The Story of Thomas Richard Connors / Memories ... April 19

This post tells the story of my paternal Uncle, Thomas Richard Connors  (1911 - 1972).

Our common ancestors are:  George Thomas Connors and Grace Olive Brown.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of my uncle's birth.

 Anniversary of a Birthday:   

(For my 'Family Anniversaries' page)

*Our common ancestors are: George Thomas Connors and Grace Olive Brown.

 

• My paternal uncle, Thomas Richard Connors, was born on the 19th of April 1911, at Mullumbimby, in New South Wales.

• His father was George Thomas Connors and his mother was Grace Olive Brown.

• Thomas was the third-born of eleven children born to George and Grace, and he was known as 'Tommy' to his family. 

• Tommy's father George worked on dairy farms in the Richmond Valley / Lismore area of New South Wales between Tommy's birth year 1911 and the early 1920s.  The family moved around for quite some time, to wherever George was able to find work.  By 1924, when Tommy was 12 years old, the family had moved to Queensland, around the Maleny area at first, but then further south around Beaudesert.  By 1936, father George, mother Grace and a few of Tommy's siblings had moved to Gympie.

• In 1932, aged 21, Tommy married Dulcie Elizabeth Charlotte Hunt at Murgon in Queensland, and they went on to have a son two years later.  It seems however that the marriage did not last.

• The 1936 and 1937 Australian Electoral Rolls records Tommy living at Mellor Street in Gympie, and there is no mention of his wife Dulcie.

• The 1936 electoral roll record shows he is with his father George and his sister Beryl at Mellor Street.  His mother was recorded as living in Wickham Street that day, and I'm not entirely sure why this would be so.

• The 1937 electoral roll record shows Tommy living on his own at Mellor Street, while his parents and older sister have moved to O'Connell Street.

Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
AWM ARTV06766.

• Tommy enlisted with the 2nd AIF on the 3rd of June 1940, exactly nine months after the Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies had announced Australia was at war with Germany.  He joined the 2/15 Australian Infantry Battalion.

• The attestation form completed and signed by Tommy states that he was 29 years 1 mth old, and that he was single.  While he might have been estranged from his wife, he was actually still married at this stage.  He gave his address as O'Connell Street in Gympie, which was the address of his parents.

This was Tommy's enlistment photo, taken a month after his 29th birthday.

His war service lasted until the end of January 1946.

He served firstly in the Middle East, from his disembarkation in February 1941, to February 1943.  

Tommy was a 'Rat of Tobruk" during 1941.

The Siege of Tobruk was a confrontation that lasted 241 days between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War Two. The siege started on 10 April 1941, when Tobruk was attacked by an Italo–German force under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel and continued for 241 days up to 27 November 1941, when it was relieved by the Allied 8th Army during Operation Crusader.

The “Rats of Tobruk” was the name given to the soldiers of the garrison who held the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Afrika Corps during the Siege. 

The garrison, commanded by Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, consisted of the 9th Australian Division (20th, 24th, and 26th Brigades), the 18th Brigade of the 7th Australian Division, four regiments of British artillery and some Indian troops.

(excerpt from www.monumentaustralia.org.au)

The men of the Tobruk garrison lived in dugouts and caves, enduring scorching hot days, freezing cold nights and dust storms, all the while under daily bombings, tank attacks and artillery barrages.  Ordered to hold back the German advance for eight weeks, they held on for five months!

Tommy was in Tobruk for eight months in 1941 and towards the end of the war he would state that three months of that time was "very bad"!

A record of the 'Rats of Tobruk' put together in 2018, p. 102
https://ratsoftobrukassociation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/TOBRUK_AK_WEB_020721R.pdf 
found on the Rats of Tobruk Association website

(Photo held by the Australian War Memorial - Copyright expired - public domain)
L-R:  QX5873 Corporal Douglas John Allen, died of wounds on 22 September 1943 in New Guinea;
QX5139 (later 11189) Corporal John Thomas Sheppard, later awarded a Military Medal;
QX10535 Lance Corporal Alfred Claude Kling, died of wounds on 1 September 1942 in Libya;
QX17607 Corporal Paul Stewart Persse Delpratt;
QX3352 Private Thomas Richard Connors;
QX1970 Pprivate Stanley Lentell;
QX3350 Private Eric George Crawford, died of wounds on 27 October 1942 in Libya.

