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Help identify an Aussie soldier, World War 1. Born in New Ross

3433 Private Peter Paul SHANNON. 53rd Battalion AIF. KIA 19 July 1916

Peter died at the Battle of Fromelles, in Northern France. He is listed as being in the mass grave found in 2008 at Fromelles. He can be identified, only by finding a family member carrying the much needed Y DNA. We have exhausted our avenues of research over the past 2 years.

Peter Shannon came to Australia in the 1890s, with his parents and siblings He was born in 1883 in New Ross in Wexford. He joined the Australian Army in 1915 after working as a shearer at Merriwa in the Hunter Valley.

He  was one of about 1300 Australians missing after the battle, his name is recorded with the others at the nearby VC Corner Memorial. In 2008 a mass grave of 250 Australian soldiers was discovered at Fromelles in France. Peter is on the list created by the German Army of 190 men they placed into the grave. All of the soldiers were reburied in a new cemetery in 2010. DNA had been taken and now 150 have been identified mostly through family donating DNA.

In Peter’s case, none of his siblings had children so we must look for the DNA, commencing in Ireland.  We are seeking a living male SHANNON who shares a male Shannon ancestor with Peter. (The Y DNA line)

Are there any Shannons or conencted family out there who come from New Ross?  Perhaps you can help solve this.

 

Marg O'Leary

Tuesday 11th Oct 2016, 07:44AM

Message Board Replies

  • Hi Marg

    There are 10 Shannons in New Ross in the irish phone book (http://www.118.ie/)

    Perhaps if you drop them a line one would know something.

    I am not permitted to post people's personal details on the site but if you can't find them I cane send them to a personal email.

    Mine is colkar@southernphone.com.au

    Col Cafferky

    Irelandxo volunteer

    ColCaff, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Tuesday 11th Oct 2016, 10:04AM
  • Marg:

    In addition to Col's suggestion, you may also want to post a notice in the New Roos Standard newspaper.

    http://www.independent.ie/regionals/newrossstandard/

    Roger McDonnell

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Tuesday 11th Oct 2016, 03:29PM
  •  

    Hello, I'm following up with this investigation for the ancestors of Peter Shannon, I have constructed a second ancestry tree which is seperate from the one Marg and her colleagues use entitled 'Fromelles Soldiers' my tree is private at the moment whilst I investigate the three Shannon families resident in New Ross in the 1880's onwards.  I now need to find possible siblings to Peter's father and a marriage record from the local RC church, plus any related baptisms. I have access to Findmypast and Ancestry which have indexes and images which are essentially the same images but indexed from the National Library RC church records, and also IFHF with indexed records with images. however there doesn't appear to be early 1800s marriage records, so I'm wondering if someone living locally to go to the local RC church and look at the records for the benefit of this  worthwhile project. If anyone is able to help then please contact me at mike@mikebarry.eu and I can discuss the details required. Thank you and I look forward to hearing back from you. Mike Barry

     

    MikeABarry

    Wednesday 9th Nov 2016, 02:30PM

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