The Famine Orphan Scheme (Earl Gray) brought some 4000 orphan girls to Australia over 4 years.
One was Mary Cowley (which might have been Cooley, Cowey, Cowhey) who went on the Pemberton in 1849, arriving in Port Philip (In what is now the State of Victoria) .
Records at Roscrea, Tipperary say she was 19, illiterate, parents unknown, and that further information is known - but I have been unable to access it.
My Mary Cowley fits closely but her marriage certificate states her parents as Thomas Cowley and Mary Clancy, she being born in Cork. She signed the certificate, but that doesn't mean she was literate. I have a record of a Mary Cowhy being baptised in 1833 with those parents in Charleville, but no record of a marriage between her parents.
It seems possible to me that young Mary wasa unable to be cared for and ended up in the orphanage at Roscrea.
Are you able to suggest any way for me to proceed to confirm or refute this please. Perhaps there are local records which might help.
It appears there is no Reaching Out parish at Roscrea.
Kind Regards
Garry Trollope
Melbourne