• The photo above shows a group portrait of members of the 2/15 Battalion, including my uncle Tommy.  He is 3rd from the right.  The photo was taken sometime in 1941 when they were serving in the Middle East.  Only four men in this group returned home to Australia at the end of the war.

• Tommy also served at El Alamein as a Bren Gunner, for about four to five months, and he would recall later on that "There was a lot of shelling on the first night and we were shelled for about four to five days.  The noise of our own artillery guns was very bad and we couldn't sleep."  That was his experience in just the first week there.

• After being withdrawn from the Middle East, the 2/15 Battalion then served in New Guinea, from 1943 to 1946.  During those years, Tommy suffered many bouts of malaria and both his physical and psychological health deteriorated.

• I know from stories told by my father (who was Tommy's brother), that the war experiences were deeply traumatic for Tommy and left wounds not visible to the eye.   A photo of Tommy was taken upon his discharge in January of 1946 and when putting his enlistment and discharge photos side-by-side, I think the impact of his war service is clearly evident.

• At the beginning of 1945, Tommy's first marriage had been dissolved by decree of the Supreme Court of Brisbane.  

.

• He was discharged from the Australian Military Forces in January of 1946.

• After his discharge, Tommy married Catherine Millicent Soames (known as Cathy) when he was 36 years old.  They were married in Nambour, Queensland in 1947.   At that time, Tommy was working as a public works employee.

• The 1949 electoral roll shows Tommy, aged 38, and wife Catherine living in  Channon Street, Gympie.

• Tommy and Catherine went on to have four children, and during the 1950s the family was living at Imbil, near the Imbil State Forest in southern Queensland.  

• The 1954, 1958 and 1963 electoral rolls show that Tommy and Catherine were living at Stirling Crossing at Imbil, and Thomas's occupation was forestry worker.

• The 1969 electoral roll shows Tommy, aged 58, was still working as a forestry labourer, but was now living back in Gympie with his wife Catherine.

• Sadly, Tommy passed away not much later, in 1972, aged 61.  He was buried at the cemetery in Gympie.

• A plaque was also erected to Tommy's memory at the Garden of Remembrance in Brisbane, in honour of his service to our country.

• Fittingly and rightly so, Tommy's grandson has proudly marched in a previous Anzac Day parade wearing his grandfather's medals.

• On this 2023 Anzac Day, 77 years after Tommy's discharge from war service, we remember him. 

The Story of Maurice Owen O'Donnell / Memories ... April 9

This post tells the story of my maternal Uncle, Maurice Owen O'Donnell  (1925 - 2006).

Our common ancestors are:  James O'Donnell and Sarah Mary Josephine McCane.

I'm publishing this post on the anniversary of my uncle's birth.

Anniversary of a Birthday:   

(also for my 'Family Anniversaries' page)

• My maternal uncle, Maurice Owen O'Donnell was born in 1925 near Gumlu, Queensland, Australia.

Photo likely taken c1932
Maurice (aged 7) with his older brother Edmond and sister Margaret (my Mum), as well as three of his younger brothers, Jim, Jack and Eddie.
(Photo shared by Terry O'Donnell)

• He was the third-born child of my grandparents, James O'Donnell and Sarah McCane.

Photo likely taken in 1935
Maurice (aged 10) with his older brother Edmond, older sister Margaret (my Mum),
younger brothers Jim, Jack, Eddie and his younger sister Marcella.
(Photo shared by Terry O'Donnell)

• Maurice was known as 'Morrie' throughout his lifetime.

Photo likely taken in 1941
Maurice with his older sister Margaret (my Mum), his younger sister Marcella,
his older brothers Jim, Jack and Eddie, along with his youngest brother Terry
(Photo shared by Terry O'Donnell)

• He had five brothers and two sisters.

• Morrie attended Gumlu State School.  The school photo above shows Morrie (circled) and his brothers Jim and Jack (same row, third and fourth from the left). 

• Maurice worked for Queensland Government Railways. The 1949 Australian Electoral Roll shows that he was working as a railway staff officer in Bowen, Queensland.  He was 24 years old.

• I found a number of newspaper items from the 1949 edition of the local newspaper, the Bowen Independent, mentioning Maurice's / Morrie's name.  It appears he was rather a good cricket player in the B Grade cricket scene at the time.  He played for the Railway Institute Club (known as the Railways) cricket team, which makes perfect sense since he worked for the railways!

