Thank you for being part of the reconnect back to Ireland as part of Ireland Reaching Out. At the seaport of Williamstown, there is a memorial honouring the Great Famine & the Melbourne contingent of over 4000 Famine Orphans who came to Australia between 1848 - 1850. Meeting since 1998 on the second-last Sunday in November, we meet with a mix of history, performance & music to honour our Irish Ancestors at that terrible time, & in gratitude for the Irish contribution to Australian pioneering. As organizer of the Commemoration Day since 2009, I also host an Irish Famine Orphan Descendants' Group. Great great grandmother Sarah Matilda O'Malley came from "Limerick", though there was sure to be more than one workhouse in the county. She arrived 14 May 1849 via Pemberton, the second of six ships to Melbourne, Australia under Earl Grey's Scheme at the time of the Great Famine, carrying orphans intended to become domestic servants. Unless there was an anomaly, & there were some, all the 4000+ orphans had to have spent a year in a workhouse to be eligible for the scheme. Aged seventeen in 1849, I believe she had been orphaned at age seven. So her birthdate would have been c 1831. First her soldier father & two soldier (presumably) uncles had died, then her mother. I have not been able to establish if her father served this way, nor what part of the Army, although I presume it to have been British. Her mother could have been with friends or relatives prior or after his death, or perhaps her father could have been stationed in Limerick. More of the family story says Sarah O'Malley went to live with family friends when orphaned, & that she came out with her/them to Australia. The Pemberton shipping list from the NSW Govt Archives notes Sarah was 17, a Roman Catholic house servant from Limerick who could read & write. http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.asp?Page=NRS5316/4_4816/Pemberton_14%20May%201849/4_481600257.jpg&No=11 A few months before her death in 1914, Sarah O'Malley told her youngest son her original name was Goodchild. There were two Bowen girls on Pemberton, both 16; if they were related, they would have been cousins. One Bowen is spelt Bohan. Mary A. Bohan was a Nursemaid, from "Rosscrea, Tipperary" & Mary Ann Bowen was a Child'smaid from "Queens County", so there is some confusion for me there. Both were Roman Catholics who could read & write. http://srwww.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.asp?Page=NRS5316/4_4816/Pemberton_14%20May%201849/4_481600248.jpg&No=2 Orphans from the Royal Hibernian Military School also travelled on this ship. I have also noticed on this particular ship quite a few orphans were listed as coming from "Rosscrea Limerick" (sic). Any idea why this should be so? The placement & the way the hand writing flows, it appears neither to be a transcription error nor copied from the line above. I am happy for you to pass on my contact details if I can help others from our end. Any leads would be gratefully accepted, With thanks & kind regardsDebra Vaughan
Tuesday 7th May 2013, 08:50AM
Message Board Replies
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Dear Eamonn
Yours is the first reply making a connection for "our Girls", so much appreciated, & shall be mentioned on Commemoration Day 17 November 2013, Williamstown, Australia.
The FYI was good as it shows a Bohan girl in the old Queens County may not have been far away from my O'Malley in Limerick.
Perhaps I can explain that for each of the 20 shiploads of Earl Grey's Scheme, about 20 - 30 girls were chosen from each workhouse, & travelled together, the group growing exponentially as they headed for the Irish & English ports on their way to Port Phillip. So there may be some Irish Famine Orphans (IFOs) from your local workhouses who came out to Sydney, Melbourne & Adelaide between 1848-1850.
It was thoughtful of you to attach the lovely picture of St Cronans, & I have read some of the history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cronan ; perhaps the foreground is part of Roscrea Abbey?
It was also fun that you offered to "help with the puzzle", as I called the first published article on Mistress O'Malley & her fellow IFOs, "A Limerick Puzzle".
I look forward to hearing more when you have time re O'Malley vs Goodchild. It's hard to know whether O'Malley was her mother's maiden name, or perhaps even a second marriage name. Your email has been added to our mailing list as a Friend, with pleasure. All the best, Debra Vaughan
Saturday 11th May 2013, 04:15PM -
Dear Eamonn
The very name, Vaughans of Golden Grove, has such an alluring ring to it, it's sad to relate that we are not connected.
The avenue of of tree was so attractive, there must be some druid blood in the lines somewhere.
Our first Vaughans to Australia were Martha (Bowen/Bohan) Vaughan & her husband George Vaughan. They arrived in Port Phillip 1841 via Gilmore from Milford Haven. As far as I know they were both Welsh.
We don't know any related folks back in Ireland, Wales, Scotland or England in any of our maternal & paternal lines. So this is what brings extra piquancy to the search.
Shall be trying to track down the book you recommended in an earlier post, Tim Pat Coogan's The Famine Plot. It's good to see historians tackling the harder aspects of the world's history, & encouraging debate & hopefully retributive, positive action. Certainly those 1840s British Parliamentary comments such as the devastation "solving the Irish problem" are hard to read, even today.
Regards
Debra Vaughan
Sunday 12th May 2013, 03:05PM