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Showing posts from December, 2019

From Boyish Freak to Old Doc: the Difficulty of Tracing Raymond Phelan

In the centre foreground is believed to lie Raymond William Phelan (Springvale Cemetery) Raymond William Phelan was the only son of William Thomas Phelan, a prominent identity for many years in the Victorian Railways, and older brother of my great-grandfather Joseph. During my original research on the Phelans, I discovered through available BDM records that William and his wife Caroline had four children: the first, Irene, was born in Seymour (1889), while the next three, Raymond (1891), Kathleen (1892), and Caroline (1899) were all born in Ascot Vale. It was also straightforward enough to find that Irene had died unmarried in 1966, Kathleen the same at the young age of 20 in 1912, while Caroline married a John Tobin (they had one daughter Patricia) and lived until 1971. Raymond however had me stumped. The only obvious record in the death index of a Raymond Phelan was from 1951, but the information provided stated his age at 70 (ten years too old) with parents named Robert and...