- Mar 11 1949:  Morrie was mentioned as the player who scored the most runs, and he also "carried his bat".  I had to google that terminology and apparently it refers to "an opening batsman (either No. 1 or 2) who is not dismissed (not out) when the team innings is closed"  (quote taken from Wikipedia).

- Mar 25 1949:  Morrie "carried his bat" once again!  Twice in one season!  Not bad!  I love that the reporter referred to him as "that mighty man"!

- Apr 22 1949:  Morrie (otherwise known as "the mighty man") won the trophy for the highest batting average, seemingly on a technicality, but I'm sure mighty man was deeply proud.

• Maurice had married Olwyn Edwards sometime in his early 20s, but sadly she passed away in 1952, when Maurice was only 26 years old.

• Two years later, Maurice placed an 'In Memoriam' notice in the newspaper on the anniversary of her death.

• By 1958, Maurice was working for Queensland Government Railways as a staff officer, posted at Thoopara Station, near Proserpine, Queensland.  He was 33 years old at this time.

• He was still there in 1963.

• By this time, he had lost his youngest sister Marcella. She had died in mid 1961 when she was only 26 years old.

• By 1968, Maurice, aged 43, had returned to live in Bowen at his old family home on Dalrymple Street, with his mother and father.   

• He lost his only other sister Margaret (my Mum) earlier that same year.  Margaret was only 44 years old when she passed.

• The 1980 Electoral Roll shows that Maurice, aged 55, was still living at the home on Dalrymple Street in Bowen, but by now both his mother and father had passed away.

• Maurice's mother, Sarah O'Donnell nee McCane had passed in 1970, and his father, James O'Donnell had passed away in 1974.

• Maurice passed away in 2006, aged 81.  

• He was survived by two of his brothers at this time, John Joseph (known as Jack) and Terence William (known as Terry).

Spotlight on ... Solitude!

The definition of 'solitude', according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is:  the quality or state of being alone or apart from society.  'Solitude' is the prompt for this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge, and my immediate thoughts were about the solitude I've felt when being outdoors in nature ... at the beach, in the rainforest ... but none of that really related to the challenge.

Upon further reflection, I realised that I've experienced the feeling of solitude when standing at the last resting places of close family members ... my parents and grandparents in particular.  When standing there, I have definitely felt alone, but alone with my memories, and I'm always overwhelmed with a sense of thankfulness for all that they were and, of course, the fact that I would not be here if not for them!

This thinking has led me to put together a post about the last resting places of some of my direct ancestors.  I know exactly where my parents, all my grandparents and great grandparents have been laid to rest, and I've found it very interesting to note the simplicity of their headstones ... well at least the headstones that have been erected.  I've also found it rather heartbreaking to find out that some burial plots are not marked at all!

Going through the line of direct ancestors to my great grandparents, here's what I have found ....... 

My parents:  Bede William Connors and Margaret Brigid O'Donnell.

My mother passed away many years ago.  Then when Dad passed, we made the decision not to have a separate burial plot, but rather inter his ashes next to my mother and add a memorial plaque underneath Mum's headstone.

While my Mum was born near Gumlu in northern Queensland, and my Dad was born in Maleny in southern Queensland, they are both buried in Bowen, north Queensland.

My maternal grandparents

My maternal grandparents:  James O'Donnell and Sarah McCane. 

James, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Toowoomba, southern Queensland.  Sarah, the daughter of immigrants from Ireland and England, was born in Charters Towers, north-western Queensland.  Both James and Sarah were buried in the Bowen Cemetery, the same resting place as my parents.

My paternal grandparents

My paternal grandparents:  George Thomas Connors and Grace Olive Brown

George, second generation Australian, was born in Meroo, New South Wales.  Grace, also second generation Australian, was born in Lismore, New South Wales.  They were both buried in Gympie, southern Queensland.

My maternal great grandparents

My maternal great grandparents:  Edmond O'Donnell and Bridget Burke.

Edmond was born in Ireland and after immigration to Australia, lived in Toowoomba, southern Queensland.  He was buried in the Toowoomba Cemetery, and up until this week I had no idea where his plot was.  

The #52 Ancestors prompt for this week sparked new interest in finding the plots of my maternal great grandparents Edmond and Bridget, and I went directly to the website of the cemetery.  I noticed there had been some updating since I last searched the site a few years back, and this resulted in my discovery of a photo of Edmond's plaque on a family graveyard memorial!!!

Strangely, his name on the cemetery online record was 'Edward' not Edmond, even though his correct first name was inscribed on the plaque.  This accounts for the great difficulty I previously had in locating a photo of his burial plot!   

