·
HARRISON – from Ireland
to NSW - 1851
Henry Francis Hans HARRISON, born
in Co Kildare, Ireland, and his wife, Marrion WOOD, born in Dundalk, Co Louth,
Ireland immigrated to New South Wales, Australia in 1851, bringing with them at
least one child, Henrietta Georgeiana.
Shipping records indicate that other family members immigrated with the
family but no information has been found to identify them.
Henry was a draper - he set up
business in Sydney
and 6 more children were born to the marriage in NSW.
However, in 1863, Henry was
drowned with the wreck of the ship “Regent Bird” as it sailed back from the
Macleay River (Port Macquarie),
leaving his widow with a young family, and penniless.
Their known children are: Henrietta Georgeiana (dates unknown - married
William Henry Garnet BURGESS and then disappeared); Francis James (1855-1930 –
married - 10 children); Robert J. (1857-1909 – married - 7 children); Marrion
Grace Elizabeth (1861-1944 – married Benjamin JONES - 10 children); Rebecca Mary Jane (1861-c.1950 – married
Henry James SHERRINGHAM - 9 children); Ann Alexandra (Annie) (1863-1938 –
married Francis William HEATON - 5 children).
·
KEARNEY – from Limerick to
Queensland – 1860s
John Martin KEARNEY was a stone
mason from the Abington area of Co Limerick, Ireland. In the 1860s, he and his wife, Honorah LYONS
immigrated to Rockhampton,
Queensland, with most of their adult family,
where they settled and prospered. The
reason for their immigration appears to have been the health of their children,
as many of their sons died of consumption, either after arriving in Queensland or as young
adults before or during the voyage to join the rest of their family. The Kearneys were active in road building and
hotel management in Central Queensland.
Descendants in Australia are from these children
of the marriage, predominantly from their daughters:
The first
generation of KEARNEY
daughters married into the following family names: CRANLEY and SHEEHY.
The later
generations of female descendants married into these family names: DOONER,
ALLINGHAM, BRIDSON, AUSTIN, MURPHY,
MARTIN, YOUNG, ALLEN, MURRAY, SCHMIDT, GARDNER, SZALAY, MURPHY, SEARLE, RANDALL, PESCOTT,
GRAHAM.
A family history for the KEARNEY family will be
published in or after 2006.
Contributions of family stories welcome.
·
McGUIRK/McGURK –
from Co Cavan, Ireland
to Queensland
– 1880s
Lillian Cecilia McGUIRK was born in
Cavan, Co Cavan, Ireland
and was sent out to Queensland
in 1880 to take up a teaching position in the expectation that the Australian
climate would cure her consumption. She had been educated by her uncle, Major
McGuirk, a staunch Catholic, thought to have been a local Squire in the area
around the city of Cavan. Other members of the McGuirk family moved to England, to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne
& Durham
area. Lillian married John Francis
KEARNEY in Queensland
in 1882 and bore him 4 children. She
died of consumption in Cairns, North Queensland in 1904.
·
SCHMIDT – from
the Uckermark, Prussia
to Queensland
– 1860s
Carl Freidrich SCHMIDT immigrated to southern
Queensland in 1863 with a large group of his
family. His other children and their families
followed over the next 5 years. The
family came from the Uckermark region of Prussia
NE of Berlin, as part of a systemic immigration program conducted by the Queensland colonial
authorities. Commissioners were sent to Germany to bring large groups of German families
from rural areas under contract to work on remote properties in western Queensland – in many
cases 4 generations of the one family immigrated together. At the conclusion of their contracts, the
extended Schmidt family joined the community of German immigrants who had
settled in the Bethania/Logan River area SE of Brisbane, near Beenleigh.
Margaret’s great-grandfather, Christian
Schmidt, later moved his family to Beaudesert, south of
Brisbane, where he operated a wheelwright/
coach building business.
Main family names related to this
family, listed alphabetically, include:
BERNDT, BEUTEL, BRUMM, BUHK,
BUROW, EICHMANN, GIEGOLD, HOLTHORF, KOPLICK,
KRATZMANN, LAHRS, LOTZ, MARKS, MUCHOW, RADUNZ, ROSE.