Phelan and Atkin Family History

Growing up, we didn't hear a lot of stories about Dad's side of the family. One I would have thought I would have heard more about was that of Leslie Joseph Phelan, my grandfather's older brother. Les was born in Benalla in 1891 and in 1910 went into the employ of the railways like his father Joseph (as would his brother, my grandfather Stan). That employment would see him posted to Seymour and Maryborough, where he spent the best part of his 20s and 30s. While in Maryborough Les was actively involved in the cricket and football clubs, serving as Secretary in both. He was heavily involved in getting a new Maryborough club up and running and entered into the Ballarat Football League, whose premiership it won in its first year!  Leslie Phelan, from his Maryborough days Returning to Melbourne around 1927, Les continued to work in the railways and in 1931 became the president of the Victorian branch of the Railways Union, and served as the Union rep on the Railways ...

It has been a long time since my last post here, but after a long period working on the letters of Charles and Emma Atkin, I have now returned to rebuilding the family tree and am currently looking at the Phelan side. I have just revisited possibly the saddest discovery I have made in my 8+ years of research - the tragic death of Ada Shearwood in Benalla in 1890. And it's a discovery I might not have made had I not been contacted back in 2011 by a third cousin through the ancestry.com website. Jackie Shearwood of Sydney was curious as to how the 5-year old Ada Mary Shearwood, buried in Horsham, had come to die accidentally in Benalla, as was written on her gravestone (see below). Grave of Ada Mary Shearwood in Horsham Cemetery Ada had been born to George and Margaret Shearwood (nee Gasperino) in Horsham. Some in the family will be familiar with the Gasperino name: Margaret was the older sister of Mary Agnes Gasperino, my great-grandmother. The Gasperino family were from ...