The Next Stage: St Patrick's Day

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

St Patrick's Day...

Today was St Patrick's Day, and like a lot of Aussies, my family tree on my mother's side traces back to Ireland...County Cork to be exact. My mother was very proud of her Irish heritage. She had always talked of her grandparents as being born in Ireland. But when my sister and I started doing family research, we found that mum's grandparents were actually born in Australia in the Warrnambool district. So instead of my great grandparents being Irish born it was my great great grandparents who came to Australia as immigrants. I now know a bit more about one of the first genation of my family born in this country.

My great Grandmother Julia was born in 1868, in the then colony of Victoria. Thanks to Ancestry.com.au, I found other family trees with Julia on them. Eventually I was in contact with 2 of these families. One of these people, shared G grandmother Julia with me. And best of all, this cousin had a photo of Julia...I had never seen a photo before and neither had any of our family...

My mother had told me that her grandmother had died young...I bought Julia's death certificate and found that she died in 1905 of Pneumonia and Heart Failure...the family story told by my mother was that Julia had died of 'galloping consumption' so it was good to set the records straight...as I think consumption is a euphemism for TB?

Sadly my g grandmother's death left my g grandfather John, with 5 little girls, aged 10, 7, ( my new found cousin's grandma), 6, ( my grandma), 3 and 11 months. My 'new' cousin Terese also sent me a photo of John and Julia's children...the family (my siblings and my aunt's children) were amazed to see this photo

Only 2 of these girls went on to have children; Terese's grandma in the middle and my Nan second from the right.

Now I mentioned earlier that there were other family trees on Ancestry.com.au who 'shared' Julia with me. One of these families was able to send me a photo of one of Julia's brother, known as Leo. Julia had 10 siblings! Leo was the g grandfather of this family.

My sister has been to Ireland and research parish records and she continues to do research on the family, although now she is concentrating more on her father's family...we have different fathers.