P is for ....... Occupations continued

PUBLICAN  

Is my contribution to Alona from Goulds
"Family History through the alphabet"  theme

                                                   There was a PUB in my family

My great great grandparents, John and Alice Morgan started the original Cross Keys Hotel in North Essendon, Victoria in 1871.  I wondered why John named it the Cross Keys but through my research of the area he came from in Armagh, Ireland I was told there is a place called Cross Keys not far from where the Morgan family lived.

John Morgan purchased the block of land from Crown Grantee, William Jones, on the 10th of October 1859 for ₤81.  Read more here
I'm not sure if anything was on the land between him purchasing it and being granted the license in 1871.

On my wish list of books at Gould is Carole Rileys "Land research for family historians.

The Morgan's didn't seem to have the luck of the Irish even though Alice's brothers had done quite well with prospecting.   Michael Kelly had done quite well at the Kimberley in South Africa and Thomas Kelly in the New Zealand gold rushes.
  
In 1872 John and Alice Morgan's young daughter Margaret died of convulsions at the age of five.

John Morgan died of chronic alcoholism in 1880.  His wife Alice  then took over the license. 

In 1886 their second son Alexander moved to New Zealand where he was employed by the treasury department until his retirement.  It seems he had gone to join his Uncle Thomas Kelly.

Alice had a tough time in 1900 losing both her eldest son Francis Edward Morgan at 41 years of age and her youngest daughter Agnes age 25.  That year she was also fined ₤2 for selling under proof Brandy. Alice died in 1904 

Their son John Felix Morgan then became licensee but in 1907 he tragically drowned in the Hotel's water tank.  His wife Margaret (nee O'Meara) then took over the license until sometime around the mid to late 1920s.  I'm not sure if Margaret sold the pub or just closed it.  She and John had no children to hand it on to and and a new Hotel was built on the old site in about 1929 according to an article in the Argus newspaper.

Very helpful sites for researching Publicans are:
The  Cole-Tetlow Index of hotel records at the State Library of Victoria.
Sue O'Neill's Publican Index of 19th Century Victoria
and of course Trove  for the newspaper articles about licensing and excise matters.

my paternal grandparents.

Papa

As today is the 23rd ofAugust I must add to this post a birthday remembrance for my much loved paternal grandfather. 

James (Jim) Forsyth was born James Richard Musson on this day in 1906 at Belfast, Canterbury, New Zealand.

He died on the 16th of August 1976 here in Victoria, Australia.

My grandmother Brenda, nee Adams (pictured) was the grand daughter of John and Alice Morgan who owned the Pub.

 My family history through the alphabet list

J is for .......

My contribution to this week's family history through the Alphabet Challenge by Gould 

Justice of the Peace

Found with Judicious searching.  (rolls eyes)

My family history had too many John's, Janes, Jeans, Jessies and James' to choose from so I decided to go with a different J word or two. Quite a few cropped up on this research Journey - Justice of the Peace, Johnsonville, Joy and one or two John's thrown in, all fitted the purpose for this post.

Finding the Justice of the Peace in my family was a Joyous Journey. 

That Journey began when I found the 1880 death notice in Trove of my gg grandfather, John Morgan, late  of the Cross Keys Hotel in Essendon.  John's wife was Alice, maiden name Kelly.

I didn't know there were any members of his family in New Zealand so I Jumped into Papers Past (NZ newspaper archives) and oh what Joy!!

Again in Papers Past I found a treasure trove (oops) of information.  The information revealed itself little by little.  I only had a birth year for John and Alice Morgan's son Alexander so you can imagine my Joy again when I put "Alexander Morgan and Essendon" in the Papers past search bar and up came the following.

New Zealand Evening Post 3 October 1904 

Another J surfaced when it was found that Alexander, at that time, was living in the town of Johnsonville near Wellington.

With assistance from a very helpful lady, Lucy, in one of my favourite genealogy sites Rootschat   further searching using the keywords, Kelly, Ohariu Valley, Essendon etc revealed the newspaper notice proving the relationship and showing that Alice's brother was in fact Thomas Kelly and that he was a J.P.

