When Sue (my sister) compiled our first family tree back in the 90s, she got as far back as our 2x great-grandparents (the generation that had emigrated to Australia). However, there was one detail left unclear - for the parents of Margaret Sheehan (formerly Lawless, nee Kenny), she had Patrick Kenny as the father but hadn't been able to prove the mother. Once I began my researching about ten years ago, with the benefit of online records I was able to determine that Margaret's mother was a woman named Catherine Phelan, born in Kilkenny about 1851. That's right, I have Phelan ancestors on both sides of the family tree!
From a passing mention in an old newspaper article, I was also able to establish that Catherine had a brother Thomas in Victoria. From her marriage and death certificates I was able to make out that her father's name was Michael, but it was harder to interpret her mother's name from the handwriting. My best guess was that it read Mary Loony...this was an error, which in hindsight held back my ability to discover anything more. It is only now, in going back to this branch of the tree, that I can reveal that Mary's surname was actually Ivery (or Ivory). This information led to the discovery that there was a whole new family of Phelans that needed investigation!
As it turned out, Michael and Mary Phelan had emigrated from Ireland to Victoria, around 1861, bringing with them their children Catherine (the eldest), Thomas and Annie. Once here, they had four more children, John, James, Ellen and Mary. The family settled in the Terang area, Michael obtaining a Crown Grant in 1874 for land in the Parish of Keilambete, on which he worked as a farmer. 1874 was also the year that Catherine married Patrick Kenny, also originally from Ireland, who was living in Warrnambool.
The mid-1870s was the time that vast tracts of land in Gippsland were being opened up to settlers, and like Mum's paternal ancestors the Atkins, Patrick Kenny was to be one of the pioneers there, settling near what would become the town of Trafalgar. And like the Atkins, he saw a future in not just the land, but running pubs! But back to the Phelans. Once in Trafalgar, Catherine became the town's first postmistress, from 1879 to 1883. I was recently sent this photo of the post office, circa 1882, with what could quite possibly be Catherine in front of it with one of her children (perhaps Margaret Kenny, who would have been about 7 at the time):
While Catherine's father Michael lived on at Terang until passing in 1894 at the age of about 79, and her mother Mary made it to 82 (dying in Leongatha in 1907), this longevity was not inherited by their children. Sadly Catherine Kenny died in 1891, at just 40 years of age, and was buried in Trafalgar Cemetery.
It looks as though Thomas Phelan remained in Terang on the farm with his father. He married Mary Morton in 1884. After Michael's death, Thomas and Mary moved to land they acquired at Drouin West. But Thomas died just a few years later in 1900, at the age of about 42. But there's a significant mystery: when his wife Mary died in 1937 (in a 'benevolent asylum') her death notice in The Age stated she was the loved mother of Alex. Yet both Thomas and Mary's death certificates state that they had 'no issue' (ie. children).
The Alex referred to in the death notice was Alexander Leo Phelan. Alex died just three years later in 1940 aged 48 - he shot himself in the head in his landlady's car - and his death certificate lists his parents as Thomas Phelan and Mary Morton. To try to glean more information, I went back and ordered Alex's marriage certificate, but here he states he 'does not know' who his parents were (though he does record that he was born in Omeo). Perhaps he had been adopted by Thomas and Mary, whose names were not included on the certificate as they were not biological parents? I'm not sure what the procedure would have been. This could be a hard mystery overall to solve.
Annie Phelan married James Maher in 1880 and lived in Trafalgar, where James worked as a railway line repairer. Their first child died from suffocation at just two after falling into a cesspit behind Patrick Kenny's Nelson Hotel. They had four more children before Annie died in 1890 at just 33 years old. James would remarry, while their next eldest child Mary would marry and move to New Zealand where she raised ten children, at least five of whom died before the age of 30.
John Francis Phelan at some stage moved to farm in the Leongatha area. He married Elizabeth Morris (originally Maros) in 1895 and ended up farming at Korumburra before a late-in-life move to Eaglehawk near Bendigo by 1921. But he would pass away just a couple of years later in 1923, at the relatively geriatric age - for his family - of 60. They had four children, one of whom, John Francis Jr, was killed at the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. Another son William joined up to fight before being discharged on discovery that he was only 16!
James Phelan married Ellen Connelly in 1890 and farmed at Nerrena near Leongatha until sadly passing from typhoid fever at just 33 in 1898. Not before Ellen had given birth to four children, three of whom remained on the land. Ellen remained in the Leongatha area, remarried and had five more children. James and Ellen's youngest son, Vincent, farmed at Nerrena for many years before moving with his family in his 50s, in the 1950s, to farm near Tatura in northern Victoria. Tragically one of Vincent's sons, Kevin, died with his wife and 18-year old son when a truck, travelling at 100km/h, ploughed into their car which had stopped at roadworks near Cobram in 2001.
Ellen Phelan took over the running of the Trafalgar Post Office from her big sister Catherine in 1883, and continued as postmistress until 1891, when she handed the reins to her niece (Catherine's daughter - and my great-grandmother) Margaret Kenny. The next I know of Ellen is from her father Michael's probate documents, which list her as being a resident of 'The Convent' in Sale in 1894. Given the Phelans were a very Catholic family, it is likely Ellen became a nun.
Mary Phelan moved to Trafalgar also, and in 1892 married John Cavell. John had land in Sunny Creek, but also worked as a fencer and line repairer for the railways. They had five children before yet another untimely death, Mary passing away at just 36. Around this time John had acquired property in an estate at Capel (south of Perth) in Western Australia, so after his wife's death he relocated there, joined by all his children. After farming at Capel for many years - where he appeared more than once in the papers for disputes with neighbours - he saw out his days in Perth. One of his daughters Mary was 'left in trouble' by a mill worker who had signed up for the AIF. The resulting child died as an infant and although the couple had another son immediately after the war, do not appear to have married or lived together. I get the impression that these were difficult times for the Cavells in Perth.
There might not be anything particularly incredible about these discoveries, but there are two major takeaways: our family's distant branches extend into Western Australia and New Zealand, and I am probably related to more local Phelans than I had realised!
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