My three times great-grandmother, Catherine Glynn was born about 1833, probably in eastern County Galway. She was a resident at the Mountbellew workhouse in the early 1850s. Catherine was also among a group of young women from the workhouse who emigrated here (Australia) on a ship called "Palestine" in 1852/53. We know very little about Catherine's family in Ireland – although I have recently discovered DNA matches with people descended from Glynns from the area around Mountbellew, especially Ahascragh.
After arriving in Western Australia, Catherine worked at Avondale (near the town of York) as a domestic servant for the family of a retired Royal Navy captain. In 1855, she married Sam Blackmore, an English-born farm labourer, who had also been a sailor. They had children: Mary Jane Blackmore (later Bradbury), James, Thomas, Samuel and Catherine Elizabeth. (James and Samuel junior both died in infancy.) The family later took up a small farm at Yelyelling (a.k.a. Glencoe, near Woodanilling) and had a business hauling goods with a team of bullocks. Catherine and Sam both died in the early 1900s. They have more descendants than I can count, most of whom still live in Western Australia.