Bridget was also born in Ireland and lived in Toowoomba after her immigration to Australia.  She was buried in the Toowoomba Cemetery as well, but under the name Bridget O'Brien (as she re-married after the death of my great grandfather Edmond).  Whilst I have been able to find her final resting place, as yet I have not been able to secure a photo of that plot.

My other maternal great grandparents:  Owen McCane (Muckian) and Margaret Farrell.

Owen was born in Ireland and after immigration to Australia, he first lived in Charters Towers, until his mid-50s.  He then moved, with his wife and family, to farmland near Gumlu in coastal north Queensland.  He was buried in the Home Hill Cemetery.

Margaret was born in England and immigrated to Australia (before Owen), where she first lived in Charters Towers.  Margaret met Owen in Charters Towers and they were married there.  She moved with her husband and family to farmland near Gumlu, and is buried beside her husband in the Home Hill Cemetery.

My paternal great grandparents

My paternal great grandparents:  Thomas Edgar Connors and Susannah Fullagar Hukins.

Thomas was born in Australia, near Kiama in New South Wales, the eldest son of Irish immigrants.  Susannah was also born near Kiama, in northern New South Wales.  She was the daughter of an Irish immigrant mother and an English immigrant father.  Thomas and Susannah were both buried in the Harley Hill Cemetery at Berry, in New South Wales, but sadly I have no photos of their plots, or even photos of them.

My other paternal great grandparents:  Richard Brown and Ellen Cusack.

Richard was born in Lismore, northern New South Wales.  He was the son of two English immigrants and he spent his life living and working in the Lismore area.   Richard was buried in the East Lismore Cemetery.  I do have a photo showing the plot where he was buried, but sadly there is no headstone or memorial to mark that spot.

Ellen was born at Rose Hill on the Richmond River, in northern New South Wales.  She was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father and an English immigrant mother.  

The only information I have about the burial of Ellen is that she was "privately interred" somewhere in the Rookwood Cemetery and Crematoria.

Now, when going further back to my 2x great grandparents, I hit some patchy information.  When it comes to the locations of resting places for my sixteen 2x great grandparents, I know the cemeteries where they are all buried, but I only know a few of the specific locations of their plots within those cemeteries.  

My maternal and paternal Great Great Grandparents

William was buried at the Tumut Pioneer Cemetery, in Tumut, New South Wales. Ellen was buried at the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Tumut. 

Adolphus is buried at St. Anne's Cemetery in Ryde, New South Wales (no photo) and Mary Ann is buried at the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Waverley.  (see photo 1 below)

Henry is buried at the North Lismore Cemetery in New South Wales.  

Caroline is buried at the Rookwood General Cemetery.

Patrick is buried at Rookwood Catholic Cemetery (no headstone - see photo 2). 

Eliza is buried in a plot with a headstone, at the East Lismore General Cemetery.

John and Catherine are both buried in the Owning Old Graveyard, in County Kilkenny, Ireland.  (see photo 3 below)

Unsure of where both James and Catherine are buried, but I know they are somewhere in County Kilkenny, Ireland.

Unsure of where both Patrick and Sarah are buried, but likely to be near Ballintemple, County Armagh, Ireland.

Both Michael and Susan are buried at the Charters Towers Cemetery, in Queensland.  (see photo 4 below).

Photo 1 - the gravesite of my 2x great grandmother Mary Ann Hukins nee Farley.

Waverley Cemetery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Plot:  W-18-RC-OR-3452

Photo 2 - the unmarked gravesite of my 2x great grandfather Patrick Cusack.

Rookwood Catholic Cemetery, Rookwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Plot:  M1 sect 7 Plot 124

The oldest and largest working cemetery in Australia.

Photo 3 - my 2x great grandparents John O'Donnell (Daniel) and Catherine Joy

Owning Old Cemetery, Owning, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Photo 4 - my 2x great grandparents Michael Farrell and Susan Muldowney / Downey.

Charters Towers Cemetery, Queensland, Australia

I'm joining Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2023 Challenge  .

This time I'm catching up with the prompt for Week 15  - ''Solitude".

You can join by blogging or posting on social media with the tag #52Ancestors.

