Mary Agnes ADAMS - Trove Tuesday

My paternal great-grandmother Mary Agnes ADAMS nee MORGAN

was born on the 17th of October 1864 at Moonee Ponds, Victoria.

She was the third child and eldest daughter of John MORGAN and Alice nee KELLY who were owners/licensees of the original Cross Keys Hotel at Essendon.

Mary married John ADAMS on the 7th of November 1887 at Essendon but they later separated and had been through a rather acrimonious maintenance battle which I covered in another Trove Tuesday post in 2012.

I was very thankful when the Melbourne Age newspaper became available in Trove as that seems to be have been where my grandmother's family put their notices.

Mary Agnes ADAMS died on the 24th of August 1933 at her home at 10 Molesworth Street North Melbourne.

  

 

Matrilineal Monday - My grandmothers' maternal ancestors

Mary Mulloughny (various spellings on various documents) was my great-great-great grandmother.

The only thing I know about her is that she married Cornelius Kelly in the Parish of Boherlahan, Dualla, Tipperary, Ireland on the 6 Feb 1834. 
Witnesses to this Roman Catholic marriage were Rev. D. Corcoran and Daniel Mahony.  

Mary and Cornelius had 6 children.  Only one was a girl and she was my great-great grandmother, Margaret Alice Kelly who was born in 1834.  
She was baptised at Dualla and the sponsors of her baptism were Lawrence Mockler and Judith Walsh.

Margaret Alice Kelly came to Australia sometime in the mid 1850s.  I haven't found exactly when or on what ship she came.  Her son John Felix Morgan was informant on her death certificate and he stated she had lived in the colony of Victoria for 52 years.  If he had the years correct she would have arrived in Australia in 1852.

In searches of passenger lists there are a few Margaret Kellys and only a couple of Alice Kellys.  I could find no Margaret Alice Kellys.

On the 30th of June 1858 she married John Morgan at St. Francis church Melbourne.  Three of her youngest brothers, aged 16, 13 and 12, arrived in Australia just in time for her wedding.  
Could this have been because their mother, Mary Mulloughny, had died?  
Their father, Cornelius Kelly, had died around 1851.  

The certificate for her wedding was the last record of Margaret Alice Kelly being called Margaret.  From then on any record, document and news article referred to her as Alice.  Read more about Alice here

Margaret "Alice" Morgan nee Kelly

My great grandmother, Mary Agnes Morgan - daughter of Alice and John Morgan, was born on the 17th of October, 1864 at Moonee Ponds in Victoria.

Young Mary Agnes Morgan

Mary Agnes Morgan

Mary Morgan married John Adams in Essendon, Victoria on the 7th of November, 1887.  They had 7 children - 4 boys and 3 girls.  The second youngest child was my grandmother, Brenda Mary Adams, born in Kensington, Victoria on the 12th of February, 1905.  Mary and John's marriage did not continue happily though.  You can read that story here

Mary died of cardiac failure on the 24th of August 1933 at 10 Molesworth Street, North Melbourne, Victoria.

Mary Agnes Morgan about 1930

Some of the life story of Mary's daughter (my grandmother) Brenda Mary Adams  is very sad but later she married my grandfather, had my father and then I came along and I'd like to think they lived happily ever after.

Myself and my grandmother Brenda Forsyth nee Adams

Those places Thursday - My Irish ancestors.

Those places Thursday is a current theme for blog posts. 

 As soon as I saw the words "Those places" I immediately thought of my reaction whenever I would purchase or read a marriage or death certificate looking for an Irish ancestors birth place.

All they would say was TIPPERARY, IRELAND, or LIMERICK, IRELAND, or WEST ARMAGH, IRELAND.  

When I was new to genealogy research, one more experienced informed me that a town-land name was necessary.    

Hmmmm, I didn't have a clue on how to find out what town-land my MORGAN'S, KELLY'S and BARRY'S came from.  I went through all the Irish surname maps but with such common surnames what hope did I have.

My great great grandfather, John MORGAN from West Armagh came to Australia in 1855.  Here in 1858 he married Margaret Alice (known as Alice) KELLY who was from Tipperary.

For years I had only Australian information on them apart from their parents names from their marriage certificate.
Alexander Morgan and Agnes Lennon were John's parents.  
Cornelius Kelly and Mary Moloughney were Alice's parents.
  
I managed to find a sister to John Morgan, also in Australia but still no town-land name.

It wasn't until I had searched Trove and came across John Morgan's death notice in the Argus newspaper saying "New Zealand and Gippsland papers please copy".

That sent me off on a search to try and find which family members were in New Zealand.   
I hadn't had any luck finding other siblings and there was only one son, Alexander Morgan, that I hadn't found a death or further information on.

Into the newspaper archives for New Zealand.  My jaw nearly broke hitting the ground when I came across news articles from 1904 for an Alexander Morgan receiving news of his mothers death in Essendon, Victoria!

This also delivered Alexander's uncle, Thomas KELLY!  
 (the name Charles was found to be a misprint by the newspaper)

So I purchased Thomas Kelly's New Zealand death certificate and BINGO ....... there were the correct parents AND the town-land name of Dualla, (was also known as Dually) Tipperary for my Kelly family.   

After finding THOSE PLACES I have moved further and further forward with my Irish ancestors.

Tombstone Tuesday

The family grave of my Morgan and Kelly ancestors originally from Ireland.  It is situated in the Roman Catholic section F Grave 53 at the Melbourne General Cemetery, Carlton North, Victoria Australia.

The headstone inscription reads:

MORGAN

Erected by
Alice
in memory of her beloved husband
John MORGAN
died at Essendon
24 Feb 1880
age 48 yrs

also their second daughter
Alice
died 5 Nov 1872
age 6 yrs

also
Michael KELLY
died at Essendon
19 Apr 1898
age 59 yrs

also their dearly beloved youngest daughter
Agnes Mary Magdelen MORGAN
died at Essendon
30 Apr 1900
age 24 yrs

also their son
Francis
died at Essendon
11 Jun 1900 age 40 yrs

also the beloved mother of above
Alice MORGAN
died at Essendon
30 Sep 1904
age 69 yrs.

John Morgan and his wife Alice, nee Kelly owned the original Cross Keys Hotel at Essendon.

http://morganandkellyfamilyhistories.weebly.com/index.html