Again a search using Ohariu produced the JP information.

Wanganui Herald on 14th Dec 1892

And finally the obituary notice for Thomas Kelly produced a wealth of information.

My Joyous Journey certainly didn't end there.  Many months later, after doing a google search for her great grandfather, Alexander Morgan. I was contacted by a cousin!  Her google search had produced the long thread detailing my search and findings in the Rootschat site. 

I had all but given up hope of ever finding other cousins who were researching this same family.  And she had photos!!

Meet my Mr Thomas Kelly - J.P, and his wife .......................................................................         

Juliana

 My family history through the alphabet list

Mystery Monday - Are these the same man?

Are these three photos of the same man? - what do you think?

the above three photos are from the photos below.  Mr. Thomas Kelly (my 2nd great grand uncle) was born in Tipperary Ireland in 1843.  He died in New Zealand in 1912.  His wife, Juliana was born 1851 and died in New Zealand in 1925.  They adopted a child but it is not known when the adoption took place.  The child they adopted was born in 1885.

said to be Mr and Mrs Thomas Kelly

said to be Mr Thomas Kelly

said to be Mr Thomas Kelly

said to be the same Mrs Kelly

Travel Tuesday - It's a long way from Tipperary

In the 1850 Griffiths Valuation Cornelius Kelly was leasing house land and office from M Penefather at Fussough near Dualla, Ballysheehan, Tipperary.

Yellow highlighted area is roughly map reference 8 on the old Griffiths Valuation map.  This is where Cornelius Kelly's leasehold was situated in 1850.

Cornelius Kelly and his wife Mary Moloughney married on the 6th of February 1834.
Cornelius had died about 1851.
I haven't found when Mary died but perhaps it was about 1858 as her three youngest sons, John, Thomas and William Kelly, aged 18, 15 and 13 resepectively, sailed from Tipperary to Melbourne, Australia just in time for their older sister Margaret's wedding in June 1858.

Margaret Alice Kelly, (known as Alice) my great great grandmother, had moved to Australia possibly about 6 years earlier and their older brother Michael had gone to South Africa to make his fortune.  He remained a bachelor.

All the brothers except John were interested in mining.  Michael did well in Kimberley, South Africa but contracted Tuberculosis and came to his sister in Melbourne where he died in 1898, age 62,  leaving large sums of money to his remaining family members.  Read Michael's Will.

Meanwhile in 1861, Thomas headed for the New Zealand gold rushes where he was one of the discoverers of Noble's Rush on the Grey River in 1865.  Read Thomas' story. 

William it seems was also a miner but a bit more elusive than his brothers.  I have obtained one death certificate which may be him but perhaps I'll never know.  William's story.

John Kelly became a Tanner and it seemed he had a rather tragic life.  His wife and one daughter both died in Melbourne in 1888.  It is on my "to do list" to find out what happened to them.  As yet all I know is his daughter died from accidental burns.  John's story

DUALLA

Dualla - a charming village in Co. Tipperary, nestled in between the local Kill Hills, Slieve na Mbhan (the mountain of women), and the distant Galtees. A lovely, modern church, a beautiful Grotto erected by local people, a Community Centre, tennis court, all add to the picturesque village on the road between historic Cashel and Killenaule.

At the foot of the Kill Hills, which was once thickly populated, can be seen the remains of Killballyherbry Church, built in the 13th century. This church was in use for the locals before Dualla was built. There is a graveyard nearby, where many of our ancestors are buried.

There are various interpretations of the origin of Dualla, but a widely accepted one in Duche Ui Cheallaigh - the land of Kelly.

A few miles down the road as you approach the main Dublin road can be seen the ruins of a Cistercian Monastery in Ballykelly.

The chief attractions of Dualla are it's unspoilt beauty, and the warm, welcoming and friendly people, who are always ready to greet friend and stranger with a Céad Míle Fáilte.

Dualla sounds like a beautiful place and it is my dream to one day visit my great great grandmother's homeland.

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.