. Eliza Willis and Mary Willis were admitted together. They appear as consecutive prisoners in March 1868 and again in June. They were therefore two separate women. The most coherent explanation is that Eliza was Rachel’s mother and Mary was Rachel’s older sister. This corresponds with the newspaper reports that Rachel’s “mother and sister” were serving sentences.

A March 1868 description recorded Eliza Willis as forty years old, born in Ireland, five feet two and a half inches tall, stout and fair, with brown hair and grey eyes. Most importantly, it stated that she had arrived aboard the Albatross in 1841. The age implies a birth around 1828, only about two years later than the birth estimate derived from the immigration indent. Such a variation is not unusual in nineteenth century records.

The combination of name, Irish birth, approximate age, ship and arrival year provides strong evidence that Eliza Willis was the Eliza Kennedy who arrived aboard the Albatross.

What Jane Ison’s research established

In 2024, Jane Ison told me that she held numerous records concerning Rachel, including her marriage and baptism, her sister’s marriage registration and several undigitised records confirming that Rachel and Anastasia, also known as Annie, were sisters. She stated that these records all confirmed that Rachel’s mother was Eliza Kennedy. Having now examined much of the evidence, I agree it builds a persuasive case:

Eliza Kennedy arrived aboard the Albatross in 1841.
A marriage between Eliza Kennedy and Thomas Willis was registered in 1844.
Thomas and Eliza or Elizabeth Willis had children together.
Rachel’s mother was identified as Eliza or Elizabeth Kennedy from Limerick.
Rachel’s mother, Eliza Willis, was recorded in gaol as an Irish-born 1841 Albatross immigrant.
Newspaper reports connect Rachel with the imprisoned Eliza and Mary Willis.
Institutional evidence identified Anastasia Croft as Rachel’s sister.

Meanwhile, another Elizabeth Kennedy

My ancestor followed a different path. Elizabeth Kennedy married James Murphy on 21 April 1844, at Windsor. Their family developed alongside the Willis family, but on the South Coast of New South Wales in the Shoalhaven district:

Margaret Murphy was born on 29 August 1846;
James Murphy was born in 1848;
an unnamed infant was born around 1849 or 1850;
John Murphy, my great-grandfather, was born in 1851;
Elizabeth Murphy was born in 1853;
Charles Murphy was born in 1856.

Image: Shoalhaven c1906. State Library of New South Wales

Charles’s birth certificate states his mother was born in Limerick. This was one reason the Albatross passenger appeared to be such a promising candidate. The overlapping families now present the greatest difficulty for any theory that the two Elizabeths were one woman.

In 1844, one Eliza Kennedy married Thomas Willis while another Elizabeth Kennedy married James Murphy. During the following years, children were born into both the Willis and Murphy families. In 1860, Rachel was born to Thomas Willis and Eliza or Elizabeth Kennedy while my Elizabeth remained part of the Murphy household.

By 1868, Eliza Willis was in the Maitland gaol system and Rachel was entering the Newcastle Industrial School. The Murphy family, meanwhile, was presumably still residing in the Shoalhaven district.

Two women, not one

The evidence now points strongly towards two different women.

The first was Eliza Kennedy, daughter of Michael and Mary Kennedy. She came from County Limerick, arrived aboard the Albatross with her siblings in 1841, married Thomas Willis and became the mother of Rachel Willis.

The second was Elizabeth Jane Bateman, who used the surname Kennedy when she married James Murphy in 1844. She was later identified as the daughter of Henry Bateman and Maria or Mary Alphonso. Her arrival in Australia and her reason for using the Kennedy name remain unresolved.

The similarities between them were real:

both were Irish;
both were associated with Limerick;
both used Eliza or Elizabeth Kennedy;
both appear to have reached New South Wales around 1840 or 1841;
both married in 1844.

They are not, however, sufficient to overcome two simultaneous marriages, two overlapping groups of children, two geographical histories and two different sets of parents. The Albatross Eliza once looked like the answer to my ancestor’s arrival. Researching her more fully has shown that she had her own life and family.

Bateman and Alphonso

The Bateman name appears in the Murphy family’s records by 1867. When the death of Elizabeth and James Murphy’s son James was registered, his mother’s maiden name was reportedly given as Bateman. The informant was his father, James Murphy. When Elizabeth died at Back Forest in March 1875, her death certificate identified her parents as Henry Bateman and Mary or Maria Alphonso. This accords with the family story that her father was an English sea captain and her mother a Spanish woman.

Death certificates can contain errors, particularly when informants have incomplete knowledge. However, the Bateman name did not appear only on Elizabeth’s death certificate. Its earlier appearance in the registration of her son’s death makes it more difficult to dismiss.

How did my Elizabeth reach New South Wales?

Separating the two women resolves one problem but provides another: if my Elizabeth was not the Albatross passenger, how did she reach New South Wales?

Given there is no ‘Application to Marry’ record, it seems unlikely she was a convict. A search of arrivals before her 1844 marriage has not identified an obvious candidate. Only two possible Kennedy arrivals have been found, both through Port Phillip in Victoria and seem unlikely to be our Elizabeth.

No female Bateman arrivals have been located and searches for Alphonso produced only one convict, a black man from Dominica.

Image: Leaving Ireland, origin unknown.

I also investigated whether Elizabeth might have come to the colony to join an established Bateman family. None of the early Bateman families examined so far provide a convincing connection. One possibility that needs further investigation is the convict Henry Bateman, born about 1805, who arrived aboard the Royal Charlotte in 1825 and received his Certificate of Freedom in 1832. He was in the Windsor area around the period in which Elizabeth might have been born. There are substantial problems with this candidate. He was tried in Middlesex so presumed English, Elizabeth says she was born in Limerick. Her later records indicate that she did not arrive in the colony until about 1840. Unless several pieces of information are wrong, the convict Henry Bateman seems unlikely to have been her father. What happened to him remains a mystery.

Where to next?

There are still several women, including convicts, who need to be eliminated or investigated more closely. They are:

an Elizabeth Kennedy, born about 1802, recorded in the 1828 census;
an unidentified convict Elizabeth Kennedy for whom a certificate of emancipation survives;
Jane Kennedy, who arrived aboard the Margaret in 1837 and was associated with John Welch;
an Elizabeth Kennedy who arrived aboard the Mary Anne in 1841 after being tried in Kilkenny and transported to Van Diemen’s Land; and
not to forget the two Kennedy’s who arrived via Port Phillip. A Jane aboard the Orient in 1840 and an Elizabeth aboard the Dale Park in 1844. Whilst unlikely, they remain possibilities.

Other possibilities concern women who acquired the name Kennedy through marriage:

Eliza Boyle or Carroll, who arrived aboard the Palambam in 1831 and married James Kennedy;
Jane Young, who had married a Kennedy in Van Diemen’s Land;
Elizabeth McAvoy, who arrived with her husband Hugh Kennedy and their family aboard the Lascar in 1841; and
Elizabeth Bowler, who arrived aboard the Marquis of Hastings in 1828 with her husband John Kennedy.

Several others have already been excluded because of their ages, husbands, destinations or documented family histories.

Can DNA provide the answer?

The documentary evidence has taken me far enough to separate the Albatross Eliza from my Elizabeth, but it has not yet revealed my Elizabeth’s origins. The next step is to examine the DNA evidence. Matches among descendants of James and Elizabeth Murphy already confirm connections within their family, with some matches pointing towards the Kennedy surname and families from Limerick and Tipperary.

The challenge will be to distinguish DNA inherited from James Murphy from DNA inherited from Elizabeth to determine whether her genetic connections lead towards the Bateman, Kennedy or Alphonso families. DNA may not provide her name or arrival ship, but, combined with documentary research, it may help identify the family and community from which she came.

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested or are interested in doing so) I would love to hear from you. It’s the power of DNA that can help us break through our brick walls!

I would be especially interested in hearing from anyone descended from Elizabeth through an unbroken female line. Such a descendant may carry Elizabeth’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which could add another piece to the puzzle.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me by sending a message via the sidebar of this blog or through Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Elizabeth Murphy: Bateman or Kennedy?

52 Ancestors #14

My maternal second great-grandmother Elizabeth has presented me with the sort of problem genealogists claim to enjoy.

She married as Elizabeth Kennedy.

Her children’s records say she was born in Limerick.

Later records identify her as Elizabeth Bateman and name her parents as Henry Bateman and Maria, or Mary, Alphonso.

She died from strychnine poisoning, after which her husband was charged with her murder.

An eventful life, even before we begin discussing her name.

The adjacent photograph has been traditionally identified as Elizabeth and James Murphy, but not verified. It appears to date from the late 1860s or early 1870s. James was born about 1810, while Elizabeth may have been approximately fifteen years younger. The couple in the photograph seem younger than I would expect—but appearances in nineteenth-century portraits are unreliable. For now, they remain “possibly Elizabeth and James.”

Elizabeth’s life in the records

Elizabeth was born in Ireland, probably somewhere in County Limerick, but neither her birth date nor her parentage has been securely established.

Her age varies from record to record. The birth certificate of her son Charles points to a birth around 1821. Her death certificate suggests about 1819. In 1959, the rector of All Saints’, Nowra, tentatively transcribed her weathered gravestone as “Aged (70?) Years.” A photograph taken when the grave was rediscovered in 1991 suggests that the inscription more probably reads “50 years,” placing Elizabeth’s birth around 1824 or 1825. The evidence from the stone is examined below.

For the moment, the most sensible conclusion is that Elizabeth was probably born during the early 1820s. Both Charles’s birth certificate and her own death certificate say that she was born in Limerick, giving us at least one reasonably consistent starting point.

Marriage to James

The first Australian record that can be attached to her with confidence is her marriage.

On 21 April 1844, Elizabeth Kennedy married James Murphy in the Roman Catholic Church at Windsor, New South Wales. Both described themselves as being from Windsor. James and Elizabeth both signed the register, rather than making a mark. Their witnesses were John Rafter (although the surname is unclear) and Maria Ryan.

At this point she was not a Bateman, nor an Alphonso. She was Elizabeth Kennedy. This does not necessarily mean Kennedy was her birth name. Perhaps she was a widow? Unfortunately, it only means that Kennedy was the name she used when she married James Murphy.

Witnesses to the marriage

There was a John Rafter who arrived in New South Wales aboard the China in 1839. He was reportedly born at Ballingarry, County Tipperary, about 1813 and had been living at Windsor for approximately five years. He seems the strongest candidate if indeed he was the one who witnessed the marriage of James Murphy and Elizabeth.

His obituary, published in the Freeman’s Journal on 2 February 1859, remembered him as “one of the truest Irishmen that ever breathed in New South Wales.” More usefully for understanding his presence at the marriage, it described his active role in promoting Catholicism in the district and his generous support of the clergy with both “voice and purse.” He could have been a friend, sponsor or parish witness—or simply someone the priest trusted to stand beside a young immigrant couple.

Maria Ryan, the other witness, remains unidentified.

Other women of this name were already living in the colony in 1844. One Maria Ryan appears in the 1841 census, born in the colony and recorded as the child of A. Kelly needs further investigation.

A Mary Ryan who married John Kennedy in Sydney in 1823 initially looked attractive because she brought the surnames Ryan and Kennedy together. On closer inspection, she is a weaker candidate. As John Kennedy’s wife, you would expect she would call herself Mary Kennedy in 1844, whereas the witness signed “Maria Ryan.” She was also substantially older and does not appear to have a connection to Windsor.

The most intriguing candidate is the Mary Ryan who arrived aboard the Albatross in 1841 from County Limerick. Also on board was a 15 year old Eliza Kennedy from County Limerick. Mary would have been about thirty-two when Elizabeth married. Mary and Maria were often treated as equivalent names in Catholic records.

For now, the Albatross passenger seems the most interesting possibility.

Family in the Shoalhaven

Elizabeth and James went on to have six known children:

Margaret, who married John Joseph Foley
James, not married, no known children
a son whose name has not been identified and died young
John Bede Murphy, my great grandfather
Elizabeth, who married Arthur Poole Davis
Charles, who married Susan Kelly but had no children

By the time Margaret was born in 1846, the family was living in the Shoalhaven district at the historic settlement of Coolangatta, a short distance up river from the commercial hub of Terara. Numbaa lay south of the Shoalhaven River, immediately east of Terara, while Back Forest was across the river to the north. During Elizabeth’s years in the Shoalhaven, repeated flooding transformed the district. Major floods in 1860 and 1870 damaged Terara, and many residents and businesses eventually relocated from the floodplain to the higher ground at Nowra.

Elizabeth appears to have spent the remainder of her life in the Shoalhaven, away from Windsor and far from the Ireland she had left behind. These records show her not simply as the mysterious woman with three surnames, but as a wife and mother raising a family in colonial New South Wales.

Elizabeth’s final days

Elizabeth’s life ended at Back Forest in the Shoalhaven district in March 1875. The cause of death recorded as strychnine poisoning. Her husband James Murphy was charged in connection with her death but later acquitted.

It is the most dramatic episode in the surviving story of Elizabeth’s life—and deserves a careful account of its own, based on the inquest, court proceedings and contemporary newspaper reports. The coroner’s proceedings raised sufficient suspicion for James to be prosecuted, but an inquest verdict was not a criminal conviction. Two trial juries subsequently acquitted him after the Crown failed to prove murder beyond reasonable doubt. See the full report here.

For the purposes of identifying Elizabeth, her death certificate is particularly significant. It gives her the middle name Jane, calls her Bateman and names her parents as Henry Bateman and Mary Alphonso. It is worth noting that “Jane” does not appear in earlier records. Before 1875, she was usually just referred to as Elizabeth. The middle name may have been hers, but the death certificate is currently the earliest known record of it.

Elizabeth was buried at Numbaa Cemetery near the Shoalhaven River. Her son-in-law Arthur Davis witnessed the burial.

Finding the grave

The subject of Elizabeth’s headstone had been of interest in the family as long ago as 1959 when my Uncle Laurie started researching the family in the late 1950’s. At that time, the rector’s reading of Elizabeth’s age was explicitly uncertain: “Aged (70?) Years.”

When my Aunty Margaret and her husband Lionel Gilbert visited Numbaa Cemetery in 1991, finding Elizabeth was no simple matter. They arrived in gumboots, having been warned about snakes and found the cemetery choked with lantana and flood debris. Elizabeth’s grave was nowhere to be seen and the plan displayed on one of the cemetery plaques proved inaccurate. After searching unsuccessfully, Lionel began probing the ground with an iron bar. They tried another position and, at last, the bar struck stone—first the buried plinth and then the headstone itself. “It was such a thrill!” Margaret wrote. “I was nearly in tears.” They said a prayer for Elizabeth, took photographs and paced the distance from the surrounding monuments so that a more accurate map could be drawn. It had taken two hours on a hot day, but Margaret declared it “well worth it.”

The photograph Margaret enclosed allowed the inscription to be examined again. Although it remains faint, the first digit appears more like a five than a seven—suggesting that Elizabeth died aged fifty, not seventy.

Although weathered, the stone appeared to read:

Erected by James Murphy

In memory of his wife
ELIZABETH MURPHY
who departed this life
March 29th 1875
Aged 50 years

May her soul rest in peace, Amen

If Elizabeth was fifty when she died on 29 March 1875, she was born between 30 March 1824 and 29 March 1825. This is younger than the ages implied by her death certificate and the birth certificate of her son Charles, but remarkably close to the estimated birth year of the fifteen-year-old Eliza Kennedy who arrived aboard the Albatross in November 1841.

