Skip to main content

Emailed Treasure

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 pictured, ie. https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/08/horsewhipping-whiskey-and-jug-through.html) he now believed this photo showed Patrick and his family. Upon viewing it, lo and behold, there was no doubt it was indeed Patrick, his face matches the image in the blog post exactly! He poses comfortably, together with what can only be presumed is his wife Catherine and six children. I find it a bit of a thrill to see a photo of a direct ancestor for the first time, and I had always been curious about Catherine - with her maiden name of Phelan I like to call her the Phelan on the 'wrong' side of the tree. Discoveries like this come along so rarely in family history research, they really are precious moments to savour.

It took a short while to determine who was who in the photo, given that I knew the Kennys actually had seven children and that meant one child was missing from the photo. Their son John died tragically in 1888 aged just 11 (https://phelanatkin.blogspot.com/2021/09/john-kennys-horrible-death.html), but their seventh and youngest child, Patrick Edward (Ted), was born in 1887. Once I looked at the age and gender of each of the children - not that the genders are obvious at first glance - I was able to determine the date of this photo as 1886, ie. after the birth of the sixth child Nellie (December 1885) but before that of Ted. 

Which means that John is indeed present (standing at the rear, the second-oldest child, about 9 years old). While it is sad knowing the fate that would befall him in the not-too-distant future, by contrast it is lovely to see my great-grandmother Margaret Kenny as a child for the first time (the oldest child, resting her head on her hand at the right of the photo (about 11). Both Margaret and Mary have quite boyish haircuts, I believe that is Mary (aged 7) in the bottom right corner. Which means child number four James Kenny (4 years old) sits in front of Margaret. Finally we have the father Patrick Kenny holding toddler Lexie (about 2 years old) and his wife Catherine holding baby Nellie. Sadly, only five or so years after this photo was taken, the family would be mourning the loss of Catherine, who died aged just 40. 

The Kenny family of Trafalgar (l to r): Patrick, Lexie Agnes, John Caven, Catherine (nee Phelan), Ellen Theresa (Nellie), Margaret Catherine, James Michael, Mary Lillias

While Ben was grateful for the information I was able to provide in my blog, the gratitude is returned tenfold now that he has sent me this image. I'm sure others in the family will agree it is a great addition to our family photo collection. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

General Hewitt and the Man from Elba

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Austin Phelan Met his Wife

Dad's father Phillip Stanley Phelan was one of twelve children (eight boys and four girls) born to Joseph Phelan and Mary Gasperino. By the time Dad was eight years old, he had five uncles and three aunts surviving. As I have mentioned previously, I don't recall hearing much about them from him when I was growing up, and certainly not Austin George Phelan, who was the youngest of the boys in the family. Austin was born in Benalla in 1904, lived in the Essendon area all his life, like many of the Phelan clan, and worked as a brewery employee. But it is how he came to meet his wife Sara that proved to be of most interest once I started digging.  As you can see above, Austin was listed as the 'co-respondent' in the 1931 divorce case between John Carnegie Lovick and his wife Sara Annie Lovick. In other words, he was the 'other man' who had become involved with a married woman (who would later ultimately become his wife). Officially John Lovick was petitioning...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tommy Roundhead: The Most Lawless Lawless of All

With the number of Lawlesses in my family tree, it was only a matter of time until I found one that truly lived up to the name. At first, I was incredulous at the discovery of this man's litany of 'drunk and disorderly' and obscene language charges, incurred far and wide. But upon closer reading of a handful of his convictions, I realised there was a darker and more disturbing side, and that this was perhaps a very troubled individual. Mugshot of Thomas Lawless from the records of the Bathurst Gaol Thomas Lawless was the second child of Patrick and Catherine (Kitty) Lawless. He was born about 1844 in Macedon, Victoria, but currently we know little about his early life. However, the Ancestry website revealed several 'hints' to NSW Gaol Description and Entrance Book records for a Thomas Lawless born about 1846 in Victoria, so thought I might be onto something. I had to be careful though, as there was more than one Thomas Lawless in the colonies around this time. A sea...
Post a Comment
Read more