While reading the obituary of Mary Anne Sullivan Ryan, wife of John Ryan of Uralla, NSW, I read that her mother had been murdered when she was twelve. Her lot in this her adopted country was marked by a very grim tragedy, for she had the extremely shocking experiences of a young mother cruelly murdered by the blacks. This tragedy occurred in the Aberfoyle district. Mrs Ryan was then only 12 years old, being the second eldest in a family of four sons and three daughters, the youngest a baby in arms. For several years before the advent of Trove I had searched for documented evidence of the murder of Ellen Sullivan. She died before 1856 so I had difficulty deciding which Ellen Sullivan she was and without a specific year it was too overwhelming to search several years of The Armidale Express . However, once I knew about Trove this search was one of the first I performed. Although The Armidale Express is not on Trove (can't wait for this one) I knew the news would have been publis...