It does not prove that the two women were the same person. Gravestones can contain erroneous information and we may not be reading the inscription correctly.

A possible journey aboard the Albatross

Elizabeth’s death certificate says that she had lived in New South Wales for about thirty-five years and was 20 years old when she married. If approximately correct, that places her arrival around 1840 and birth c1824. This brings us to a particularly tempting immigration record.

On 30 November 1841, the Albatross arrived in Sydney after leaving Dublin on 23 July. Among its assisted immigrants was an Eliza Kennedy, aged fifteen. She was Roman Catholic, could read and had been employed as a child’s maid.

Her native place was recorded as something resembling “Kilanoy” in County Limerick.

Also aboard the ship were Margaret Kennedy, aged twenty one, a kitchenmaid and William Kennedy, aged nineteen, a mason. The records appear to present the three as siblings. Their father was Michael Kennedy, a plasterer and widower, and their mother Mary was deceased. Margaret’s record suggested she was from Kildowy, Limerick.

Eliza and Margaret travelled under the protection of Robert Fitzgerald and his wife. Michael appears to have remained in Ireland.

I had initially thought the Fitzgeralds had sponsored the family and would be providing work in the colony – Robert Fitzgerald was a well known pastoralist and politician in Windsor. However, it turns out this Robert and Margaret Fitzgerald arrived on the same ship as the Kennedy’s. He was a shoemaker who firstly lived in Market Street, Sydney but later moved to the Braidwood–Araluen district. His wife was Margaret Dundon and his mother was Bridget Flannigan. Whether any of these people were relatives of the Kennedy children remains unknown.

There does not appear to be a place called Kilanoy, or Killdowy in Limerick. Other suggestions have included Killcullen, Killeedy – names that might have been misunderstood somewhere between an Irish speaker, a clerk and a nineteenth-century passenger list. Robert Fitzgerald and his wife Margaret came from Kildimo, County Limerick, which may be the mysterious place name referred to in Eliza’s entry.

The immigrant Eliza Kennedy is a good candidate for my Elizabeth:

she had the right name;
she came from Limerick;
she arrived at approximately the right time;
she was close to the expected age;
and she was Roman Catholic, as was the woman who married James Murphy.

It is a neat fit.

However the passenger list says that Eliza’s father was Michael Kennedy. Later Australian records name my Elizabeth’s father as Henry Bateman. The Albatross passenger may be my Elizabeth—but the evidence does not yet prove it.

The name Bateman appears

For more than twenty years after Elizabeth’s marriage, the records are silent about the name Bateman.

That changed in 1867 when Elizabeth and James’s son James died. His death registration named his mother’s maiden surname as Bateman. The informant was his father, James Murphy. This is important because it predates Elizabeth’s own death certificate and appears to show that Bateman was not simply an error introduced after her death.

Eight years later, Elizabeth’s death certificate named her parents as Henry Bateman and Mary Alphonso. Morton Richards of Cambewarra, a solicitor acting as coroner and Elizabeth’s son Charles were associated with the information recorded on the certificate.

Year	Record	How Elizabeth was identified	Informant or source
1844	Marriage to James Murphy	Elizabeth Kennedy	Original marriage register
1851	Baptism of son John	Elizabeth Kennedy	Baptismal register
1867	Death of son James	Elizabeth Bateman	Husband, James Murphy
1875	Elizabeth’s death	Parents named as Henry Bateman and Maria Alphonso	Morton Richards of Cambewarra, identified as a solicitor, and Elizabeth’s son Charles
1891	Death of husband James	Elizabeth Jane Bateman	Son, Charles Murphy

Other records either leave Elizabeth’s maiden name blank or identify her only by her married name, Elizabeth Murphy.

Family tradition adds another layer. Elizabeth’s mother was said to have been a Spanish woman—a Castilian of noble blood, with grey eyes—who may have worked as a lady’s maid. Her father was remembered as an English sea captain and an “Hon.” who had supposedly “whisked Maria off the estate.”

The surname Alphonso may have preserved a genuine connection, inspired the Spanish tradition or acquired details as the story passed through successive generations. At present, no contemporary record confirms the noblewoman, the sea captain or the whisking.

Why did Elizabeth marry as Kennedy if she had been born Bateman? At present, we do not know.

The “Spanish Lady”

One intriguing photograph has survived from Rebecca Cassidy’s photograph album. The album was given to Rebecca on her wedding day to Elizabeth’s son John Murphy, 23 June 1880 by her friend John Morton of Glen Innes. It contains many photographs of people who are now unidentified and the original position of this particular photograph in the album is no longer known.

Unlike most of the unidentified photographs, a fragment of family memory survived with this one. She was always known as “The Spanish Lady” and said to be a relative of some kind.

I once wondered whether she might have been Maria Alphonso herself, but dating of the photograph suggests that to be unlikely. Perhaps she was a cousin or another extended relative? For now, her identity remains unknown.

What makes the photograph worth noting in this story is not that it proves a connection to Maria Alphonso, it doesn’t, but the family memory of a Spanish relative did survive alongside documentary evidence of Spanish ancestry in the Murphy family.

Was there a Mr Kennedy?

One explanation is that Elizabeth had married a Kennedy before she married James Murphy. That possibility has found its way into family trees, where an “Unknown Kennedy” sometimes appears as her first husband, however there is no evidence of this marriage. The original 1844 church marriage entry, does not contain any statements about the marital status of either Elizabeth or James.

If Elizabeth was the fifteen-year-old who arrived in November 1841, she had less than two and a half years in which to marry a Kennedy, lose or leave him, move to Windsor and marry James Murphy. Possible, but not evidence.

Was she raised by the Kennedys?

Another family theory is that Elizabeth was born a Bateman but was taken in by the Kennedy family, some used the term ‘ward of the state’. This would explain why she travelled and married under the name Kennedy while later records preserved Bateman as her birth name. It might also explain why the Albatross record apparently places her among Michael Kennedy’s children. There are many ways such an arrangement might have arisen: fosterage, guardianship, informal adoption, the death of a parent, remarriage, or simply a child being absorbed into another branch of a family.

Formal adoption did not operate in nineteenth century as it does today and relationships were not always described accurately. A girl could be raised as a daughter or sister without leaving behind a paper trail explaining the arrangement. There is no direct evidence yet that this happened to Elizabeth.

An intriguing newspaper notice reports the death of a Mrs Mary Kennedy at Broad Street, Limerick, in August 1840 a lady who “devoted herself to religious works and all attendant virtues”. Could she have been Michael’s wife, caring for Elizabeth? Could her death have prompted the Kennedy siblings, or the Fitzgeralds, to bring the girl to Australia? At this stage, the newspaper notice belongs in the interesting but unproven pile.

Religion

Elizabeth married in a Roman Catholic church but was buried in a Church of England cemetery. It is tempting to use this as evidence that she had really been born into an English Protestant Bateman family and only appeared Catholic while living with the Kennedys. That would fit rather nicely.

However, burial in a Church of England cemetery does not prove that Elizabeth was raised as an Anglican. The choice might have depended on geography, available burial grounds, family wishes, cost or local practice. Religious identity could also change during a lifetime. Her burial place at Numbaa is part of her story, but it cannot carry the weight of proving her parentage.

So, who was Elizabeth?

Here is what the evidence currently suggests:

The woman who married James Murphy at Windsor in 1844 was called Elizabeth Kennedy.
She was born in County Limerick, probably in the early 1820s.
Her death certificate suggests that she arrived in New South Wales around 1840.
She raised six known children with James and spent her later years in the Shoalhaven district.
By 1867, her birth surname was being recorded as Bateman.
When she died in 1875, her parents were named as Henry Bateman and Mary Alphonso.
She may have been the fifteen-year-old Eliza Kennedy who arrived aboard the Albatross in 1841 with Margaret and William Kennedy.
She may have been born Bateman and raised within the Kennedy family.
She may have married a Kennedy before marrying James Murphy.
Or, two women with similar names, origins and ages may have been combined into one story.

At the moment, Bateman is supported by records created by Elizabeth’s immediate family. Kennedy is supported by her own marriage record. Alphonso appears in the information supplied at her death. None of these names can simply be discarded.

So for now, we can only identify her as Elizabeth Bateman – also known as Elizabeth Kennedy, the wife of James Murphy.

Where to next?

Clearly, more research is required. Areas to explore might include:

baptismal records for a Bateman or Alphonso family in County Limerick;
records connecting Henry Bateman or Maria/Mary Alphonso with the Kennedy family;
further information about Michael, Margaret and William Kennedy;
records associated with Robert Fitzgerald and Margaret Dundon;
a contemporary document in which Elizabeth herself used the name Bateman;
DNA matches that can be assigned specifically to Elizabeth rather than jointly to Elizabeth and James Murphy.

To date, DNA matches only confirm connections with descendants of Elizabeth and James, we cannot identify which shared segments came from which member of the couple. Matches pointing towards Kennedy families in Limerick and Tipperary are intriguing, but the documentary trail still needs to be firmed up.

For now, Elizabeth remains Bateman, Kennedy and Murphy: an Irish immigrant, a colonial wife and mother, and a woman whose own story deserves to be remembered while we continue our search for her origins.

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As always, please do not hesitate to contact me by sending a message via the sidebar of this blog or through Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: King John’s Castle, River Shannon, County Limerick. Courtesy of WIkicommons

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See other relevant blogposts:

Ancestors of John Bede Murphy 1851-1909

James Murphy: From County Wexford to Colonial NSW

The Back Forest Poisoning Case: Mary and Elizabeth

The deaths of Mary Boland and Elizabeth Murphy

On Monday, 29 March 1875, two women died within hours of one another at the same house in Back Forest, near Shoalhaven. Mary Boland was found dead in her home early that morning. Later, her neighbour Elizabeth Murphy suffered violent convulsions and died after drinking rum from a bottle in the Boland house.

The deaths led to two inquests, the arrest of Elizabeth’s husband, James Murphy, and two murder trials at Sydney’s Central Criminal Court. Despite the suspicions surrounding a purchase of strychnine and the discovery of that poison in the bottle, Murphy was acquitted twice.

The surviving reports tell a compelling story, but they also contain inconsistencies. Names vary between newspapers, some accounts were copied from other publications, and the evidence did not conclusively establish who put the poison in the rum.

The events of Sunday, 28 March

James Murphy was a carpenter or settler living at Back Forest with his wife, Elizabeth. The Murphys were neighbours of Mary Boland and her son James Boland.

On Saturday, 27 March, James visited John M‘Arthur’s store at Greenhills or Terrara and bought sixpence worth of strychnine—approximately ten grains. M‘Arthur said James told him that he wanted it to kill rats or other vermin. The poison was wrapped in three layers of paper, two labelled “strychnine, deadly poison”, and the sale was entered in the shopkeeper’s book. Another storekeeper, James Stanbury, testified that Murphy had first approached him seeking poison but had been directed elsewhere. Stanbury also recalled Murphy making disparaging remarks about his wife, including that he wished to “dispose” of her cheaply. Murphy was said to have been sober when he sought the poison. [S1; S5]

James spent Saturday night at a public house. John Weller, the licensee or attendant, said Murphy had rum and gin and left through a window early the following morning with a bottle of rum. [S5]

On Sunday morning James was found drunk on the road near the Boland home. Tom or Tim Connolly picked up a bundle beside him. The bundle was taken to the Boland house and found to contain bottles of gin and rum. John Alexander, also known as “Scotch Jack”, accompanied Murphy for part of the journey. [S1; S5]

Inside the Boland house, Murphy, Alexander and James Boland drank from the bottles. James Boland testified that he later saw Murphy place a small piece of paper in the fire. When Boland warned that it might be a receipt, Murphy reportedly answered, “No, it is nothing.” Boland thought Murphy appeared anxious to ensure that the paper burned. [S1; S5]

Mary Boland went to fetch Elizabeth Murphy, who returned with her and took her husband home. The rum bottle remained at the Boland house. James Boland said Murphy left it for his mother, with about two glasses remaining. Mary placed it in her bedroom. Witnesses differed about exactly who drank from the bottle on Sunday, but none of those who drank then was reported to have been poisoned. [S5; S9]

This became important at the trials. Government Analyst Charles Watt explained that crystalline strychnine dissolves slowly in rum. People might drink from a recently contaminated bottle without immediately ingesting a fatal quantity, while rum left standing overnight could become dangerously poisonous. [S5; S7; S9]

Mary Boland’s death

Mary Boland, described as approximately 65 years old and normally active and healthy, rose at her usual time on Monday morning.

Margaret Courtney visited at about eight o’clock. According to Courtney, Mary brought out the black rum bottle and offered her a drink. Courtney declined. Mary then drank the rum herself and remarked that it tasted like tobacco. Courtney said Mary had referred to it as the drink James had left the previous day. [S1]

Mary became ill and was dead within approximately half an hour. James Boland found his mother sitting on the kitchen floor with her back against the sofa, her legs extended and her head tilted slightly backwards. She was still warm. He found no sign of physical violence. [S1]

Some later trial reports described Mary as foaming at the mouth, bending almost double and suffering convulsions. These details appear principally in the Crown’s narrative and syndicated trial summaries; the earliest inquest evidence was less definite because no witness described the complete course of her fatal attack. [S1; S7]

Elizabeth Murphy’s death

After Mary’s death, a message was sent to Elizabeth Murphy. She came to the house, helped wash and lay out Mary’s body, and performed other household work.

Witnesses said Elizabeth was initially in good health. Margaret Condon and Margaret Courtney described her finding the rum bottle in or near Mary’s bedroom. She poured some rum into a cup and drank it, despite being advised not to do so. One report said Elizabeth explained that it was the drink her husband had left for Mary. [S5; S9]

Soon afterwards, Elizabeth screamed and went into a violent convulsion. George Willett and William Murray described her limbs and body becoming rigid, her head bending backwards and her teeth clenching so tightly that those assisting her had to force them apart with a spoon to administer brandy. She briefly recovered and reportedly said she had been well until she drank from the bottle. She asked for “Jemmy”, her husband, before suffering a second convulsion and dying. [S1]

John Willett found the bottle outside the house, near or beneath a stool. He sealed it and gave it to Senior Constable Thomas Grieves. [S1; S9]

For a time, the bodies of both Mary Boland and Elizabeth Murphy lay in the Boland house together. [S1]

The inquests

District Coroner Thomas Morton Richards conducted the inquests at the Numba Court House.

Dr James Stephen Reid performed the first post-mortem examinations. He said the symptoms described in Elizabeth’s case were consistent with strychnine poisoning. Her stomach was removed, placed in a jar and handed to Constable William Board.

