Thomas Dinneen : Short Biography

My Great Grandparents – Thomas & Sarah Jane DINNEEN

Thomas DINNEEN son of Michael and Johanna [nee MARTIN] was born between c1839 - 1846 in the County of Limerick, Ireland. The family lived at Kilmore in the parish of Ballingarry. Tom 21, together with his mother 45 and youngest sister Mary aged 7 arrived at Melbourne aboard the “Donald Mackay” 21 November 1867. Tom married Sarah Jane BATES (daughter of William Francis BATES and Anne [nee McCAFREY] 2 October 1872 at Stratford in Gippsland. Thomas DINNEEN was a boot maker at Maffra at the time of his marriage and the electoral roll of 1905 still listed him as a boot maker at Maffra.

Tom and Sarah separated at some stage and Tom took up timber cutting, traveling as far as New Zealand and Western Australia to work. He lived at the Bairnsdale Racing Club Hotel by 1916 with his widowed sister Mary O’Loughlin, and also lived with her family at the Mt. Noorat Hotel in the western district of Victoria. Sarah lived in Melbourne with her younger children near the Flagstaff Gardens in a house owned by the mother of the author Cyril Pearl, for a time. Latter she lived at Womerah in the Strzelecki Ranges west of Yarram in Gippsland with her son Jim and then at Alberton West. She also lived in Rogers Street, Yarram. Sarah contracted hydatidis and was taken to hospital in Melbourne where she died on 19th August 1920, buried 21 August at Coburg cemetery. Thomas Dinneen died 13 February 1929 at the Mt. Noorat Hotel, Noorat, and Western Victoria and buried 15 February in the Bairnsdale cemetery. His age was given as 92 years.

Their ten children were - Michael James b.28 July 1873; Nancy Bates [Annie] b.25 July 1875; Francis William b 24 February 1878; Thomas b.15 May 1880; James Lawrence b.25 July 1883;  Stella Muriel b.31 July 1887;  Allan Andrew b.8 August 1888;  Angela Maree b.16 May 1892;  twins Myrtle Josephine & Francis Joseph b.30th December 1894.

Thomas & Sarah DINNEEN were the great grandparents of John Howe in Echuca, Australia.