Check out Amy's FB pages:  Generations Cafe  or  Amy Johnson Crow

O'Donnell ... Origins of The Surname

One of my ancestral family surnames begins with a vowel, but not only a vowel ... a vowel with an apostrophe.  Since I began the quest to build my family tree over twelve years ago, I've often wondered about the origins of the distinctive prefix O'  in many Irish surnames, including the maiden surname of my mother - O'Donnell - and I've wondered ... why the apostrophe?

After further delving into this topic, I've found out that this little grammar symbol - the apostrophe - holds a lot of meaning in terms of Irish heritage.

Ireland was apparently one of the first countries in Europe to use surnames, in particular, patronymic surnames.  The oldest surviving evidence of this type of surname use in Ireland dates from 916 A.D (10th century).  It was recorded in a report of the death of the lord of Aidhne.  The surname was Ua Cleririgh/Clerigh or  Ó Cleririgh / Clerigh as it would be recorded in modern spelling (in this context, 'modern' means from around 400 years ago!).  

The older form of the prefix, Ua, and the more modern Ó, were used to mean 'grandson of' or 'descended from'.  These prefixes were added to the forename (first name) of the original bearer's grandfather or an earlier ancestor. So, in the case of  Ó Cleririgh / Clerigh, the surname means descendant of Cleririgh / Clerigh.

The creation of surnames in Ireland may have got off to an early start, but it took quite some time for it to become firmly established.  In fact, it took more than six hundred years.  It wasn't until around the end of the 11th century that the main families in Ireland had taken on many of the surnames that are familiar to us today, but back then they were constructed using either an Ó (short for Ua) or a Mac.

The Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century marked the beginning of English involvement and as English intervention increased through the centuries, having an Irish sounding name became more and more problematic.  By the 17th century, anyone with an Irish name was finding it difficult to find work of any sort and as a result, many people dropped the Ó or Mac from their surname in the hope of avoiding any sort of prejudice.  Thus began the 'anglicisation' of Irish last names and the degradation of the Gaelic.

In the case of families with an Ó in their surname, sometimes the prefix was dropped altogether or the Ó was kept, but the fada (the line above the letter) was removed and the apostrophe was added - O'.   That was obviously the case in my ancestral line.

In the particular case of my ancestral family name, the surname O'Donnell was the anglicized form of the Gaelic  Ó Dónaill  / Ó Domhnaill  /  Ó Doṁnaill or Ua Domaill, derived from the old Gaelic forename 'Domhnaill'.  So the O'Donnells would have originally been the descendants of Domhnaill.

Getting back to my particular ancestral line, the earliest record I have for a member of the family is a baptism record dated 1805.  At that time the family were using the surname 'Daniel ' - so not only had the O been dropped but what remained - Donnell - had been anglicized to Daniel.   

That baptism record is shown above, and it's for the first-born child of my maternal 3x great grandfather Patrick O'Donnell / Daniel, who lived between 1780 and 1865.  It's likely that the surname had undergone the transformation in the 1700s or even the 1600s.

15 years after this baptism record, in 1820, the family name was still recorded as 'Daniel ' on the baptism record of the last-born child of my 3x great grandfather Patrick.  All of his childrens' births were registered using the name 'Daniel '.

The 1828 Tithe Applotment Book record for Ballyhenebry (the earliest known place of residence for my branch of the O'Donnell family) in County Kilkenny, still showed Patrick's surname as 'Daniel '. 

By 1850, the family had moved to the Killonerry area in County Kilkenny, and a Griffith's Valuation record listed Patrick (my 3x great grandfather), his elderly father John Snr.(my 4x great grandfather) and his son John Jnr. (my 2x great grandfather) with the surname of 'Donnell '.  Patrick passed away in 1865 and the probate record had his surname recorded once again as 'Daniel '.  

The birth, marriage and death record of Patrick's fifth-born son John (my 2x great grandfather who lived between 1812 and 1896) all had his surname recorded as 'Daniel '.  The baptism records for all John's children, born between 1854 to 1872, also had the surname 'Daniel ' listed,

So it seems the family's surname was anglicized in Ireland from at least the early 1800s (likely even much earlier) to around at least 1900.

A few of John's children had emigrated to either the U.S.A. or Australia between 1882 and the late 1890s, and they all used the surname 'O'Donnell ' once they had left Ireland, including my great grandfather Edmond, who emigrated to Australia in 1883.  Those branches of the family were all known by the surname O'Donnell.

Back in Ireland, the 1901 census for Killonerry shows that the family was known by the surname 'O'Donnell' once again at the start of the 20th century.  The prefix  O' has lived on ever since!