The jury returned a finding that Elizabeth died from taking strychnine and expressed the opinion that James Murphy had administered it. [S1; S2]

Mary’s inquest produced a more cautious conclusion. Dr Reid found nothing during his initial examination that accounted for her death. The jury found that she had been discovered dead on her floor but that there was no evidence before it establishing the cause. [S1; S2]

The bodies were subsequently exhumed for further examination, and portions were sent to Sydney for analysis. [S4]

The New South Wales Police Gazette reported that Senior Constable Grieve had arrested James Murphy for administering poison to Elizabeth and that he had been committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court. It also recorded the suspicion that Mary had died after drinking rum containing strychnine placed there by Murphy. This was an allegation, not a judicial finding. [S3]

The physical and scientific evidence

Several pieces of evidence formed the case against Murphy:

He bought approximately ten grains of strychnine two days before the deaths.
He was seen with the rum bottle at the Boland house.
James Boland saw him burn a small piece of paper.
Murphy initially gave equivocal or negative answers when asked whether he had bought poison.
He later handed police a packet that he said contained the remainder of his purchase.
M‘Arthur said the packet and its wrapping were not those he had supplied.
Charles Watt found that the packet principally contained sugar and calomel, with a small quantity of arsenic, rather than the purchased strychnine.
Watt found approximately two grains of strychnine in the recovered bottle. [S5; S9]

The examination of the women’s remains was much less decisive. Watt said the stomachs had been received empty or inadequately secured. His tests produced no result on which he could confidently rely. Dr Reid had not analysed the stomach contents, and the defence challenged the completeness of the post-mortem examinations. [S5; S9]

The defence also produced an apparent shopping list said to be in Elizabeth’s handwriting. It included sixpence worth of poison, suggesting that the purchase might have been made at her request. Charles Murphy identified the handwriting as his mother’s, although he had not seen her write that particular document. [S5; S9]

The trial concerning Elizabeth Murphy

James Murphy was tried at the Central Criminal Court on 11 May 1875 before Justice Hargrave. Attorney-General William Bede Dalley prosecuted; Mr Buchanan defended Murphy.

The Crown’s case was circumstantial. It argued that James possessed the poison, brought the rum to the Boland house, had an opportunity to contaminate it, burned suspicious paper and subsequently tried to pass off a harmless powder as the remaining strychnine.

The defence emphasised that several people drank from the bottle on Sunday without becoming ill; that the bottle passed through several hands; that no one saw Murphy put anything into it; and that the examinations of the bodies did not yield conclusive chemical evidence. Numerous witnesses described Murphy as quiet, industrious and generally kind to his family. His son said Elizabeth had suffered fits previously. [S5]

Justice Hargrave directed the jury that it had to be satisfied not merely that Elizabeth had been poisoned, but that she had been poisoned with strychnine and that Murphy was responsible. After deliberating for about an hour, the jury found him not guilty. [S5; S6]

Murphy was nevertheless remanded because the Crown intended to try him for Mary Boland’s death. He was subsequently granted bail of £200, with two sureties of £100 each. [S5; S6]

The trial concerning Mary Boland

The second trial commenced in August 1875, again before Justice Hargrave. William J. Foster prosecuted for the Crown, and Buchanan defended Murphy.

Much of the evidence repeated that heard at the first trial. James Boland described Murphy bringing the bottles, being left briefly alone with the rum and burning the piece of paper. Margaret Courtney described Elizabeth drinking from the bottle. John Willett described Elizabeth’s convulsions and his recovery of the bottle. Watt repeated his evidence about the two grains of strychnine and the poison’s slow dissolution in rum. [S7; S9]

The Crown also called John Alexander and Charles Jackson. Alexander recalled Murphy complaining that the Boland house harboured his wife during her “drunken fits” and saying that he would “break up that meeting-house”. Jackson recounted a conversation after the deaths in which Murphy described Elizabeth leaving for the Boland house and reportedly said that, had she followed his wishes, she might still have been alive. [S9]

The defence argued that there was no demonstrated motive for Murphy to kill Mary Boland. On the contrary, witnesses said she had lent him money and farming equipment, and that he had expressed gratitude towards her. Buchanan further argued that the Crown was attempting to retry, through Mary’s case, evidence already rejected by the jury in Elizabeth’s case. [S9]

Character witnesses again described Murphy as honest, hardworking, quiet and a good father. Dr Reid said he had known Murphy as a quiet and inoffensive man and acknowledged that severe intoxication could sometimes cause symptoms resembling those described. [S9]

The jury retired at seven o’clock and returned about fifteen minutes later with a verdict of not guilty. Murphy was discharged. [S7; S8; S9]

What can be concluded?

The uploaded documents establish that Mary Boland and Elizabeth Murphy died in extraordinary and closely connected circumstances after apparently drinking from the same rum bottle.

They also establish that James Murphy had recently bought strychnine and that approximately two grains of it were subsequently detected in the bottle.

They do not, however, establish who put the poison there. No witness saw Murphy contaminate the rum. The bottle remained in the Boland house overnight and passed through several hands. The initial examination did not determine Mary’s cause of death, while the later analysis of the women’s remains was compromised by the condition in which the specimens were received.

The inquest jury accused Murphy of administering poison to Elizabeth, but a coroner’s verdict was not a criminal conviction. Two trial juries subsequently found that the Crown had not proved murder beyond reasonable doubt.

The documentary record therefore supports describing the events as the Back Forest poisoning case or the alleged murders of Mary Boland and Elizabeth Murphy. It does not support stating as fact that James Murphy murdered either woman.

People named in the reports

This list covers people named in the reports about the deaths, inquests and trials. It excludes people appearing only in unrelated articles printed elsewhere on the same newspaper pages.

The Murphy and Boland families

James Murphy — Husband of Elizabeth Murphy; father of Charles Murphy and other children; neighbour of the Bolands. He purchased strychnine, brought rum to the Boland house and was tried separately for the two deaths. Acquitted on both charges. Some syndicated reports mistakenly call him John Murphy.
Elizabeth Murphy — Wife of James Murphy and the second woman to die. Witnesses said she drank from the rum bottle, suffered two violent convulsions and said she had been well before drinking from it.
Mary Boland — First woman to die; mother of James Boland. She reportedly drank rum from the bottle after saying it tasted like tobacco.
James Boland — Mary Boland’s son and a neighbour of the Murphys. Described the bottles brought to the house, Murphy burning a piece of paper, the drinks taken on Sunday and finding his mother dead.
Thomas Boland — Named in several syndicated summaries as the occupier of the Boland farm and Mary’s son. The detailed inquest and trial evidence instead identifies the principal witness and son as James Boland; “Thomas” may be a reporting error or another family member.
Charles Murphy — Son of James and Elizabeth Murphy, described in one account as approximately 22. Said his parents generally lived well together, that Elizabeth had suffered fits previously and that a shopping list containing an order for poison appeared to be in her handwriting.
Margaret Foley — Named as a character witness at the first trial, apparently a member or associate of the Murphy family. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth and wife of John Foley.
John Foley — Blacksmith and Murphy’s son-in-law. Said Elizabeth had previously suffered a fit and described Murphy as a good husband and hardworking man.
Mrs John Foley, name not stated — Murphy’s daughter, Margaret Foley. Said her father had been kind to her mother and had always spoken well of Mary Boland.

Witnesses and local residents

George Willett — Back Forest farmer. Witnessed Elizabeth’s convulsions, helped support her and described her rigidity, clenched teeth and backward-arched body.
William Murray — Back Forest farmer. Witnessed Elizabeth’s convulsions and helped force open her teeth to administer brandy.
John Willett — Farmer or tanner living near the Boland house. Witnessed Elizabeth’s illness, recovered and sealed the bottle, and delivered it to police.
Mrs Willett, name not stated — Attempted to make Elizabeth vomit by placing a feather in her mouth.
Margaret Courtney or Courtenay — Wife of Michael Courtney and a long-term acquaintance of Mary Boland. Said Mary offered her rum, drank it herself and remarked that it tasted like tobacco. Later reports also place her with Elizabeth when Elizabeth drank from the bottle. (Maiden name probably Mary Carmody from Kilbehenny Limerick).
Michael Courtney — Husband of Margaret Courtney. Named to establish her relationship and residence; no evidence from him is reported. (Likely to be the brother of Mary Boland)
James Courtney — Described as James Boland’s uncle. Received Murphy’s bundle after it was picked up from the roadside.
Margaret Condon, also reported as Margaret Connolly — Saw Elizabeth find or carry the bottle and said she was well before drinking. The spelling varies among reports. (Likely to be the married daughter of Michael Courtney).
Tom or Tim Connolly — Picked up Murphy’s bundle from the roadside and passed it to James Courtney. His given name varies between reports.
Maurice Condyn — Had a horse and was sent by James Boland to investigate when Mary was believed to be dying. Reported back that she was dead.
John Alexander, also known as Scotch Jack — Labourer from Coolangatta who travelled and drank with Murphy on Sunday. Reported Murphy’s complaint that the Bolands harboured Elizabeth during her drinking episodes and his threat to “break up that meeting-house”. He later corrected his inquest evidence to say his own bottle contained gin, not rum.
Charles Jackson — Coolangatta resident. Recounted a conversation with Murphy after the deaths concerning Elizabeth’s final departure for the Boland house.
Mr Berry, given name not stated — Owner or occupier of the yard where Jackson spoke to Murphy.
James Allison — Builder and character witness. Described Murphy as quiet and inoffensive and said he appeared to live agreeably with his family.
Henry Gordon Morton — Agent for the Shoalhaven Estate and character witness. Had known Murphy for about 22 years and described him as honest, industrious and kind to his family.
James Ryan — Mayor of Numba and character witness. Had known Murphy for approximately 18 years and described him as honest, quiet and a good father.
James Wilson — Character witness at the first trial who supported Murphy’s good reputation.
John Monaghan — Character witness at the first trial who supported Murphy’s good reputation.
James Waddington — Character witness at the first trial who supported Murphy’s good reputation.

Shopkeepers, hotel witnesses and scientific witnesses

John M‘Arthur or Macarthur — Greenhills/Terrara storekeeper who sold Murphy approximately ten grains of strychnine. Identified the purchase in his book and said the packet later produced by Murphy was not the packet he had supplied.
James Stanbury — Terrara grocer. Said Murphy first approached him seeking poison and made disparaging comments about his wife.
John Weller — Sold Murphy rum and gin and said Murphy left through a window early on Sunday morning carrying liquor.
Dr James Stephen Reid — Shoalhaven medical practitioner. Conducted the original examinations, removed the women’s stomachs and said Elizabeth’s symptoms were consistent with strychnine poisoning.
Dr Charles Millear — Medical witness at the first trial. Said the symptoms described would initially suggest strychnine but acknowledged the difficulty of detecting it after time had elapsed.
Dr Myles Egan — Medical witness at the second trial. Said the symptoms described were compatible with strychnine and unlikely to be an ordinary first epileptic attack.
Charles Watt — Government Analyst. Found approximately two grains of strychnine in the bottle. Found that Murphy’s purported remainder was largely sugar and calomel, with a small amount of arsenic, rather than the purchased strychnine. His analysis of the stomachs was inconclusive.

Police, court and legal personnel

Thomas Grieves or Greaves — Senior constable in charge of Shoalhaven police. Questioned Murphy, took possession of the bottle and arrested him. The spelling varies between reports.
William Board — Constable who attended the examinations, handled the specimens and later assisted when the bodies were exhumed.
Thomas Morton Richards — District coroner who conducted both inquests at Numba.
Justice Hargrave — Judge who presided over both murder trials.
William Bede Dalley — Attorney-General and Crown prosecutor at the trial concerning Elizabeth Murphy.
William J. Foster — Crown prosecutor at the trial concerning Mary Boland.
Mr Buchanan, given name not stated — Defence counsel at both trials.
Mr Roberts, given name not stated — Solicitor involved in Murphy’s defence.
W. Roberts junior — Said the alleged shopping list in Elizabeth’s handwriting had been given to him for the defence.
Mr Greer, given name not stated — Reported as instructing Buchanan when the second case was first called.

Inquest jurors

The following men were named as jurors at one or both inquests. The reports do not record individual evidence from them:

Hugh M‘Lelland — Foreman.
James Shepherd
James Condon
John Quilkey
Robert Bennie
Thomas Warren
Terrence Mahoney
Michael Murphy — No relationship to James or Elizabeth is stated.
Peter Alexander
John Bindon
John Weller
Alexander Fraser

Important name discrepancies

The accused is consistently identified in the detailed evidence as James Murphy, although some syndicated reports introduce him as John Murphy.
Grieves also appears as Grieve and Greaves.
Margaret Courtney appears as Courtenay and, apparently through transcription or reporting errors, possibly Coghlan.
Margaret Condon appears as Margaret Connolly.
Tom Connolly appears as Tim Connolly.
James Stephen Reid is rendered as Read in one report.
The Boland son and witness is James Boland in the detailed evidence, while some summaries call the occupier Thomas Boland.

Source key

S1: News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek, Ulladulla and South Coast Advertiser, 3 April 1875, p. 2. News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek, Ulla…_ 1875), Saturday 3 April 1875, page 2.pdf
S2: Illawarra Mercury, 9 April 1875, p. 2. Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong, NSW _ 1856 – 1950), Friday 9 April 1875, page 2.pdf The separately uploaded NLA export is a duplicate of this article. Murphy – nla.news-article135864685.3.pdf
S3: New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime, 7 April 1875, p. 105. New South Wales Police Gazette and Week…dnesday 7 April 1875 (No.14), page 105.pdf
S4: Queanbeyan Age, 14 April 1875, p. 2. Queanbeyan Age (NSW _ 1867 – 1904), Wednesday 14 April 1875, page 2.pdf
S5: News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek, Ulladulla and South Coast Advertiser, 15 May 1875, p. 2. News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek, Ulla… _ 1875), Saturday 15 May 1875, page 2.pdf
S6: Goulburn Herald and Chronicle, 15 May 1875, p. 3. Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW _ 1864 – 1881), Saturday 15 May 1875, page 3.pdf
S7: Evening News, 14 August 1875, p. 5. Evening News (Sydney, NSW _ 1869 – 1931), Saturday 14 August 1875, page 5.pdf
S8: Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 1875, p. 5. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW _ 1842 – 1954), Saturday 14 August 1875, page 5.pdf
S9: News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek and Ulladulla Advertiser, 18 August 1875, p. 2. News, Shoalhaven, Broughton Creek and U…877), Wednesday 18 August 1875, page 2.pdf
S10: Goulburn Herald and Chronicle, 18 August 1875, p. 4. Goulburn Herald and Chronicle (NSW _ 18…881), Wednesday 18 August 1875, page 4.pdf
S11: Wagga Wagga Express and Murrumbidgee District Advertiser, 21 August 1875, p. 8. Wagga Wagga Express and Murrumbidgee Di…1875), Saturday 21 August 1875, page 8.pdf
S12: Australian Town and Country Journal, 21 August 1875, p. 26. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sy…919), Saturday 21 August 1875, page 26.pdf

The August reports in S7, S10, S11 and S12 substantially repeat the same syndicated account and should not be treated as four independent confirmations.

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A somewhat surprising fact that is unrelated to the actual events. James Murphy was my 2nd great grandfather – the policeman Thomas Grieve who arrested James Murphy in 1875, was my husbands 2nd great grandfather!

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? As always, please do not hesitate to contact me by sending a message via the sidebar of this blog or through Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: Central Criminal Court, Sydney

See other relevant blogposts:

Ancestors of John Bede Murphy 1851-1909

James Murphy: From County Wexford to Colonial NSW

Elizabeth Murphy: Bateman or Kennedy?

James Murphy: From County Wexford to Colonial NSW

#52 Ancestors #13

My maternal 2nd great grandfather James Murphy lived through a period of enormous change. Born in rural County Wexford Ireland in the early nineteenth century, he witnessed the final years of the Penal Era, emigrated halfway around the world before the Great Famine and spent almost fifty years helping build a new life in Colonial New South Wales.

Although many details of his early life remain hidden by time, enough records survive to piece together the story of an Irish carpenter who travelled from the small community of Glenbrien in County Wexford to the growing settlements of Windsor and the Shoalhaven.

