Workhouse orphan girls
The saga of the sixteen Ballyshannon Workhouse
orphan girls sent to Australia under the
Earl Grey emigration scheme in the midst
of the Great Famine in Ireland continues
to reveal fascinating details of their fate,
years after their names were listed on this
web site, courtesy of Anthony Begley and
Soinbhe Lally. Tantalising clues about one
of the orphans, Mary Allingham, came to light,
culminating with an item in the May 2005
issue of the Canadian Vindicator e-zine.
Now comes a glimpse into the lives of two
others, following their arrival in Australia.
Rhondda Martel of Sydney, Australia, in
the first of two e-mails has written:
"I have been doing my family history
which includes outer family, like brothers
and sisters of my 5 x grandfather who was
sent to Australia as a convict, and we
have found that his youngest son, Edward
Henry Williams, married Mary Jane McBride
who was one of the sixteen girls sent to
Australia from Ballyshannon Workhouse under
then orphan immigration scheme."
In a second e-mail she revealed that:
"Edward Henry Williams was actually
my gggg greatgrandmother's brother and
whilst my family went to NZ, Edward who
was only a baby when his father died must
of stayed here, although, we do not know
where
.His father and mother were
both convicts, but his father was educated
in the sense that he could read and write,
and in England he had been a waterman on
the Thames. He went on to become the 1st
Govt Coxswain under Lachlan Macquarie and
was in charge of the small boats. Unfortunately
he died in 1822, just 6 months after Edward
was born. I guess this would account for
the son not being able to read and write
as Ann his mother could not read or write.
He married Mary Jane McBride in the Parish
of St Thomas in Port Macquarie by Banns
with consent of the Orphan Immigration
Committee on the 24th February 1851, by
Thomas O'Reilly. Neither could write as
they both signed with an X as making their
mark. The witnesses were John McDonogh
and Mary Ann Bows They went on to have
6 children, 4 girls and 2 boys, Matilda,
Selina, Agnes Mary, and Annie, and Edward
H and Thomas J Williams.
So far we have not been able to find Mary
Jane's death certificate and when the children
were born or married they listed her name
as Jane, Mary, Ann, and the latest I believe
is Sarah Jane on Selina's marriage certificate.
This makes it very hard to trace
.
There was also a Margaret McBride who came
as well and we are guessing that she was
her sister.
Judith (a descendant of Mary Jane) and
I found a Charles McBride who was born
in Carrickmoss (I think that's how you
spell it) who had the same name for parents
as both Margaret and Mary Jane. We wondered
if they were one and the same family. Also
Margaret, we found, was a Margaret Maxwell
McBride.
We must admit what information we have
is not much, and I guess we will just go
on looking."
Since three of the sixteen orphans sent
from the Ballyshannon Workhouse to Australia
in 1847 have been traced, and the immediate
descendants of two have been identified,
the services of a Canadian expert in demographics
were secured in an attempt to ascertain a
reliable estimate of the total number of
descendants of the original sixteen.
Based on life expectancies, verifiable generation
spans, and quantifiable birth rates, it is
now calculated that if all their descendants
remained in the southern continent, they
account for a grand total of
43,200.
Put simply, some 43,200 Australian citizens
over the passage of the years could attribute
their very existence to the exportation of
the Ballyshannon Workhouse orphans. The contribution
of those sixteen to the growth of Australia
is astounding.
To assist genealogy researchers, their names
are listed once more:
ALLINGHAM Mary |
McCREA Letty |
CARBERRY Jane |
McCREA Mary |
CARLETON Jane |
McDERMOTT Mary Anne |
FEELY Margaret |
McDERMOTT Sally |
LENNON Sally |
REID Rose |
MAGUIRE Mary |
ROONEY Anne |
McBRIDE Ann |
SMITH Biddy |
McBRIDE Margaret |
SWEENEY Margaret |
--30--
Home
| About
| Canadian Vindicator
| Literature
| Gallery
| History
|