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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

O'Brien's - Descendants - Part 2

Before I lose my train of thought on my O'Brien's, I must write all of this information down!  I have more details to review but for now, I need to summarize, summarize, and summarize!

Without putting too much boring information in this post, I must present how I got to the passenger list information for the O'Brien's going into Australia on their first arrival.  I know based on family notes that Kate (Catherine Mary O'Brien) Flanagan indicated her arrival at age 11 to Melbourne, Australia, in 1854.  She also specifically indicated that she was from Castleconnell, County Clare (Limerick these days), Ireland.  Her information is as good as gold if you ask me.

My first attempts to find Kate on her first arrival into Australia proved futile.  There are several records of C, Kate, Katie, Catherine, and Miss O'Brien's all over those passenger lists.  Who knows who they all are?  I couldn't tell you.  Also, you end up with probably a 20 year window of results when you do a search.  In all likelihood, whether you use Edmund, Ann, Kate, or one of her likely siblings, you find all sorts of results on passenger lists for O'Brien's traveling into and around Australia/New Zealand.  I would guess that some of the results are these very same O'Brien family members after 1854 on trips around the area including migrations to a new location to live.

The key is 1854.  That year opened up my eyes to a more focused search.  I used Edmund O'Brien and specified 1854 into Melbourne Australia in my search and checked "exact" on the year.  There he was with a birth year of 1812 along with a Michael O'Brien born 1811, and Bridget O'Brien born 1816.  I was not really sure what I was looking at just yet.  I decided that it was likely that Edmund had traveled with his brother.  I also saw a Run O'Brien, born 1812.  At first, I thought who would name their child "Run"?  Then logic set in and I realized that was probably a transcription error.  The original handwritten passenger manifest was not online for me to view.  As you can imagine though, a handwritten "Ann" could be typo'd as "Run" in transcription.

With the results above that produced under the Edmund O'Brien search, I had to ask where the children were.  I decided to write down the details of this find.   The ship was the Parsee with an arrival date of 9 Jun 1854 into Melbourne, Australia.  Armed with this information, I went directly to Ancestry.com's card catalog page instead of searching this within my family tree.  Outside my family tree search produced specific, controlled results.

At the card catalog, I narrowed my search item to Victoria, Australia Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923.  I clicked on this title.  The blank form to enter the search components came up for me.  I only entered O'Brien in the name section.  In the date and arrival section, I indicated 9 Jun 1854 and checked the exact box.  Additionally, I entered Melbourne in the arrival location and the Parsee in the ship.  I left everything else blank.

The date itself pulled all O'Brien's on the Parsee.  It took me a while to figure out that there might be more with a misspelling of the name as O'Brian.   As a result, I found 20 O'Brien's total on this passenger list arrival into Melbourne.  I am more than certain that I found who I've been looking for.  The only catch is which children belong with which adult married couple.   That's something that I am slowly faring out.

So are there other passenger lists to be found?   I've searched a number of them that produce results of the O'Brien name but those are usually "one off''s".  In other words, you find one or two people only on that particular voyage with the O'Brien name or you find completely different first names that just don't fit the names that I've got.  I found a Christopher O'Brien with his parents John and Mary.  I don't think I found my ancestors in the search at all.

So, I am now in somewhat contact with Kate's sibling's descendants.   They are the descendants of Mary, Bridget, and Cornelius.  Let's see what happens next.  I think I am on an "O'Brien Roll".

3 comments:

  1. I found your blog tonight. My husband does most of the genealogy work so I browsed through his records. I am descended from Ann Gleeson from County Clare and Edmund O'Brien.Their daughter Mary married John Courtney in Melbourne in 1856.(we have their marriage certificate which states their parents names. )One of their daughters Catherine Courtney was born in Kyneton in Victoria Australia 1857. The Courtney family and my great grandfather Edmund Fraser who we gathered must have been friends moved to New Zealand. Catherine and Edmund married in NZ.

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    1. Hello, I just spotted this post. Do you have a cousin named Jude in N.Z.? I have spoken to her recently about Mary's line. Mary's sister was Kate Flanagan, my great great grandmother. She was born Catherine Mary O'Brien to Ann Gleeson and Edmund O'Brien of County Clare. Kate was baptized in Castleconnell which today is actually in County Limerick right along the border of Clare. Email me if you see this...kristin@zelsersk.net

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  2. Hello, I just spotted this post. Do you have a cousin named Jude in N.Z.? I have spoken to her recently about Mary's line. Mary's sister was Kate Flanagan, my great great grandmother. She was born Catherine Mary O'Brien to Ann Gleeson and Edmund O'Brien of County Clare. Kate was baptized in Castleconnell which today is actually in County Limerick right along the border of Clare. Email me if you see this...kristin@zelsersk.net

    ReplyDelete