Growing Up in Glenbrien

James was born around 1810 in the Glenbrien district near Enniscorthy in County Wexford. The evidence points strongly to him being the son of Maurice Murphy and Margaret (Peggy) Sinnott, a family associated with Ballydonfin in Glenbrien.

James’ baptism was recorded at Oylegate in January 1810 and later records consistently place him in the same area. Sponsors to the baptism were Peter WHITTY and Bridget DORAN, likely relations of some kind.

According to the baptism records, he had at least two brothers Lawrence and Maurice and a sister Mary Ann. He may have had older siblings but baptism records in Olyegate only start around 1805, so this remains unknown.

Image: Church of St Peter, Glenbrien, Oylegate Parish (built 1803, renovated 1977). Veronica Williams, 2011.

At the time James was growing up, County Wexford was still recovering from the upheaval of the 1798 Rebellion. Most families in the area relied on agriculture for their livelihood and opportunities for young men were limited. Unlike many of his neighbours however, James learned a skilled trade and became a carpenter. According to Griffith’s Valuation taken in about 1854 James’ family still occupied two pieces of land in Glenbrien listed under the name of Maurice Murphy (likely his father). The first was in the village, the townland of Ballydonfin, now known as ‘The Old Post Office’,. The second a small plot of grazing land just out of the village centre at Ballynastraw townland.

Descendants of the family continued to live in the old home in Glenbrien until about 1923. Refer: Murphy’s of Glenbrien.

The O’Connor Family, Old Post Office Glenbrien c1955.

Image provided by F. O’Connor 2017.

The Voyage to Australia

In October 1841 James boarded the immigrant ship Hope at Liverpool. The vessel carried 240 bounty immigrants under the command of Captain McLaughlan.

After a voyage of more than three months, the Hope arrived in Sydney on 28 January 1842.

The immigration records describe him as a twenty-seven-year-old carpenter from Enniscorthy, County Wexford. He could read and write, was Roman Catholic and named his parents as Maurice and Margaret Murphy.

Image: Typical 1840’s Immigrant Ship

Unlike many immigrants who travelled without employment prospects, James already had work waiting for him. He (along with 12 other passengers on the ship) had been recruited to work for Robert Fitzgerald at Windsor in the Colony New South Wales. His wage said to be eighteen pounds per year plus rations.

Australia was still a relatively young colony. Convict transportation to New South Wales had ended only a few years earlier and large areas of the country were still being opened for settlement. Skilled tradesmen were in demand and men like James were actively encouraged to immigrate.

Marriage and Family

Just over two years after arriving in Australia, James married Elizabeth Jane Kennedy at Windsor on 21 April 1844. One small detail from the marriage certificate stands out. Both James and Elizabeth signed their names. While this might seem unremarkable these days, literacy was far from universal during the 1840s and the ability to sign rather than make a mark hints at the value both families placed on education.

The couple would go on to raise six children together.

Margaret Mary Murphy m John Joseph Foley (1846–1928) – had descendants
James Murphy (1848–1867) – never married, no known children
Male Murphy (<1851–<1856) – died young
John Bede Murphy m Rebecca Gertrude Cassidy (1851–1909) – had descendants
Elizabeth Murphy m Arthur Poole Davis (1853–1938) – had descendants
Charles Murphy (1856–1919) – married, but no known children

By 1846 the family had moved south to the Shoalhaven district. The region was developing rapidly and offered opportunities for skilled workers. They lived at Terara and later at Back Forest where they became part of the growing rural community. James continued to work as a carpenter and later records also describe him as a farmer.

Life in the Shoalhaven

The Shoalhaven of the mid-nineteenth century was very different from the district we know today. Roads were poor, travel was difficult and communities were often isolated. Families depended heavily on neighbours and local networks. Churches, schools, agricultural shows and local hotels formed the centre of community life.

James spent decades living and working in this environment. Newspaper reports and official records suggest he was regarded as a hardworking and generally respectable member of the district.

The surviving records even provide a physical description. In 1875, at around sixty five years of age, he was recorded as being just over five feet ten inches tall with grey eyes, white hair and a lean build. His hands showed the wear and injuries expected from many years working as a carpenter.

Tragedy and Trial

The most dramatic event in James’s life occurred in 1875. Following the deaths of his wife Elizabeth Murphy and neighbour Mary Boland, James was arrested and charged with their murders.

The case attracted considerable newspaper attention across New South Wales. The reports provide a rare glimpse into the daily lives of ordinary people. Witnesses described James as a quiet, decent and industrious man. Evidence was given that he and Elizabeth sometimes quarrelled, particularly when alcohol was involved, but he was also described as kind to his family and not known for violence. After a lengthy legal process he was acquitted of all charges. See the full report here.

Today the newspaper reports remain one of the most detailed sources describing James as a person rather than simply recording the events of his life. Without the incident we would not have such a wonderful photo of him, with many family members mistaking the photo as being of his great grandson Barry.

Final Years

James outlived Elizabeth by sixteen years. By 1891 he was living with his son Charles at Macdonaldtown in Sydney.

On 10 October 1891 James died of what was described as senile decay. He was buried the following day at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery, no memorial was erected.

A ‘In Memoriam’ notice was published three years later in the Evening News on 10 Oct 1894:

MURPHY – In fond and loving memory of our dear father, James Murphy, who departed this life October 10 1891 aged 84. Inserted by his loving daughter and son in law, Margaret and John Foley.

Image: Cemetery Visit, 2008.

Whilst no headstone marks his grave, his life can still be traced through the records he left behind: a baptism in County Wexford, an immigration record, a marriage certificate, newspaper reports and the descendants like me who continue to research his story today.

James Murphy’s journey from Glenbrien to New South Wales was one made by thousands of Irish immigrants during the nineteenth century. What makes his story unusual is not that he came to Australia, but that enough evidence survives to allow us to follow him across the world and reconstruct his life.

Wexford Visits

My husband and I visited Glenbrien in 2011 and 2017. Our first visit was a whistle stop tour, the weather was inclement and we had little time to explore. 2017 was very different, I was much more prepared with Griffith Valuation maps in hand. I did some door knocking trying to identify the old house, I had the wrong one but the Doyles very kindly invited us in for tea and gave us a great tour of the village, including the Murphy home in Ballydonfin, now known as the old Post Office..

Images: Glenbrien and Ballynastraw land, Veronica Williams 2017. Last postmark, on the last day of the Glenbrien Post Office, provided by F. O’Connor 2019.

DNA Confirmation

As a male, James passed down both Y-DNA and autosomal DNA to his descendants. James would have inherited mtDNA from his mother Peggy Sinnott, however males do not pass mtDNA on to their children. Only his sister Mary Ann would have passed Peggy’s mtDNA to her descendants.

Sadly, there are no known male descendants still carrying James’ Y-DNA signature. Sons James and Charles had no children and whilst the remaining son John (my great grandfather) had one son Charlie, he had no descendants. Our only option for a Murphy Y-DNA tester is to recruit a male descendant of one of James’ brothers.

Autosomal DNA is therefore the only remaining method to confirm our connections to James and his wife through DNA. To date, we have confirmed our relationships back to the ancestral couple of James Murphy and Elizabeth Bateman, but have not yet been able to push back into Ireland for either one of the couple. Given James was born in 1810, and the commonality of the Murphy surname (particularly in County Wexford) our best chance of success will be through chromosome analysis.

As at June 2026, we have 30 DNA tested descendants (22 if you exclude the children of testers). Unfortunately 14 of these testers only have their results on AncestryDNA which does not provide chromosome data and could further assist our research if uploaded to GEDmatch. To date, from the 11 tests with segment information, we have identified 40 segments of interest relating to the ancestral couple (either James or Elizabeth). More research needs to to be undertaken to determine if others sharing these segment locations can provide further clues, but few Murphy or Sinnott matches have been identified so far.

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As always, please do not hesitate to contact me by sending a message via the sidebar of this blog or through Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: From Enniscorthy to Old Sydney Town: James Murphy 1810-1891

See other relevant blogposts:

Ancestors of John Bede Murphy 1851-1909

The Back Forest Poisoning Case: Mary and Elizabeth

Elizabeth Murphy: Bateman or Kennedy?

Identifying the mtDNA and Y-DNA of my ancestors

As part of my quest to discover more about my ancestors, I am looking for suitable candidates to undertake Y-DNA and mtDNA testing for me. So far, I’ve had the following tests taken but am looking to extend all of my ancestral lines! This post is intended to document my progress and will be updated as new haplogroups are discovered.

mtDNA

Murphy-Cassidy-Sweeney line (my maternal line) – I was able to undertake this test myself in 2011. The line currently extends back from myself, to my 3rd great grandmother from Rathclooney, County Clare. The image below shows our mtDNA line from me, up to Mary Sweeney Cassidy. Our mtDNA Haplogroup was J1c5, but in 2025 was upgraded to J1c5n1 which was said to have been formed about 900AD. We need more descendants on this line to undertake mtDNA testing to help bring this date forward into a closer genealogical timeframe.

Joan Patricia Roberts  (1930s – 2010s)
  Mona Veronica Murphy  (29 Aug 1892 – 03 Apr 1973)
  Rebecca Mary Gertrude Cassidy  (29 Jun 1852 – 04 Jan 1931)
  Mary Sweeney  (abt 1816 – 11 Mar 1896)

Elizabeth Richards 1823 (on my paternal side) – I was able to ascertain the mtDNA of my 3rd great grandmother Elizabeth Richards (who married John Coat) by testing Corinne in 2017, a descendant of Elizabeth’s sister Selina. We share Susanna Richards as our mtDNA ancestor, whose line extends back to Somerset, England. Susanna Richards married John Richards, they had different parents and don’t appear to be close cousins – we hope by knowing the mtDNA of Susanna we can better identify more of her family given Richards is such a common name in the area. Her mtDNA Haplogroup is Ub4.

Susanna Richards  (29 Apr 1802 – 18 Dec 1879)
  Elizabeth Coggan  (abt 1765 – 25 Dec 1806)
  Mary Bosgrove  (abt 1739 – abt 1800) [confident]
  Betty Shearman  (bef 1719 – ) [confident]

Margaret Ellard 1853 (on my paternal side) – I was able to ascertain the mtDNA of my 2nd great grandmother Margaret Ellard (who married Frederick Griffin) by testing my 3rd cousin Sharon in 2016. Our great grandmothers Ada and Edith were sisters, daughters of Frederick and Margaret. Her mtDNA Haplogroup is H1e1a.

Mary Elizabeth Brotherton  (abt 09 Jun 1810 – 13 Nov 1889)
  Mary Elizabeth Elstone  (abt 1788 – 22 Dec 1853) [confident]
  Charlotte Elstone  (bef 1768 – )
  Elizabeth Scott  (bef 1748 – )

Priorities for additional mtDNA testing

Help me complete the chart at the end of this post – if you are descended from any of the missing mt-DNA test ancestors please contact me. They are listed in priority order but all lines are important! Of course, I would be willing to pay for the tests of suitable candidates. Please contact me using the contact form if you can help with any of these projects.

My priority ancestors for mtDNA tests are shown below, we are looking for males or females who carry the mtDNA of these ancestors. Living males whose matrilineal line (mothers, mothers, mother etc) leads back to the ancestor are eligible, but generally as males don’t pass on mtDNA more eligible testers are likely to be female.

Descendants of Elizabeth Bateman (Kennedy) – married James Murphy (of Wexford) in Windsor NSW 1844;
Descendants of Catherine Britton c1768 – married Stephen Cassidy, Fermanagh, Ireland. Unfortunately, we are not yet aware of any daughters who could have passed on Catherine’s mtDNA . We hope this changes in time.
Descendants of Abigail Paice born 1845 Droxford, Hampshire, England, or her mother Harriet Parker.
Descendants of Mary Lee born 1816 in Lilbourne, Northamptonshire, England who married William Laundon. Her daughter Ann, the mother of Edward Roberts/Baker/Dye has no eligible mtDNA descendants.
Descendants of Mary Ann Bradley or her mother Mary Ann Hines born 1840 Kent, England.
Descendants of Maria Elisabeth Wohling, born 1817 in Tucheim, Prussia.
Descendants of Amy Hewlett born 1787 in Somerset – married Marmaduke Coat in 1813. However, first we need to confirm she is John Coats mother!

Y-DNA

Coat line (on my paternal side) – Thanks to the generosity of two of my male COAT cousins, Robert and Peter who first tested in 2012 and 2017, I have been able to find out more about my fathers paternal line. We have been able to ascertain the paternal haplogroup of the Coat line through Big Y testing as R-S22869.
- Read more about John and his family.
- Watch a short video about what his Y-DNA revealed (You Tube).
- Are you a descendant – join our FamilyTreeDNA project.
- I don’t have many photos of the Coat family. I would be particularly grateful if anyone out there has more of Len and Charles. I would love to upgrade these.

Lenard Coat  (08 Jul 1901 – 30 Aug 1979)
  Charles Coat  (18 May 1862 – 11 Nov 1937)
  John Coat  (abt 1826 – 01 May 1907)

Roberts line (on my maternal side) – Mum’s brother Barry took the Y-DNA test for me in 2012 and for many years we had no matches at all. We still only have one match, other than my 2nd cousin Greg who later also tested to confirm our line. We have since discovered through autosomal testing that Edward Roberts Baker b1869, Mums grandfather, was not a Roberts or a Baker after all, but probably a Dye! We have been able to ascertain the paternal haplogroup of the Roberts/Dye line through Big Y testing as R-BY160942.
- We are still keen to find a Y-DNA tester descended from the Dye’s to be able to firm up our conclusions regarding the Dye line.
- Read more about the Roberts/Baker/Dye research.

My maternal ROBERTS/DYE Y-DNA line – starting with my first tester, Barry Phillip Edward Roberts

Edward Arthur Roberts MM  (27 Mar 1893 – 01 Jul 1966)
  Edward Roberts  (7 Aug 1869 – 16 Mar 1954)
  Edmund Dye  (22 Sep 1844 – 29 Jan 1880)
  Edmund Dye  (1817 – )
  Edmund Dye  (1790 – 1871) [confident]
  John Dye  (bef 1762 – ) [confident]

Cassidy line (on my maternal side) – I was able to ascertain the Y-DNA of my 3rd great grandfather Thomas Cassidy c1800 by testing Des, my 3rd cousin, in 2012. We share the ancestors of Thomas Cassidy and his wife Mary Sweeney. I was particularly keen to be able to trace Thomas back to Ireland and our Y-DNA testing has confirmed that he came from Fermanagh, Ireland. The paternal haplogroup of the Cassidy line identified by Big Y testing is I-FT193932.
- Are you a descendant – do more with your Cassidy DNA!
- Read more about the Cassidy family.

Stephen Cassidy  (aft 1760 – aft 1830)
  Y-DNA Cassidy  (bef 1740 – )
  Fermanagh DNA Cassidy  (bef 1720 – ) [confident]

Sweeney line (on my maternal side) – once again, I was very keen to be able to connect back to Ireland on our Sweeney line. I was able to ascertain the Y-DNA of my 4th great grandfather John Sweeney c1795 of Rathclooney County Clare by testing Torin, my 3rd cousin, in 2016. Autosomal DNA testing had confirmed our relationship, we share John as an ancestor, descending from children with his wife Johanna Hanrahan/Enright – Terence and Mary. We have had limited matches to date on the Y-DNA test, with no other known suitable descendants from John and Johanna so we were stuck in a ‘watch and wait’ scenario. However, a few years ago we discovered that John had married again after Johanna died. We are now looking for a suitable Y-DNA candidate from one of the 3 male children of John and his second wife Honor Murphy. The paternal haplogroup of the Sweeney line identified by testing 37 markers is R-M269. We hope to upgrade this test to a Big Y once we have confirmed the connection between male descendants from both Johanna and Norah.
- Read more about John and his family.

