Researching my Family Tree

What have I found?

My maternal side has proven easiest initially. My mother comes from O’Shannessy (her mother) and Gallagher (her father) heritage. Both are Irish (both Catholic and Protestant) and have been in Australia for many generations.

The O’Shannessy side has been easiest to trace given that many generations lived in and around Yambuk, near Port Fairy in western Victoria. Many of her ancestors were buried in the Yambuk cemetery and the records are online and can be matched to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages indexes. There are also a number of family trees already in existence to corroborate my findings. I’ve been able to trace them back to County Clare in Ireland in the mid 19th century. The real challenge has been the different spellings of the name; O’Shannessy, O’Shanasy, O’Shannassy, O’Shaughnessy and Shaughnessy!

My uncle has a lot of info on the Gallagher family. So far I have traced them back to the 19th century around Mildura Victoria, but can’t get past there.

My fathers family, the Edwards’, has been far more challenging. Both my father and his sister were born in Adelaide in the 30′s. However their parents birth certificate says they were married in Melbourne, with father Ralph Valentine Edwards born in Hobart, Tasmania and Elizabeth Mary Keirven born in Newcastle On Tyne in the UK.

I’ve found many documents relating to Ralph Valentine Edwards on the National Archives NameSearch facility. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one, but the signature is consistent across the various documents. However I can find no matching entries in the Tasmanian Birth, Death and Marriage registry (on CD at the State Library). Curious!

As to my paternal grandmother; Elizabeth Mary Keirven. We had thought her surname was Keirwen or similar and had found nothing. However it’s clear from the document copies I have, that it’s Keirven. This is an uncommon surname and the UK FreeBMD site gave me a lot of entries around Newcastle Upon Tyne in the Northumberland area. The naming of the towns/cities/parishes/counties/suburbs around that area has given me a lot of grief. Combining this with the various UK Census’ available online (some for free, but generally you need to pay to view the original record) and joining families by the same address in the census, I’ve been able to get a good picture of the Keirven’s from Northumberland.

The journey continues.

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