Phelan and Atkin Family History

Perhaps it stands out when compared with the tendency of today's media to sensationalise, but the understatement of much of the reporting of yesteryear is remarkable. Take the following 'painful injury' to Martin Clohesy, a farming contractor of Leongatha, as reported in the Great Southern Star on Friday 5 February 1915.  Martin Clohesy was a cousin of my great-grandfather Nicholas Lawless (as shown in the chart below), who some readers might remember was a hopeless alcoholic and ultimately divorced by my great-grandmother Margaret. You can read about that elsewhere in this blog. Martin was married and had two children at the time of the horrific incident, and had other relatives in the Leongatha district - including the Cantys mentioned in the article - so presumably his family were able to lend plenty of support in his farming work (he was later listed in the electoral roll as an 'onion grower').

A few weeks ago I was emailed by a Ben Macauley who had found my blog post on 'The Misfortunes of the Hulleys' ( https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-misfortunes-of-hulleys.html ). Ben is descended from Mary Hulley, a daughter of Trafalgar pioneers Patrick and Catherine Kenny. Patrick and Catherine are 2x great grandparents to us both, which makes me and Ben 3rd cousins. Mary Hulley had four children, the youngest of which, Mary Kathleen, was Ben's grandmother. Mary K had been raised from a young age by her aunt Lexie O'Loughlin (another of the Kennys' children) and as a result Ben's family had never really known much about her older brothers, so was especially grateful to learn about them. Fast forward to this week, and Ben contacted me to say that amongst a selection of scanned images from his dad, there was one in which he hadn't been able to identify who was featured. But after seeing my blog posts (specifically the one in which Patrick Kenny is ...

This post is about one of those coincidences that you might only come across if you really delve deeply into the branches of the family tree. As most of my family know, Mum came from a prominent family of butchers. Her grandfather William and father Gloucester were both long-serving butchers in the town of Yarragon. Most of Mum's siblings worked in the trade at one time or another. My uncles Billy, 'Tiny', 'Butch' and Don all worked in their father's business. And then in the 1960s Billy ran a butcher's business in Trafalgar with Hec Standing, while Don was a butcher in Thorpdale. Advertisement for Bill Atkin and Hec Standing's butcher's in Trafalgar There's little doubt that both Billy and Don would have been aware of a fellow Trafalgar butcher by the name of William Kenneth Tatterson. How well they knew each other I'm not sure. Tatterson had been born in 1926 and was part of a family butcher's business in Thorpdale, but following a peri...

Back in October, I wrote about my Italian ancestor Antony Gasperino 'jumping ship' from the General Hewitt at Portland, Victoria in 1856. A little over a year before Gasperino's unconventional arrival, his future wife Hannah Hourigan (sometimes known as Hannah Hogan) had her own eventful introduction to Australia. Hannah was born about 1837 in Cork, Ireland; her father Matthew was a blacksmith but we do not know the name of her mother. Possibly Hannah was orphaned at a young age and with Ireland reeling from the devastation of the potato famine, was one of many single girls enticed to improve her lot by emigrating to Australia. And so on 14 February 1855 at Liverpool, 18-year old Hannah was one of 130 single Irish servant girls boarding the Nashwauk : an 18-month old, three-masted wooden-rigged sailing ship carrying  300 emigrants   bound for South Australia.*  Captained by Archibald McIntyre, the Nashwauk had an uneventful 89-day voyage to reach Gulf St Vincent. Having...

It's been a while since I've written, and I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and are getting ready for a fruitful new year ahead. With the holiday season upon us, I have what I think is the perfect post for this time of year. It's the heartwarming story of what happened when the Dunn family suffered the misfortune of a car accident when setting out for their Christmas holiday - I'd be amazed if anything like this ever happened today! From The Argus, 7 January 1956...

I have always enjoyed saying I'm 1/16th Italian. I've often been asked if I have a European background, so it's fun to be able to provide that answer. Though so far, my DNA test is showing no evidence of this background! Nevertheless, it is true, my family does have one Italian ancestor. He was my 2x great-grandfather and his name was Antony Gasperino. His arrival in this country dates back to the 1850s, in quite unusual circumstances, on a ship named the General Hewitt . But before we even make our way on board that ship, what little we know of Antony's early life deserves a mention. Antony (presumably Antonio in his native land) Gasperino was born on the island of Elba in 1836. From his marriage certificate we know that his father was Lawrence (Lorenzo) Gasperino but his mother's name is not recorded. On his death certificate her name is listed as 'not known'. It's strange that even the informant at the time of his death (his son Joseph) would not kno...

Lieutenant Edward Kenny And now to the youngest child of Trafalgar's Kenny family: Patrick Edward Kenny...or perhaps Edward Patrick Kenny (it depends which records you look at)...but known as Ted. Due to his wartime achievements, I think he is definitely one of the more notable characters in our family tree. Ted was born in Trafalgar in 1887. When war broke out in 1914, Ted was a 27-year old bank clerk/accountant in Wonthaggi but the following year decided to enlist in the AIF. He was posted to the 4th Light Horse Regiment (12th Reinforcements) and in November embarked for Egypt. After a year or so with the Light Horse, on 28 January 1917 Ted transferred to No. 1 Squadron, Australia's Flying Corps which had been raised at Point Cook back in Australia the year before. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and after flight training and a course in aerial gunnery, was graded as a pilot on 25 July. (The squadron was at that stage considered part of Britain's Royal Flying Corps, so ...