Daniel Sweeney (bef 1775 – ) [uncertain]
Roe Swyny (bef 1754 – abt 1801) [confident]

Priorities for additional Y-DNA testing
Help me complete the chart below – if you are descended from any of the missing Y-DNA test ancestors please contact me. They are listed in priority order but all lines are important! Of course, I would be willing to pay for the tests of suitable candidates. Please contact me using the contact form if you can help with any of these projects.

My priority ancestors for Y-DNA tests are shown below, we are looking for males who are still carrying the relevant surname or where that surname is on their patrilineal line:

Descendants of the Dye family of Kent England, including Edmund Dye 1791 (married Philadelphia Yowell), or John Dye c1768 (married Ann King) are needed for testing to confirm conclusions about the Roberts-Dye line;
Descendants of the Murphy family of Glenbrien Wexford in Ireland, including James Murphy 1810 (married Elizabeth Bateman), or Maurice Murphy bef 1775 (married Margaret (Peggy) Sinnott). We would love to be able to get back to Ireland for this family line;
Descendants of John Sweeney c1795 of Rathclooney County Clare and his second wife Honor Murphy are needed to find a second Y-DNA tester to confirm the Sweeney family line.
Descendants of Samuel Bradley c1821 or his father John Bradley who is currently a brick wall.
Descendants of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm NOLL, born 1844 in Tucheim, Prussia.
Descendants of Frederick Griffin or his father James Griffin born 1824 in Cambridgeshire, England.

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested) I would love to hear from you. It’s the power of DNA that can help us breakthrough our brick walls!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via the contact form on this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Blogposts relating to these families…

What is our family name – Roberts, Baker or Dye?

Murphy’s of Glenbrien

Establishing the origins of my Sweeney family, of Rathclooney.

John COAT: The South Australian Immigrant

How a 6cMs DNA match confirmed a longstanding research question

The match that confirmed where my Roberts family spent their early years in Queensland.

My maternal grandfather Edward Arthur Roberts, known as Ted, emigrated from England with his parents and younger brother in 1910. They sailed on the SS Orsova departing London on 14 Sep 1910 and arrived in Brisbane on 31 Oct 1910, after first stopping in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Ted was 17 years of age and his brother Jimmy was 15. In his memoirs my grandfather recalls his early years in Queensland when he worked as a cane cutter and remembers they spent their first Christmas in ’a former gold mining town’ but doesn’t say exactly where it was. Given the vastly different weather conditions between North Queensland and Dorset, I have often wondered why they continued on to Queensland and lived there for about 2 years.

This post is about how DNA eventually helped me identify where they went (52Ancestors #13).

My mother always used to refer to her fathers memoirs as ‘Pop’s Book’. She often lamented that no one in the family had wanted these papers and that she had rescued them when we were clearing out the house at Haberfield after her mother died. A collection of typed pages, in an old yellow plastic shopping bag. Grammatical errors had been corrected in pencil by her mother Mona, a former stenographer. Unfortunately, Ted was very light on with providing details for future generations, with hardly a name or place quoted through the many pages! Perhaps he had forgotten them, as he wrote them in the 1960’s shortly before he died in 1966. There isn’t much about Ted’s early life, but more detail about his later years and in particular his time in the war and working later with veterans in his role as pensions officer.

My husband and I have been trying to sift through the clues from Ted memoirs on field trips to Queensland for many years.

The shipping records indicate that the family were from Dorset and had been ‘nominated’. Who had ‘nominated’ them? Where exactly did they go and why?

None of Ted’s children seem to have known much about the early years in Queensland. My mother used to vaguely say ‘perhaps it was Charters Towers’ but she was never certain. Ted’s parents were Edward and Abigail Roberts, although Abigails full name was Ann Abigail Maud and is often referred to as ‘Maud’. There was an Ann and Edward Roberts who were living in Prior Street, Charters Towers in 1910. However this Edward Roberts enlisted for military service in 1916 and his records show that he was born in Ravenswood and was aged 39 when he enlisted, so they were not our family.

My husband and I spent many years thinking about where they could have been cutting cane, visiting these areas pondering whether any nearby mining towns could have been where they spent that first Christmas Day.

It is not surprising that they might have gone to a mining town for work, Ted says of his father ‘He could do most of the things required from a man in the Australian bush. He rode well, had experience with stock, was a fair blacksmith and possessed a great knowledge of things that grow.’ For many years we were unsure where this photo was taken, but we now think it is Edward senior in his early years in Australia most likely in tropical North Queensland c1910-1912.

Of that first Christmas Day Ted recalls ‘I also remember another “house” in a former gold mining town in Queensland where we spent our first Christmas Day in Australia. It was a mere shed built of galvanised iron. This day was seasonable for Australia with a temperature soaring above the 100 mark. As my father said we must grin and bear it with the help of suitable refreshment. He found the refreshment. We had not yet reached that stage. (Probably a reference to Ted and his brother Jimmy – too young to have a beer, drinking age at that time being 21 in Queensland).

My husband and I researched old mining towns in Queensland, trying to narrow down the possibilities, had they closed by 1910? Did they mine gold? How could they have travelled there, was the railway operational at that time? For various reasons we excluded Bouldercombe, Chillagoe, Cracow, Einesleigh, Glastonbury, Gympie, Heberton, Mount Chalmers, Mount Morgan, Mount Mulligan, Mount Surprise and Tyraconnell. However 15 other potential places remained on our list, they included Biggenden, Canoona, Cawarrel, Charters Towers, Clermont, Croydon, Cumberland, Eidsvoid, Forsyth, Georgetown, Kilkivan, Kidston, Leyburn, Mount Wilson and Palmer River. Some were more likely than others, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack.

In Forsyth we came across many old buildings that seemed similar to what Ted had described, one can only imagine the heat inside on a very hot Christmas Day, particularly if you were still dressing in a white suit and tie! Some similar buildings were still standing in 2022.

Ted left a few other clues in his memoirs, but without any surnames mentioned they have been difficult to follow up:

Len, Harold, Bill (all Australians) and I spent our spare days in the bush and in our sailing boat as to thus ensure decent clean living. Harold of Irish and German blood was strangely enough keen on acquiring knowledge of English School life. Bill was a member of a large family. His parents were Yorkshire. One of his sisters who became a champion swimmer was born in England and they called her the New Chum. The other children were Australian born.

The boys and I became members of a Junior Australian Rules team, although we had the advantage of receiving tuition from a former famous Rules player. I was the one who made least progress.

From what Ted describes, the town must have been a reasonable size to have such facilities, which would exclude many of our remaining possibilities? There was a famous footballer Tom Richards who was involved in Charters Towers around that time, although he seems to be more a rugby player than Aussie Rules, could it be the same person? Will we ever know?

The 6cMs DNA match

People often say how useless small DNA segment matches are. Well, that may be so if you are trying to confirm a genetic connection, but often the pedigrees of the smallest matches can help you ascertain marvellous genealogical clues for your research.

Back in 2020 AncestryDNA decided to purge their smaller match data. Roberts Estes wrote an excellent article about why they were valuable at that time. I was one of those concerned about losing these matches and followed the advice to preserve them, thanks to some wonderful tech gurus who provided us with some amazing code to do so.

I preserved matches between 6-8cMs and at that time for my Mum’s account that equated to 21,849 matches – aka 21,849 potential clues! Since that time I have had reason to review many of these and recategorise them, the group having now significantly reduced to 19,736, so it wasn’t a useless exercise.

I recently noticed a 6cMs match appearing in the ‘common ancestors’ category at AncestryDNA – I know from my records this match was from pre 2019 and had never been reviewed. Ancestry was doing its magic and ploughing through its vast array of trees and had suggested how we might be connected. Many of these suggestions can be erroneous and require checking.

From the small pedigree information provided I could see that the tester was Australian but none of the names in the tree were familiar. At 6cMs it is predicted as a 5th-8th cousin relationship, so our connection would be quite a way back.

Ancestry had a suggested relationship path, but I did my own research to confirm their theory, validating each connection with vital record sources along the way.

After much research it seemed our genealogical connection was via her Buckler line, but my records suggested the family name was originally Bucklar. Joseph Bucklar, was a first cousin of Ted’s grandmother Ann Roberts nee Laundon. Joseph had emigrated to Australia in 1885, guess where to – Charters Towers! If correct, she was a 5th cousin DNA match to my Mum, our shared ancestors William Laundon and Hannah Smith of Leicestershire.

What excitement! Joseph was one of four children of Charles Riddington Bucklar and Mary Laundon. Mary was Ann’s paternal aunt. I knew the family of their son George Riddington Bucklar very well, as he had emigrated to Utah in the USA having a very large family – we have many DNA matches with their descendants. I didn’t know much about the other siblings including Joseph, his sister Elizabeth (who married William Church) or his brother Henry, all three had appeared to stay in England according to the census records.

Joseph Bucklar was born in 1845 in Burton Overy, Leicestershire, England. He married Hannah Cook in 1863. They had at least nine children, with one son dying in 1870 in England, aged 5. The first 3 children were born near London and the remaining 6 in Yorkshire.

Joseph and his son Ernest (17) emigrated to Australia arriving in Townsville on Duke of Buccleuch in 1885. Joseph was described as a miner. Harriet and the remaining 7 children arrived on the Roma in 1887.

Joseph appears to have settled in Charters Towers and probably worked on the Lady Maria mine. In the 1881 England census he was Deputy Overman in the Iron Mines. Given his occupation, the family were probably headed to Charters Towers from the outset. In 1898 the family are living on the corner of Black Jack and Maria Roads and in 1903 Joseph and son Charles recorded as miners with son Albert a cyanidar. Joseph remained there until his death in 1919.

My 6cMs DNA match was descended through Joseph’s youngest child Henry. Whilst researching the family I found a second DNA match descended through another of the sons, Albert. This time it’s a 20cMs match at My Heritage and a closer relationship to my Mum of 4th cousin once removed.

Back to the Roberts family

So Mum was right that Edward, Abigail and the two boys probably firstly went to Charters Towers when they arrived in Australia – I wish she was still here to share in the excitement! Whilst we have no direct evidence, I do now feel comfortable with this conclusion.

The Railway came to Charters Towers from Townsville in December 1882, replacing what was a two day trip by coach. It seems feasible that they would have been able to make their way from Brisbane to Charters Towers and be there in time for their first Christmas in 1910.

Edward would have been Joseph’s first cousin once removed. Perhaps the family suggested it would be a good place to find work when he arrived, his skills of working with stock and blacksmithing all useful in an outback town. Mining had all but ceased in Charters by around 1905, but it was still a good sized town and was declared a city in April 1909 and probably large enough to have the sporting facilities described by Ted.

This photo of Edward snr and Abigail was always said to have been taken in Queensland, c1910-1912. The colourisation from My Heritage helps to distinguish the background however it looks more like a park or garden rather than a typical backyard in Charters Towers at that time. Could it be in the bandstand at Lissner Park established in 1905? The photo below was taken in 1905 – there seem to be double posts in both images? Very hard to know…

I had hoped to be able to identify one of Ted’s friends, Len, Harold, Bill or the new chum! The Yorkshire connection interested me as I felt it might have been a reference to the Bucklars. However none of these names featured in Joseph’s childrens names and the next generation seems to be too young to be friends of Ted and Jimmy when they were in their late teens.

There is only one possibility – William Henry Bucklar born 1901. He was a grandson of Joseph, so definitely part of a big family from Yorkshire, but didn’t have siblings from what I can ascertain. Was he too young to be ‘Bill’?

Ted’s experience cane cutting seems to be the only loose end that doesn’t quite fit. Did they do seasonal work and travel to Townsville? It’s not that far away to undertake the work, or was it a way to earn money as they made their way south to Sydney by the end of 1912? We may never know.

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I’m so glad I didn’t let AncestryDNA purge that 6cMs match! I suppose I might have found the connections eventually through other DNA matches but it was great to have the AncestryDNA helping to point me in the right direction and save lots of research time. Next step is to reach out to these matches and hopefully compare their chromosome data so we can try and also confirm our genetic connection!

AncestryDNA does not provide sufficient information to be able to confirm connections of DNA matches more distant than 3rd cousins. Data needs to be uploaded to a chromosome site, such as GEDmatch, FamilyTreeDNA or My Heritage, Genie1-Louise Coakley has some great instructions for how to do it. Let’s hope in time I can confirm the genetic connections too, that would just be icing on the cake!

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As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: Forsyth, Queensland, 2022. Private collection of Veronica Williams.

What is our family name – Roberts, Baker or Dye?

This post is about identifying the father of my mothers paternal grandfather, my second great grandfather – what was his name? (52Ancestors#12).

I previously wrote about her grandfather Edward Roberts in 2018. The circumstances surrounding his birth have always been a mystery and whilst we knew his mother was married twice, we believed her second husband was his father, another Edward Roberts, even though the couple didn’t marry until about ten years after Edward juniors birth. For more information read my previous post here.

A miracle occurred during Covid as I once again revisited the question of Edwards birth. For over 15 years I have been searching for his birth record. I’ve purchased many certificates over the years for Edward Roberts’ and Edward Bakers in England and India. Low and behold a search of the GRO index in 2021 revealed an Edward Roberts Baker, born at Westerham Kent in 1869! Could this be my Edward? I couldn’t order it fast enough and the week I had to wait for it to arrive was agonising.

Good things come to those who wait as they say – I can’t help but be reminded of the old saying – was it ‘the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker’!

It was definitely him, the mother stated as Annie Baker formerly Laundon. We had always thought his birthdate was 6 August 1868, but it was only slightly out, being recorded as 7 August 1869. The address of London Road Westerham, consistent with where Edward senior was living in 1871 and where the whole family resided by 1881. Why wasn’t it on the index for all these years, I had definitely checked it many, many times? I can only surmise that the recent digitisation program found it was missing from the index and corrected the error.

There were a few questions however. Ann named the father as her first husband Thomas BAKER, was he really Edwards father? Ann also used the name of Roberts as Edwards middle name – was this to suggest that her second husband Edward senior was the biological father, perhaps they had been together before 1869? Ann was still married to Thomas at the time, so did she name him as Edwards father for convention or respectability?

Where were they all in early December 1868? Based on what we can glean from the records Ann and her husband Thomas Baker were living in Westerham Kent by 1865 when their son Eldred was born. It is unclear when Thomas and Ann split up, but they are clearly living apart by 1871. Certainly, from the records it seems both Thomas and Edward were in the right location around the time of Edwards birth to be his father but which one was it?

