The Tree of Me

Trove Tuesday was begun by Amy Houston on her blog Branches Leaves & Pollen . She asked us to blog about what we've discovered and to share it with others. I think it's a great idea. I have found so many great stories on Trove so I'm attempting to blog each Tuesday. I certainly have enough material to keep me going for several months. Last week my Trove Tuesday post told of the murder of Ellen Sullivan . Today I have another murder to share with you. I apologise if this posts upsets anyone as it happened in 1940. Eileen Brennan was the 3rd daughter of seven children born to Thomas Vincent Brennan and his wife Kathleen Egan. She was 22 years old when she was murdered by her employer Leo Grant. He committed suicide at the murder site. Sydney Morning Herald 16 October 1940, p. 12 The report in The Armidale Express was more detailed and stated that Leo Grant had recently purchased the Silver Bell cake shop in Beardy Street after moving from Sydney. He also had a b...

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...

I was alerted a couple of months ago by Trevor McClaughlin from Macquarie University in Sydney and author of From Shamrock to Wattle about an book Murder Trials in Ireland 1836 - 1914 that had been published in 2009 by an Irish colleague, W.E. Vaughan. Trevor thought I would be very interested in the book as my ancestor James Agnew and his brother Henry had been convicted in Londonderry in July 1836 for having employed Patrick Toghill to take away the life of Henry McWilliam. I immediately ordered the fairly expensive book from The Book Depository and eagerly awaited its arrival. I have not been disappointed. Although I haven’t read all the book yet, it is littered with post it notes and markings throughout the book (I never used to write in books!). It has really helped me to gain a better image of Ireland at the time and how the legal system worked. Vaughan’s chapters include: an introduction discussing the scope of the study, apprehending a suspect, committal, indictment and arra...