Family History WA

Ticket to Australia

Were you born in Ireland? Do you remember how you felt the day you first held that ticket to Australia in your hand? Excited? Elated? Nervous? Did you understand deep inside that you had now truly committed to a major transition in your life? In 1861 Johanna (Judy) Dwyer of Donaskeagh, Co Tipperary, found herself at that point of transition, too. In this month’s story, Judy’s Australian great-great-great-granddaughter Christine Timoney, committee member of the Irish Special Interest Group at Family History WA, peels away 160 years to put herself inside the head of her ancestor contemplating the journey ahead and reflecting on the events that led to this moment in time. All the people and their life events mentioned in this story are real, pieced together from documents discovered through the kinds of research that members of Family History WA routinely undertake both online and in FHWA’s library and research centre in Bayswater. Only the words that attempt to capture Judy Dwyer’s thoughts are invented.

My name is on the ticket, or so they say. Six of us, in fact, and all our names on the ticket. But I ask you, how can I ever leave? Two weeks from now, I must carry my last half-burnt sod of turf next door to John Halloran’s hearth and set it down in his fire. Until one of us returns to reclaim it, the custom goes, but I doubt you’ll see wisps of smoke rising from my chimney ever again. I hear Australia is far away, and to tell you the truth I cannot believe I’m going there, ticket or no ticket. Sure, it’s so far away that I receive only two letters a year from my Mary or her brothers, and a steamship carrying hundreds of passengers takes nearly four months to reach there, if it arrives at all. Oh, I’ve heard the stories. Almost every night I see in my dreams those four hundred souls crying out for mercy as the Austria burnt in mid-ocean not long ago. Wasn’t it a miracle that my three ever made it safely to Australia? As for me, my name may be on the ticket, but try as I might I cannot picture myself on that boat. Surely I’m to be buried in Donaskeagh graveyard, beneath the jagged stone that marks where my people lie - not in a distant land, or worse, at sea! How did it come to this? ‘Tis well I remember when these stone walls echoed with chatter and singing as we gathered around the fire of a winter’s evening. In the daytime, himself, God rest his soul, all hunched up there in the corner, measuring and bending the wood to build buckets, barrels and butter churns by the dozen. John and Patrick were only boys, Patrick always watching his father, asking questions, wanting to help. Now he has his own coopering shop in Queensland, in a town called Ipswich, and I dare to hope my boy’s doing well for himself there, staying off the drink and out of fights. How we wished he’d been here to fill the orders that kept coming in long after his father was too weak to rise from his bed. And John, such a tall lad, apprentice to that stonemason and already producing handsome crosses for such as can afford them. But John was already in prison when we buried Winny on Christmas Eve, and there was no fine headstone for his little sister. I blame the Peelers* that my boys were torn from me, banished for ever to Australia. How did we survive, our hearts broken, no money coming in from their work and their father in jail for a whole year, too? He was only protecting his sons, and they fighting for a shred of fairness, the right of every Irishman to hold onto enough of his meagre wages to feed his family and pay those crushing rents. Little Ellen and I toiled in the outside patch until our backs ached, just to grow enough food for ourselves and baby Mary. By the grace of God, Ellen and Mary survived and now have families of their own. I knew trouble would come of Mary’s infatuation with that Peeler constable – a Dalton from Wicklow, so he was – but their Patrick was a dear little baby. It wasn’t the child’s fault his father was fond of the drink. Did the man really think he could keep his marriage a secret from the sergeant while he lived as a single man at the barracks and stole nights with Mary and the baby four doors away at our house?

Mary soon found herself widowed and penniless, but with help from her brothers in Queensland she sailed away four years ago, leaving her boy Patrick with me. Now he’s seven, and his eyes light up like stars at the prospect of our own ocean adventure. Just imagine it - we’re off to meet his step-father and Australian sister and brother for the first time! ‘Tis a blessing Ellen and Thomas and their two girls will be on the ship to help me care for him and, by the mercy of God, deliver him safely to his mother. As I rest here with his hand in mine, I feel his grip tighten and I see tears begin to spill down his cheeks. My eyes close and I want to sleep, but I must stay alert – there is much to do to prepare for the voyage. My arms - why do they feel like they’re pinned to the bed? I try to stand but my legs feel like two logs. Now the room is turning whiter than the brightest summer day I ever saw in Donaskeagh and I’m gliding, though my limbs do not move. I know I buried my man long ago but surely that’s himself ahead, reaching out to me, smiling as he did at the church on our wedding day. I glance around, torn between my longing for his embrace and my promise to deliver Mary’s boy to her in Australia. My name is still on that ticket. A hand touches my arm and I feel a calm stillness creep over me. Turning to face the light I hear a familiar voice whisper, “He’ll be grand with Ellen. She’ll take him to Mary. Your work here is done.” *‘Peeler’: a derogatory term for the constabulary, named after Home Secretary, later Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel.

THE IRISH SIG IN 2021

In 2021 the Irish Special Interest Group continues to meet online via Google Meet until the Covid-19 restrictions permit more people in our meeting room (the limit is currently just 12). Meeting dates are: 18 April, 18 July and 17 October. In our January meeting we focused on how to navigate your way around Griffith’s Valuation (1847-64) and the earlier Tithes Applotment survey (1823-37), both significant substitutes for nineteenth century censuses. In future meetings we will continue to demonstrate other useful sites for finding your ancestors, including aids for finding placenames. New members and visitors are always welcome to our meetings - simply book your place using the online booking site TryBooking, details below. At this stage you can book for only the April meeting. Immediately after each quarterly meeting, bookings for the next meeting will open. Those who have booked will be sent a link to the Google Meet shortly before the 2pm meeting. FamilyHistoryWA also hosts lots of other exciting online events - some for beginners, and others for experienced researchers, so check out the full suite of presentations, workshops and meetings. Non-members and new members are welcome to join in from home. See the links below. A small payment may be required for some events. Visiting the FamilyHistoryWA’s extensive library and resource centre at 6/48 May Street Bayswater is by appointment only, to ensure we meet the building’s capacity restrictions which may vary with the ebb and flow of the pandemic. Opening hours are given on the FamilyHistoryWA homepage. Happy and successful researching!

CHRISTINE TIMONEY

On behalf of the Irish Special Interest Group

MORE INFO

ROBYN O’BRIEN, Convenor Irish Special Interest Group E irish.sig@fhwa.org.au Book a place at the next IRISH GROUP MEETING at TryBooking: .trybooking.com/BLPZM Book for FUTURE FHWA EVENTS at trybooking.com/eventlist/genealogy?embed=1 View online FHWA EVENTS THIS WEEK: membership.wags.org.au/news/1153-online-this-week Go digging for resources at FamilyHistoryWA’s IRISH SIG WEBPAGE Join FAMILYHISTORYWA FACEBOOK GROUP – researching family worldwide, open to all Join in the chat or ask a question at the FAMILYHISTORYWA DISCUSSION FACEBOOK GROUP FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA) membership.wags.org.au T 9271 4311