Year	Ann Laundon b1835	Thomas Baker b1823	Edward Roberts b1841
1857	Married Thomas Baker	Married Ann Laundon
1861	Army Barracks, Hampshire	Army Barracks, Hampshire	Westerham, Kent – lodger
1865	Eldred Baker born Westerham, Kent	Westerham, Kent (children 1858-1865)
1869	Edward Roberts born London Road, Westerham, Kent	Named as father of Edward Roberts Baker
1871	Croydon, Surrey, Mrs Annie Roberts. With sons Thomas, Eldred and Edward aged 3.	Canterbury, Kent – Visitor to Barnes family. Listed as (Croydon) Army pensioner. With daughter Alma.	Westerham, Kent – lodger Lodge lane, near High Street
1878	Married Edward Roberts at Croydon. Widow, residing at Norwood.		Married Annie Baker at Croydon. Bachelor, residing at Norwood.
1881	London Road, Westerham, Kent	Died before 1880 (Marriage of Alma)	London Road, Westerham, Kent

The DNA story

I have been actively researching my mothers family since the early 2000’s and had been convinced from the records that Edward was a child of Edward Roberts senior and not Thomas Baker. Discovering the birth certificate finally in 2021 stating Thomas Baker was the father put a spanner in the works. I had researched both the lines of Thomas Baker and Edward Roberts senior. DNA has been a focus of my research since 2010, so what was it telling me?

We have many matches going back several generations confirming that Ann Laundon is our ancestor and clearly Edwards mother, but the paternal side is quite different.

Thomas Bakers family were also from Kent and nearby Dorset. Over many years I have scrutinised the extended family of his parents and compared them to the DNA test results of my mother, three of her siblings and a descendant of their fathers brother. We had no matches to anyone in this family. I revisited my research many times and concluded that the reason for this was that Thomas was probably not his father and that Edward Roberts senior seemed more likely.

Edwards Roberts’ family were from Gloucestershire. His father John Roberts was connected to a prodigious DAY line that according to a Family Search tree connects to Royalty! The maternal Tweed line was not as extensive but additional generations had been identified.

For several years it has concerned me that we had only identified one DNA match on this line, 15cMs at AncestryDNA. It was a sixth cousin relationship to my mother and her siblings, to their 5th great grandparents ancestors John BAYLIS and Mary CHURN.

In over a decade of DNA research no other matches have been found on either the Roberts or Tweed lines. At Rootstech 2022, the ‘find my relatives’ tool told me I had over 700 cousins at the event related to me on the Day line – with so many interested in genealogy surely many of them would have tested, why didn’t I have any matches? With no other matches to these ancestors at any DNA site (and we have tested at all of them) and without being about to view the segment data, I remained skeptical that the match was an indication of a true genetic connection.

Was my research wrong? Or, was it that the right people just hadn’t tested yet? Were there insufficient descendants?

Edwards Roberts Baker b1869 only had three half siblings, all on his mothers side;
Edwards Roberts Baker b1869 only had 2 sons;
Edward Arthur Roberts b1893 (my grandfather, known as Ted) had 7 children and from DNA testing we have about 95% of his DNA;
James George Roberts b1895 (my great uncle, known as Jimmy) had 3 children but only one had descendants;
Edward Roberts senior and Thomas Baker were both one of seven children, surely there should be other descendants we should match?

For the last several years I have pondered whether Edwards father was not Thomas Baker or Edward Roberts, but perhaps someone else entirely?

A breakthrough came earlier this year when I managed to test an additional three second cousins on this line. We now had four grandchildren of James Roberts tested (the brother of my grandfather). Whilst Ted and Jimmy had the same parents they can inherit different segments of DNA from each of them due to a process called recombination. I was hopeful that Jimmy had inherited different segments to his brother that might give us more clues to the identity of their paternal grandfather. Combining the tests of all descendants we now have approximately 60% of Edward Roberts Bakers DNA – hopefully this will give us more clues for our research.

DNA Research

Over many years I have concentrated on trying to identify the origins of Mums other problematic paternal great grandfather Arthur George Courtney. I have a separate research blog for him – you can view the Research Summary here. As part of that process I have been laboriously identifying clusters and triangulated groups of DNA matches as part of the puzzle in putting the pieces back together to identify him. It was that work that helped me in also finding out more about Edward.

I waited with anticipation for the DNA results of my four second cousins at AncestryDNA.

When the results first came through, I must admit I was a little disappointed as there weren’t too many new matches that I didn’t know already. I have been extensively interrogating my mothers results at AncestryDNA and the other DNA sites for many years now.

However one family stood out as requiring further attention, the family of Edmund and Philadelphia DYE from Kent in England. We previously had a number of DNA matches to this family, but I had not been able to connect them to to my tree.

My cousins also matched this family, but even more closely than us!

DNA Matches are shown in lime green.

My mother and her brother had reasonably good sized matches with Cousin A at 50cMs and 82cMs, all three belonging to the same generation, but they only shared smaller amounts with the other testers – about 27-30cMs. This group had intrigued me for some time and I had wondered if they might fit into George’s genealogy somehow. Matches to Cousin A to the four second cousins (who are a generation more distant) were varied, one shared 90cMs, two approx 50cMs and the last only 15cMs.

It was matches to Cousin C that really caught my attention. My mother only shared 27cMs, yet matches to my four second cousins were quite different, they were 110cMs, 102cMs, 65cMs and 50cMs. Being a generation more distant it was unusual for them to share so much more DNA than my mother, but that is the magic of recombination.

It was these matches that spurred me on to do more research and in particular, to focus on the Edmund Dye and Charlotte Horsnell couple. I investigated the family of Charlotte Horsnell, it was quite tricky but eventually I discovered that Charlottes grandparents were James HODSON and Mary FOX.

These Hodson Fox names were quite familiar to me as I had already investigated another AncestryDNA cluster and a triangulated group on Chromosome 6, whose genealogy both led back to this couple.

As the couple were from Leicestershire I had felt that perhaps they might be distant relations on Edward Roberts’ mothers side, as Ann LAUNDON was born in Leicestershire. Was this telling me something different?

I needed to revisit my previous assumptions.

Again, DNA Matches are shown in lime green.

Given we had DNA matches back to Edmund Dye’s parents, as well as to Charlotte Horsnell’s grandparents, it seemed likely that our connection was via one of the children of this couple.

Studying the family of Edmund and Charlotte Dye more closely I found they may have had 4 or 5 children, with only one having descendants.

Annie Dye was born in 1843 and married John Wilkins Usher in 1870 when she was 27 years of age. She died after a long illness aged 39 and does not appear to have had any children;
Henry Dye’s birth was registered on 31 Oct 1844 at Sundridge with a birth date of 22 Sep1844. There are no further records for him. I have concluded that Henry is actually the same person as Edmund Dye;
Edmund Dye appears in census records stated as being born about 1845 but unlike all the other children there is no birth registration record for him. There is a baptism on 5 Jan 1845 at Sundridge for Edmund. It seems likely that his birth was probably registered as Henry and he was later baptised as Edmund, being the eldest son. Edmund died aged 36 of consumption, unmarried, with no known issue;
George Dye was born in 1848 and died in 1860, aged 12, no issue;
Edith Charlotte Dye was born in 1864 and was known as ‘Lottie’. She married Edward Everden and had at least 2 children;
There is a significant gap between the birth of George and Lottie, but there do not appear to be any other children. Edmund senior died in 1888 and only four children are mentioned in his obituary. By the time of Charlottes death in 1899 her estate passed to her only surviving child Edith Charlotte Everden.

As I studied the family I suddenly realised that they lived in Westerham Kent, where Edward Roberts was born in 1869. Staring me in the face was Edmund Dye who seemed exactly the right age to be the father of Edward Roberts – 24 at that time and in the right location! Based on the known genealogy he seems likely to be the lone suspect to be Edward’s father (except perhaps for Henry?)!

Was this my new hypothesis?

Life in Westerham, Kent

There is no evidence that Edward Roberts senior ever lived with Ann and her children until some time after 1871 and maybe even as late as 1878 when they married (presumably after Thomas Baker died). Ann confuses the issue even more by calling herself Mrs Roberts in the 1871 census and giving the child his name. What had happened to cause Thomas and Ann to split? Perhaps Edward senior took pity on Ann and decided to look after her. In 1871 he was lodging in Westerham, at Lodge Lane, close to the High Street and worked in the seed trade. Later in life, he clearly took on the role of stepfather to Ann’s children and whilst they did not have any other children together they remained married until his death in 1902.

Westerham is a town and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It is located 3.4 miles east of Oxted and 6 miles west of Sevenoaks, adjacent to the Kent border with both Greater London and Surrey. The Dye family were prominent tradespeople and lived nearby at Warren Farm Sundridge. In 1861 Edmund b1791 (m Philadelphia Yowell) was listed as managing the farm of 52 acres employing 5 men and 1 boy. In the same year his son Edmund b 1817 (m Charlotte Horsnell) was noted as being a master wheelwright and smith, managing premises in the High Street at Westerham also employing five men, a boy, plus his son Edmund b1845 aged 16 was also working there as a wheelwright.

The ironmongers shop in the High Street is in very close proximity to London Road where Edward Roberts was born in 1869 and where he continued to live until about 1885. By the time Edward emigrated to Australia in 1910 he was described as having the ability to grow anything, a fine horseman and a fair blacksmith. Where did he learn these skills? Clearly his stepfather was responsible for passing on his horticultural skills, Edward had worked as a gardener when living in England and spent some time in the army where he may have learnt to ride. Living in Westerham for most of his early life, the Roberts’ must have been aquainted with the Dye family and I can’t help but wonder whether somehow young Edward may have acquired his blacksmith skills there?

The hypothesis and further testing

The DNA evidence suggests Edward Roberts is descended from a child of Edmund and Charlotte Dye, however the evidence is not overwhelming. Edmund Dye 1844-1880 seems the most likely candidate however as he didn’t have any other children, we have no descendants we can ask to undertake further testing.

Edward Roberts’ father would have been born some time before 1850, possibly earlier. Edmund Dye is the right age and in the right location. The DNA evidence is reasonable given the timeframe with two AncestryDNA clusters and currently six ‘confirmed’ triangulated groups on chromosomes 1, 4, 6 and 21. Four of these groups connect back to the Dye/Yowell couple and two to the Hodson/Fox couple. Hopefully over time more evidence will emerge.

I was lucky enough to be able to obtain photographs of the Dye’s to compare to my family. The top row are our potential Dye ancestors and the bottom row my family, three photos of Edward Roberts b1869 and the last two his sons, Edward (Ted my grandfather) and his younger brother James (Jimmy). In my opinion, there seems to be a strong family resemblance – in particular the resemblance between Lottie and Jimmy seems noteworthy.

So are we safe in concluding that this our line? It seems probable, but I would like more genetic evidence. I’d probably say it is now my current working hypothesis.

I’d appreciate your thoughts!

Y-DNA and a possible Danish connection?

Y-DNA testing could help to confirm that our male line is the same as this Dye family. I have approached many descendants of the Dye family but have not yet identified anyone suitable and willing to test. If you are a male descendant of Edmund Dye b1791 (m Philadelphia Yowell) on the patrilineal line (ie carrying or following the expected Dye surname), please contact me if you are willing to test to help us to confirm/refute our hypothesis.

Two descendants of Edward Roberts Baker have already undertaken Y-DNA testing but to date there are no matches via STR testing and only one Big-Y match, with the Big-Y match carrying the surname of Taylor. This Taylor line extends to colonial times in the US but does eventually get back to Suffolk in England by the 1600’s. Big Y testing has identified our haplogroup to be R-BY23391 (R-BY160942 in the block tree).

What is so unusual about our Y-DNA signature that there are no matches even at the lower STR levels?

Autosomal results suggest that we may have connections to a Dye family in the US, that extends back to Denmark, with name variations of Dey and Duyts.

These are all only AncestryDNA matches with no segment data, not triangulated groups, so they could be just co-incidence. It is unusual for autosomal testing to go back this far.

However one wonders whether this may explain the lack of Y-DNA matches. How prevalent is DNA testing in Denmark?

Could we be connected via another Danish emigrant who came to England?

Mum’s latest ethnicity suggests 7% from that region, so are we on the right track?

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested, or are willing to test) I would love to hear from you. It’s the power of DNA that can help us breakthrough our brick walls!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: Westerham c1831, W.H. Ireland’s View of Kent.

Postscript: View my presentation to the Society of Australian Genealogists on You Tube.

Finally, I think I’m a MacNamara!

For many years I have been researching my Irish roots attempting to bridge the gap in paper records through the power of DNA analysis. I recently wrote about my Sweeney family who came from the townlands of Rathclooney and Moyriesk in County Clare. You can read about them here.

From DNA matching, I have long felt that the MacNamaras, McInerney’s and McMahons must have had close associations with our family. I’ve been told that every second person in Clare was named MacNamara so perhaps it’s not that surprising. However our trip to Ireland in 2017 was to reveal more close associations to the family.

We had known from Mary Sweeney’s baptism record in 1816 (my maternal second great grandmother) that her sponsor was Catherine MacNamara. Who was Catherine and how was she related? Sponsors were usually close family members.

It was in my discussions with Antoinette from the Clare Heritage Genealogy Centre in 2017, that she told me of a conversation she had more than 20 years ago with Joseph MacNamara who had acquired the landholding at Rathclooney. He had told her that after the death of Thomas Sweeney in 1960, the Rathclooney property had been transferred to Lizzie MacNamara and subsequently to himself. Who were these MacNamaras and how were they connected to the Sweeney’s?

Later that same day, we had a chance discussion with neighbour John Daffy who said he ‘barely remembered Thomas Sweeney when he lived at Rathclooney’. However he was able to tell me that Lizzie and Joe MacNamara had lived there together, he didn’t think they were related as Joe wasn’t ‘entitled’ but recalled that Lizzie may have been a niece of the Sweeney’s. Lizzie had lots of brothers and was the housekeeper for Thomas Sweeney who had never married. John thought Lizzie might have come from Drunmore but had lived most of her life in the Barefield-Ruan area. The final interesting piece of information, was that Lizzie and Joe were buried together in the nearby Clooney cemetery.

The headstone at Clooney describes a number of family members, most of whom seem to be connected to Joe. The entries for Lizzie and Joe’s brother John looked like they had been added long after their actual deaths, probably at the time the inscription was made for Joe in 2002. Joe’s parents were named but not Lizzies.

My quest when I returned to Australia was to research these clues more thoroughly, hoping to find our connection!

Ancestry of Joe McNamara 1914-2002

From the wealth of information on the headstone, I was able to piece together Joe’s ancestry back to what I thoought were his great grand parents Cornelious MacNamara and Nancy Keeney. (Click on the link above to view the extended family tree at Wikitree.com).

Subsequent to this post it was discovered there were 3 Daniel MacNamara’s born around the same time and Joe’s grandparents were a different family. The Michael McNamara who appears on the headstone is actually buried in the USA and this is only a memorial, which confused matters. These lines have now been corrected on Wikitree. His correct family is shown below.

Ancestry of Lizzie McNamara 1897-1992 (Note: To be updated: see 2023 addendum below)

Identifying Lizzies ancestry was more challenging but eventually our first thought was that Lizzie was actually Joe’s paternal first cousin, sharing grandparents Daniel MacNamara and Johannah ‘Ann’ McKeogh! However no Sweeney’s were identified – how could she be a niece of Thomas Sweeney 1881–1960? Was the connection on her maternal side via the McMahon or Quinn families? (Click on this link above to view the extended family tree at Wikitree.com).

Subsequent to this post we found that we had the wrong Lizzie after all! Refer 2023 Addendum below.

Gathering DNA clues

My first big clue came back in 2019 when I discovered a large match of 47cMs with several siblings of the Worthington family. I soon discovered we also triangulated with their second cousin, which suggested our connection was coming from their shared ancestors William Clayton or his wife Bridget Helena McNamara. This McNamara line extended back to Jeremiah McNamara and his wife Margaret Haiskins, of Clooney, County Clare, it was definately looking promising, but I was unaware of any of these names in our family tree. Utilising the Visual Phasing technique with my mother and her 3 siblings DNA kits, it did suggest the match was on our Cassidy-Sweeney line, but where and how?

