The Tree of Me

  I'm spending some time during these wet school holidays putting some order into my research. This post puts into perspective the arrivals of both mine and my husband's family lines. My paternal arrivals My father's ancestors were the most recent to arrive in Australia, with the first being 1852 and last in 1883.  This is my only branch without any convict ancestors. The Allsop family moved through Victoria to Queensland and later to New South Wales.  My maternal arrivals Patrick Flynn, a convict is my earliest arrival. The Seabrooks, arriving in 1932 are my earliest free settler arrivals. Although the Ogden family arrived in Queensland, they immediately hopped on another ship and went to Sydney. In later life they moved to Perth.  Brisbane shipping records for the time period of the arrival of John Ryan and Mary O'Halloran were destroyed in a flood, so I can only pinpoint their arrival to before their marriage in July 1864.  John and  Mary  also move...

Helen Smith at Helen V Smith's Keyboard has set this year's Australia Day Challenge. Australia Day, 26th January is a day we celebrate what makes us Australian. Regardless of whether your ancestor came 40 000 years ago or yesterday and regardless of where they were from, together their descendants are Australian. Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to tell the story of your first Australian ancestor. To make it fair to both the male and female sides of your heritage why not make it two stories. One each on the earliest ancestor on each side? Patrick Flynn (1791-1862) Patrick Flynn was my first ancestor to arrive in Australia. He was born c1791 in County Limerick, Ireland. In 1811 he married Hanora Connor and they had three children Ann, Mary and Thomas. Patrick was convicted in County Wexford, Ireland for being a whiteboy in March 1821 and was transported to Australia for life.  He sailed from Ireland on 18th November 1821 aboard the s...