My maternal uncle and his first cousin also had a small 13cMs triangulated ‘X’ match with the female sibling. Tracing the X inheritance path on both sides suggested that it could have been inherited from John Sweeney or Johanna (Enright) Hanrahan on our side and Clayton, Haiskins or O’Sullivan on their side. Being such a small match it could well be a long way back, further than any of the known ancestors we have identified so far. This ‘X’ chromosome match was also part of a small triangulated group. Another cousin in the group has ancestors from County Clare with names in contention that included Walsh, McInerney, McMahon, Clarke plus of course potential unknown females! Where did this leave us?

The information was very tantalising! My mother always used to say we had McInerney relations back in Ireland, but no one in the family knew exactly how they were connected. We also had more DNA matches leading back to the McNamara, McMahon and McInerney families in County Clare. One particular group of matches all went back to a McMahon-McInerney couple. Could these be more clues?

Combining genealogical and genetic research

By pouring over the parish records and other genealogical research of my Sweeney family I looked for our possible connections to the MacNamara, McInerney and McMahon families.

Links to MacNamara’s

1816 – Catherine MacNamara sponsor of Mary Sweeney, daughter of John and Johanna Sweeeny.
1821 – Freeholders list of Clare, Canny’s and McMahons leasing from MacNamara’s at Moyriesk.
1821 – Martin and Bridget McNamara sponsors at baptism of Ellen Sweeney.
1824 – Michael McNamara, sponsor at baptism of Joan Sweeney, daughter of John Sweeney and Honor Murphy.
1825 – Tithe record, John Sweeney residing at Rathclooney sharing 61 acres with McNamara’s.
1830 – About this time, Michael McNamara married Mary Hanrahan.
1830 – Tom McNamara – sponsor at baptism of John Enright, child of Patrick Enright and Mary Sweeney.
1839 – Michael McNamara and Bridget Doloughty sponsor of John Sweeney, son of John Sweeney and Honor Murphy.
1846 – Bridget Sweeney sponsor of Thomas MacNamara, daughter of John and Norah Sweeney.
1846 – Thomas McNamara baptism, sponsors John Hays? and Bridget Sweeney.
1860 – Cornelious Sweeney and Bridget Hogan, sponsors at baptism of Michael MacNamara, father of Lizzie.
1860 – Patrick McNamara, witness at wedding of Daniel Sweeney.
1871 – Honor McMahon m Michael McNamara. Lizzie McNamara’s parents.
1874 – Bridget McNamara m William Clayton – Shared ancestors of McNamara/Clayton DNA Group, Chromosome 18.
1896 – Lizzie McNamara born, believed to be niece of Thomas Sweeney. Sponsors Margaret McNamara and Peter McMahon.

Links to McInerney’s

1811 – Hannah McInerney (spouse Michael McMahon). Ancestors of DNA match with triangulated X segment, also matches on chromosome 11.
1818 – Michael McInerney holding property at Rathclooney, ‘life’ on the lease John McInerney.
1849 – Eliza McInerney marries James Ryan at Tulla. Witness Tom McInerney probably a brother. Ancestors of an AncestryDNA match who appear in a potential Sweeney cluster.
1855 – Margaret McInerney acted as sponsor with Daniel Sweeney to a child also named Margaret McInerney.
1885 – Bridget McInerney marries John McMahon (date estimated). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in the Worthington AncestryDNA cluster.
1901 – Denis McInerney residing at the home of Daniel Sweeney, described as a cousin. Son of John McInerney and Eliza O’Grady who had 10 children. From their baptismal records it appears John may have had at least two other siblings named Margaret and Mary.

Links to McMahons

1792 – Miss McMahon married John McNamara at Dronmore (where Lizzie reputedly lived), her father Terence McMahon.
1811 – Michael McMahon (spouse Hannah McInerney). Ancestors of DNA match with triangulated X segment, also matches on chromosome 11.
1817 – Patrick McMahon held a lease dated 15 Oct 1817, the ‘life’ on the lease was Daniel Sweeney.
1838 – John McMahon (spouse Mary Canny). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in a cluster with the McNamara/Clayton siblings.
1838 – Michael McMahon (spouse Margaret Quinn). Lizzie McNamara’s grandparents.
1850 – John McMahon marries Honor Hanrahan (date estimated).
1871 – Honor McMahon m Michael McNamara. Lizzie McNamara’s parents.
1875 – Bridget McMahon sponsor at the baptism of James Sweeney.
1885 – John McMahon marries Bridget McInerney (date estimated). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in the same McNamara/Clayton AncestryDNA cluster.

Other research yet to be completed suggests additional Sweeney links via the Mahon family and connections to Clonroad Beg near Ennis, County Clare.

Links to Hehir’s

1800 – Circa this date, a daughter of Roe Sweeney married an Hehir
1817 – Daniel Hehir held a lease dated 15 Oct 1817, the ‘life’ on the lease was Daniel Sweeney.

So where does this all leave us?

Piecing together the MacNamara family

Based on consolidating all the clues mentioned above, the following pedigree image seeks to outline my probable links to the MacNamara family. The current hypothesis (after following the land transfers and associated BDM sponsors etc) is that Daniel Sweeney’s wife was a MacNamara (52Ancestors #11). Daniel and she would be my maternal 4th great grandparents. The MacNamaras are associated with the townlands of both Rathclooney and Moyriesk and her father was probably born in the mid to late 1700’s. Whilst we are unclear of her name, it is believed she may have been an older child in the family, one of at least 8 siblings including:-

Catherine MacNamara bef 1795
Martin MacNamara bef 1800, married Bridget
Jeremiah MacNamara bef 1800, married Margaret Haiskins
Cornelious MacNamara bef 1800, married Nancy Keeley
Francis MacNamara bef 1800
James MacNamara bef 1800
Michael MacNamara bef 1803, married Mary Hanrahan

Limited tree – only includes 31 DNA tester lines (as at Nov 2021). See Wikitree descendants list for more information (up to 5 generations).

Connections with Lizzie MacNamara (Important: see 2023 addendum below)

This hypothesis suggests that my family is potentially linked to Lizzie McNamara on her maternal side.

Based on what I have been able to establish on her maternal side, it would appear Lizzie’s maternal grandfather Michael McMahons mother was a Sweeney. If correct, Lizzie was a second cousin once removed to Thomas Sweeney rather than his niece. It also suggests Lizzie would be my third cousin twice removed.

On the MacNamara side, if the hypothesis is correct the wife of Daniel Sweeney was Cornelious McNamara’s sister. It is unclear if Lizzie’s paternal line is connected to this same line or not. Whilst I have not yet identified any DNA segment matches down this line, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist!

DNA matching is providing clues on relatedness, however the close marrying of these families means that it is essential to undertake chromosome analysis to be able to determine how segments have been inherited by DNA testers. Extreme care needs to be taken when assigning these segments to ancestors, as they could have been inherited from multiple common ancestors. Many of our clustered matches who currently only have their results on AncestryDNA need to upload to a chromosome site to be able to contribute to further research.

NOTE: This hypothesis needs re-visiting given recent information. See 2023 Addendum below.

The MacNamaras of Moyriesk

The MacNamara name is a common one in County Clare, however there is a well documented MacNamara family associated with Moyriesk. These MacNamaras were resident from the 17th century and can trace their lineage back to Maccon MacNamara Fionn – the Chief of Clann Kullen in 1379.

Could we also be part of this prodigious family? Only time (and a lot of work) will tell!

Very interesting that John MacNamara’s 2nd wife was a MacMahon from Clenagh!

Where to next?

It’s taken a lot of work just to be able to add Miss McNamara to my tree as my potential 4th great grandmother, but it’s all about one step at a time. Whilst the DNA evidence is not conclusive, it has certainly helped to be able to point us in the right direction and piece together these fragmented families.

I will be continuing my search through DNA matching to assist in confirming or refuting (hopefully not!) my hypotheses. I have created a Family Finder project at FamilyTreeDNA for ‘Rathclooney and Moyriesk, County Clare’ in the hope of attracting more DNA testers with documented ancestry to these townlands to connect more of the family. As always, I am keen to find suitable Y-DNA testers for both the MacNamara and Sweeney lines. Please contact me if you are male, descend from either of the Sweeney or MacNamara families mentioned in this post and are willing to take a Y-DNA test.

If you have tested your DNA and have ancestors from Moyriesk or Rathclooney in County Clare, please join our FTDNA Project.

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In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Elsie Ritchie for encouraging me to get a wriggle on with my Sweeney and MacNamara research and for helping to put some of the final pieces of the puzzle together.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: Green Tunnel, Spancelhill Moyriesk, 2017.

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ADDENDUM – December 2021

Subsequent to this post it was discovered that the Michael McNamara mentioned on the grave of Daniel McNamara, stated to be brother of Thomas McNamara, is the Michael McNamara who died in the United States in 1916. Corrections have been made to appropriate family lines in Wikitree. This changed the original assumption that Lizzie McNamara may have been related on both her paternal and maternal sides. The connection on her maternal side to the Sweeney’s is still sound. The chart for Joe has been updated accordingly.

ADDENDUM – May 2023

They say never to let the facts get in the way of a good story, but in this case I need to. I was recently contacted by a relation of Lizzie and it seems that the Lizzie buried at Clooney is not the child of Michael and Honor (nee McMahon) McNamara, her parents are Patrick and Bridget (nee Mulconry) MacNamara. Both families have associations with Crusheen and both Eliza’s were born in 1896. There are so many MacNamara’s in Clare it will take some time to unravel it all, but they may be cousins of some sort, it appears the ‘real’ Lizzie (our possible Sweeney descendant) was one of 12 children. I still think my 4th great grandmother was a MacNamara, but I can’t include the Lizzie connection as evidence just yet!

Watch this space for my next blogpost to (hopefully) explain it all!

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Establishing the origins of my Sweeney family, of Rathclooney.

My emigrant ancestor to Australia on the Sweeney line was my maternal 2nd great grandmother Mary Sweeney, our Cassidy matriarch, who I’ve previously written about here. Mary and her brother Terence emigrated to Australia as Bounty Immigrants from County Clare aboard the Roxborough Castle in 1839, aged 20 and 23 respectively. Their parents were stated as John Sweeney, farmer and his wife Johanna. Mary states she was a native of County Clare and Terence a native of Clones, County Clare.

The two led me a merry chase for many years about exactly where in Clare they came from. To complicate matters even more Terence’s certification was undertaken in Cork, why was this so? A visit to the grave of Mary Cassidy (nee Sweeney) at Glen Innes in 1987 had revealed the inscription ‘A native of Ennis, County Clare.’ Again, not much help, Ennis being the capital city of Clare, with so many Sweeney’s to choose from!

My Uncle Laurie was a great family historian and had researched the family back in the 1950’s. I inherited his papers when he died in 2006. Laurie had purchased all the possible birth, deaths and marriage of the extended Cassidy family in Australia. The breakthrough came when I found on the birth certificate of Mary’s daughter Margaret in 1859 a reference to her birthplace as Moresk, Clare, Ireland. It took some time to identify this as probably referring to Moyriesk Townland, a townland of just over a square mile in size, most of it located in Doora civil parish and about 77 acres in Clooney civil parish. Could Terence’s native place actually be Clooney, not Clones?

Moyriesk had been the home of the MacNamaras from the 17th Century. By 1837 it had been purchased by the family of Lord Fitzgerald and Vesey. Lord Fitzgerald was ‘in fee’ at the time of Griffith’s Valuation c1857, with tenants in Clooney by the names of Samson and Scanlan and in Doora, Hasset, Molony, Hartigan, Duffy and Symth. No Sweeneys to be seen. On researching Moyreisk I discovered a small county town in Victoria, Australia of the same name. This of course meant an impromptu excursion in 2016 hoping for new speculative research ideas! Funnily enough it turned out that ancestors on my paternal side were one of the earliest landowners in the district, but more on that later. Further research established that the town had been named after Moyriesk Station, a station of 43,200 acres established by John Fitzgerald Leslie Foster (Colonial Secretary of Victoria 1853-1854 and descendant of the Fitzgerald-Veseys), presumably named after the family estate in Ireland. This brought about renewed speculation whether other close family of our Sweeneys may have emigrated to Victoria and worked on the station.

When Irish Catholic parish records finally came online, it was Mary’s baptismal record that revealed the location of her fathers family as the townland of Rathclooney. How lucky we were, records for County Clare only commenced from 1st January 1816 and Mary was baptised on 21st May 1816. Her parents were named as John Sweeney and Joan Enright, with the priest indicating that the family resided in Rathclooney in the parish of Clooney. Catherine McNamara was her sponsor. There were no other baptisms for any other children for John and Joan (or Johanna), but they may have been born before 1816. According to the shipping records, Terence was said to be about 3 years older than Mary, so it is quite conceivable that there may have been more older children.

When we visited in 2017 we found the old church at Clooney was now a ruin. However the baptismal font from which John and Johanna would have had their children baptised had been preserved and is now located in the new Clooney church nearby.

There were no Sweeney’s recorded in the List of Freeholders >40 shillings of 1821, but John does appear in the Tithe records for Rathclooney in 1825. The landholding was quite significant totalling 61 acres, made up of 20 acres of 1^st quality land, 20 acres of 2^nd quality land and 21 acres of 3^rd quality land. John was shown as sharing this with John Moloney, Patrick McNamara, John Doloughty, Daniel Hehir, Connor McNamara, Francis McNamara and James McNamara. The tithes payable on the holding amounted to £2 15 shillings ¼ pence.

There were 125 Sweeney families in County Clare in the 19th century and in 1815 there were at least 15 Sweeney families in the Quin-Clooney parish alone. With so many families of the same surname it has been difficult to piece the rest of the family together. I had established that there was a Daniel Sweeney living in Rathclooney at the time of Griffiths Valuation in 1855 but remained unsure whether he was a relation. Other tenants residing with him at the time had similar names to those recorded in the 1825 Tithe – MacNamara, Hehir, Moloney. It seemed likely, but we lacked paper evidence to prove the connection.

My DNA surprise

On our visit to Clare in 2017 I had arranged to meet up with Antoinette from the Clare Heritage Genealogy Centre. When we arrived she initially expressed some disappointment that she may not have found out anything new for me about my Sweeney family. However she went on to say there was a Sweeney family that might be the same one but she couldn’t be sure. John Sweeney of Rathclooney, had married Honor Murphy of Newgrove, Tulla on the 30^th April, 1820. The witnesses at the marriage were Matthew Murphy, James Sweeney and Mary Hennessy. Could Johanna have died soon after Mary’s birth and John married again? John and Norahs eldest son Daniel was the tenant who had been listed in Griffiths Valuation at Rathclooney.

As soon as she mentioned the name Honora Murphy, I squealed with delight. The name was very familiar to me having researched the descendants of their son John Michael and his family in Victoria, Australia. My family had a number of DNA matches to theirs but we had not been able to tie them together through the paper records. Excitedly, we compared notes about the various descendants we each knew about. I also benefited from a conversation between Antoinette and Joe McNamara (the former occupant of the Sweeney land) about 20 years earlier who told her what had happened to various family members. We soon pieced together the known family of John Sweeney.

John and Johanna (Enright or Hanrahan)

John and Honor Murphy

By the time of Griffiths Valuation in 1855, John’s eldest son Daniel was holding the property at Rathclooney and leasing the property from Stafford O’Brien (Lot 15). The property consisted of a house, office (shed) and land. The land area was in 2 lots comprising 9 acres 32 perches which was valued at £4 12 shillings. His house, situated on this lot was valued at 8 shillings which brought the total valuation to £5. The 2nd lot amounted to 5 acres 3 roods. Daniel was shown sharing this with John McNamara, Daniel Hehir, Michael McNamara, Anne McNamara, Michael Moloney and Margaret McNamara. His share of this land was valued at 5 shillings.

Armed with my map from Griffiths we set out to find the old Sweeney land. Looking to clarify our exact location, I approached a neighbour John Daffy. John provided me the final steps to find the cottage and some wonderful information about the Sweeney’s and MacNamara’s that later lived there. John told me the land had been split up into smaller parcels since the Sweeney’s time and that ‘the Sweeney’s ran an old country shop from the homestead, selling cigarettes. A Sweeney from America came about 20 years ago, but there are no Sweeney’s here now.‘ We found the homestead quite easily. Whilst the homestead and shop would have been from a much later time than when my John Sweeney was living here, it was a wonderful feeling to be standing on the same land my ancestors had farmed nearly 200 years ago.

I was also very pleased to be referred by John Daffy to the Kilaghitis Cemetery near Spancihill, where he knew John’s son Daniel, his wife Bridget and several other family members were buried.

Kilaghitis Cemetery near Spancihill (Barefield) County Clare, Cemetery Visit, Veronica Williams 2017

Ancestors and family of John Sweeney

It was through the examination of the baptism and sponsor records of the children of John and Honor and the information from John Daffy about the MacNamaras, that I was able to continue to piece the various members of the family together. I concluded that my John Sweeney was probably the son of another Daniel Sweeney. Daniel Sweeney (senior) was listed in the 1821 Freeholders List for Rathclooney. Daniel and his wife (who is probably a MacNamara) appear to have had at least 3 children, it’s highly likely there were more.

John Sweeney bef 1795, married Johanna Hanrahan/Enright (my third great grandparents);
James Sweeney bef 1800
Mary Sweeney bef 1807, married Patrick Enright

Daniel’s father is believed to be Roe Swyney of Moyriesk. Roe would be my fifth great grandfather, he had at least three daughters and one son. The Irish tended to have large families so there still may be a number of children yet to be identified.

Daniel Sweeney bef 1770, married McNamara (my fourth great grandparents);
Margaret Sweeney bef 1772, married O’Donnell
Martha Sweeney bef 1773, married O’Connell
Female Sweeney bef 1780, married Hehir

Based on the wedding notice of his daughter Margaret, Roe was reasonably well off and likely a gentleman.

Ennis Chronicle, Monday, November 29, 1790:

Married last Thursday, Mr. John O’Donnell of Dunmore to Miss Margaret Swieny, daughter of Mr. Roe Swieny of Moriesk, an amiable and accomplished young lady, with a handsome fortune.

Burke’s Peerage also described his daughter (Martha) as the ‘possible heiress of Roe Swieny’ when she married Maurice O’Connell in 1791.

Moyriesk House, former home of the MacNamaras. Courtesy: Clare Library

Family anecdotes had always suggested a family connection to the famous ‘Liberator of Ireland’ Daniel O’Connell. After many years of research and with many thanks to my 6th cousin Liam (who has collaborated with me on this family since 2012) the connection was finally found. Roe’s daughter Martha married Maurice O’Connell in 1791. Maurice was a third cousin to Daniel O’Connell but an even closer relation to Daniels wife Mary O’Connell, she was his 1st cousin once removed. Whilst somewhat distant and only by marriage, I expect that the family connection would have been a very proud one for most Irishmen at that time!

Daniel O’Connell. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Autosomal DNA Connections

Autosomal testing has already confirmed a number of branches of John’s family, including connections with descendants of both wives, Johanna Enright Hanrahan and Honor (Norah) Murphy. Matches beyond third cousin relationships who only have their results at AncestryDNA have been marked as ‘DNA Tentative’ as they cannot be confirmed through ‘segment triangulation’ as AncestryDNA does not provide segment data. We have not yet been able to get back to the next generation so are looking for descendants of Roe Sweeney c1745, Daniel Sweeney c1770 and other children of John Sweeney to be able to compare DNA. The following chart shows the descendant lines that have been confirmed to date. Click here to view a larger image.

DNA Confirmed – Descendants of John Sweeney (not a complete tree)

Autosomal analysis has confirmed DNA through the following children of John.

Terence 1813 – Descendants in USA
Mary 1816 – Descendants in New South Wales, Australia
Daniel 1826 – Descendants in USA
John 1839 – Descendants in Victoria, Australia

As to the remaining children, this is what we know of them. Can you add to this list, do you know of other potential siblings? Are you a descendant who has had their DNA tested?

Ellen 1821 – May have married an Arthur but this is uncertain.
Joan 1824
Anna 1828
Bridget 1831 – Married Michael Joseph Murphy. Possible descendants in New South Wales, Australia.
Michael 1833 – Married Ann Curry. Possible descendants in New South Wales, Australia.
Winifred 1836

Y-DNA – The male Sweeney line

Our best chance of being able to verify the patrilineal line of the Sweeneys is through Y-DNA. My fourth cousin Torin from the United States kindly tested for me back in 2016. Unfortunately to date, we have only had two matches. Both matches indicate their oldest patrilineal ancestors were from Ireland but neither carry the Sweeney surname.

Whilst we have confirmed autosomal DNA on this line up to the ancestral couple of John Sweeney and his wife Johanna Hanrahan, we would love to be able to have supporting evidence achieved through Y-DNA testing. If you are descended from Roe Sweeney c1745, Daniel Sweeney c1770 or John Sweeney c1795 can you help us compare Y-DNA? Please contact me if you are male, carry the Sweeney surname, can trace your descent to one of these three men and are willing to test.

More DNA evidence

The ongoing examination of the family groups associated with my Sweeney family has allowed me to connect more of our MacNamara family. This combined with ongoing genetic clues from my DNA research has led to more discoveries which will be the subject of a future post. Watch this space!

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested or are willing to take the Y-DNA test) I would love to hear from you! It’s the power of DNA that can help us breakthrough those brick walls in Ireland!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

How is Thomas Paice of Kingsclere related to Silas Cole, the convict?

Imagine my amazement to find I am somehow related to Silas Cole – the Tasmanian convict!

Coles Bay, a picturesque locality in Tasmania was later named after him. Silas was known to collect and burn shells from the Aboriginal middens in the bay area to make lime. He often described the beauty of the bay to his friends when he took his lime to sell for the mortar to build the township of Swansea.

Silas was born in Chilbolton, Hampshire in England in 1820. He was tried at the assizes at Southampton on the 24th February 1842 and transported to Australia for ten years. You can read more about Silas on Wikitree.

I’m hoping someone out there can help me work out exactly how we are connected, my research to date is the subject of this blog post.

How did I get here?

The search for Arthur George/George William Courtney my maternal 2nd Great Grandfather has the focus of my research for many years. Unfortunately, I am still searching for his origins. ‘George’ is my mothers paternal great grandfather. Along the way however I have encountered some tantalising questions about other possible relatives, Silas is one of them.

In my search for George I adopted the following process to find potential matches that might have been clues:-

Tested the DNA of my mother, 3 of her siblings and a paternal 2nd cousin. All 4 siblings and the paternal cousin have their results on FTDNA, My Heritage and GEDmatch. Only my mother and her great nephew are at AncestryDNA;
Visually phased the DNA of the 4 siblings to establish the segments that belong to each of their 4 grandparents;
Identified and analysed the segments that belonged to Abigail Courtney, George’s daughter. Due to the lack of cousin matching, many segments can only be identified as paternal 1 or 2. To date, the split between the two paternal grandparents Abigail Courtney and Edward Roberts remains unclear for 10 of the 23 chromosomes;
Reviewed all known Abigail Courtney segments to determine whether they came from her father George Courtney or her mother Abigail Paice.

Unfortunately, research to date suggests Silas may actually be connected via my maternal 2nd great grandmother Abigail Paice, the wife of George Courtney. So it does not help me in my quest to find ‘George’ but it has been an interesting research exercise!

How triangulated groups and clustering techniques have helped me identify my new distant cousin, Silas!

Firstly, using ‘segment triangulation’ I discovered a triangulated group of DNA matches all matching my family on Chromosome 21, segment size being around 23cMs. Visually phasing suggests the segment has been inherited by us from Abigail Courtney. Matches in this group also had a common ancestral location of Hampshire, England.

Secondly, using the matches from the triangulated group who had also tested at AncestryDNA I was able to identify a larger cluster group using shared matches identified via DNAGedcom, suggesting that both groups probably share the same common ancestor. It was from the cluster group and ‘tree triangulation’ that the possible connections to Silas and Jane emerged.

Click here to see an expanded view of this chart

Silas Cole and his wife Elizabeth Martin were two convicts who lived in Tasmania, Australia. They married in Australia. Silas was from Hampshire England, whilst Jane Martin is said to have been from Ireland. Given this and in view of the number of Hampshire connections I suspected the match was probably coming from the Cole side. However, this is by no means certain.

Shelley Crawford’s ConnectedDNA cluster analysis provided more information. In the AncestryDNA cluster below, TB is a match who appeared in both the triangulated group on Chromosome 21 as well as matching in the AncestryDNA ‘Cole’ cluster. TB does not have any known Cole ancestors, but connects to our family on the Paice line. A key match connecting the Paice and Cole groups in the AncestryDNA cluster is JG who sadly has not responded to messages and has a very limited tree on Ancestry.

Another match in the triangulated group on Chromosome 21 is shown as * on the 23andMe cluster diagram below. This person is an outlier on this cluster of 45 matches mainly in the same area of Chromosome 6. Based on visual phasing these are probably also Courtney-Paice segments. Matches in this group warrant further investigation as they may provide additional clues.

Ancestral origins of Silas Cole and his wife

This is what we know about the ancestors of Silas. So far, we don’t have much information regarding his paternal Cole line. I have also researched his wife Jane Martin, but have been unable to ascertain her origins in Ireland, although some researchers suggest she may have been from Cork (click the embeddable family tree link below for more information on Wikitree).

Ancestors of Silas Cole updated live from WikiTree

Two matches in the AncestryDNA cluster (uncle/niece) trace their line back to Martha HADEN who married William CARTER at Chilbolton in 1815, however no father was listed on Martha’s baptism. Samuel COLE born 1770 marries her mother Jane LADEN or HAYDEN five years after Martha was born. The couple goes on to have at least 6 more children together. So perhaps Samuel was also the father of Martha? If so, then our connection may well be on Silas’ paternal Cole line.

Paice connections within the Triangulated Group

After several years of researching the members of the triangulated group on Chromosome 21, the research points to our shared ancestors being Jonathon PAICE b1746 and his wife Elizabeth SKEAT, my maternal 5th great grandparents. Others in the group also share Jonathons parents Thomas PAICE (52Ancestors #9) born c1716 and his wife Elizabeth, my maternal 6th great grandparents. This suggests the segment on chromosome 21 was inherited by my family from Jonathon PAICE b1746. Another match in the AncestryDNA C21 cluster also shares Thomas and Elizabeth. On Chromosome 15 there is yet another match sharing Jonathon and his wife, further supporting this conclusion. If the analysis is correct, my relationship to most of the matches in the triangulated group is 7th cousin.

So how does this Paice family connect to the Cole family? Could Thomas’ wife Elizabeth whose maiden name is unknown be a clue? Thomas Paice was born before 1708 and there is a big gap in the documented genealogy for Silas with his oldest documented ancestor on his mothers side b1741. However if Samuel Cole 1770 comes from the same Cole family as Silas then perhaps we need to be further exploring Silas’ paternal line.

Chilbolton and Barton Stacey parishes

Research of the Chilbolton and adjacent Barton Stacey parishes revealed both the Paice and Courtney names were common. Some of the early records include:-

1787 – Elizabeth PAICE (daughter of James and Sarah Paice) married James BALL in Barton Stacey
1799 – Mary PAICE (daughter of James and Sarah Paice) married William BATT at Barton Stacey

Whilst the Ball surname is a common occurrence in my DNA matches, it is Mary PAICE who is of most interest here. Her son James BATT, a farm labourer of Barton Stacey, was tried on 11 July 1837 for stealing a sheep belonging to William COURTNEY and transported for life to Van Diemen’s Land in 1838, leaving his wife and seven children in Barton Stacey.

The Courtneys of Barton Stacey have been of interest to me for many years as they are possibly connected to my HINXMAN and PAICE families. Could this be a reference to the William COURTNEY, gentleman, of Barton Stacey whose son was named Jacob Hinxman COURTNEY? I have always wondered if this family was connected somehow to my missing Arthur George/George William Courtney. Was there was some familial connection to Thomas HINXMAN b1711, the 2nd great grandfather of Abigail PAICE and father in law of Jonathon PAICE. Hinxman is such an unusual name. By 1881 Jacobs daughter Elizabeth Courtney BOUND has servants by the name of JOYCE; and Kate PAICE (Abigail’s half niece) is living nearby and working as a servant in a JOYCE household! Elizabeth’s son is named Arthur Courtney BOUND, but born in 1879 so too young to be my missing Arthur (George?) Courtney! All too many co-incidences I fear!

Interestingly, we have a cluster of AncestryDNA matches from Tasmania, one of whom includes the great granddaughter of Sarah BATT, James BATT’s granddaughter, with a match of 23cMs. James had two sons also transported to Tasmania in 1846, William and Charles. James’ transportation was shortly after the Swing Riots of 1830 in which many in Barton Stacey and surrounding parishes were involved. This match is also on GEDmatch and triangulates with ‘SB’ on chromosome 15. SB is shown the triangulated group chart referred to earlier – this suggests we possibly have a connection via James BATT’s maternal grandfather James PAICE who is thought to have been born before 1745.

Another smaller DNA match of interest is to a descendant of Joseph PAICE (who later married Mary Ann O’NEIL), Joseph is another convict transported to Australia. He came on the Neptune in 1837, after being convicted at the Worcester Assizes, arriving in Van Diemen’s Land in 1838, the same time as James BATT. To date, I have been unable to establish his origins. One of Josephs sons is named Silas PAICE! No corroborating DNA evidence has yet been found for this AncestryDNA match, but it does sounds very promising.

Thomas Paice of Kingsclere

Thomas PAICE and his wife Elizabeth, my 6th great grandparents, had at least 7 children all baptised at Kingsclere, Hampshire, between 1739 and 1756. He was the son of Guilhelm (William) and Elizabeth PAICE. The parishes of Barton Stacey and Chilbolton are only about 4 and a half hours walk away from Kingsclere, so it is quite conceivable that his descendants may have moved south over the next 50 years or so. One of their sons was James PAICE who was born in abt 1742/3 at Kingsclere. He is the right age to perhaps be same person as the father of the Paice girls Elizabeth and Mary (grandfather of James Batt) referred to earlier. If so, it could connect our Thomas PAICE to the Paice family living in Barton Stacey, but the exact nature of the connection to the Cole family still remains unclear. Perhaps the answer lies in uncovering the maiden names of the many females mentioned in this story.

Map of Hampshire district c1830 – Thomas Moule

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This post is clearly only part 1 of (hopefully) a 2 part post! Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested) I would love to hear from you to help solve this mystery.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message at Wikitree or Facebook.

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