Looking for O'Connors from early 1800s

Hi - Thank you for your message.

Do you have any further information regarding his emmigration? Have you checked the immigration records in Australia? Generally, more information was given at the port of arrival rather than the port of departure. The University of Woolongong has produced, on microfiche, a complete index and transcript of all information concerning immigrants of Irish origin recorded on ships' passenger lists between 1848 and 1867 for New South Wales. These are useful for finding out an exact place of origin as well as parents' names. The Public Record Office of Victoria has good online databases of settlers at www.prov.vic.gov.au Otherwise, other records may be found in the Colonial Office Papers of the UK National Archives, class reference CO 201. This class contains a wide variety of records, including petitions for assisted passages, emigrants' lists, records of emigrants on board ship, petitions from settlers for financial assistance and much more.

Australian resources: http://familyhistoryresearch.com.au/resources/index.htm

Some resources which might be helpful to your search are:

British parliamentary papers on Ireland can be found at: http://eppi.dippam.ac.uk/documents/9824/eppi_pages/215093

The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/

The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx

The National Archives UK ? genealogy search: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/

Irish Newspaper Archives: http://www.irishnewsarchive.com/

Remember to post as much information as you can with regard to the people you are researching. The more information you post, the more likely it is that one of our volunteers will be able to advise or assist you. Also include information concerning which sources you may have already used so others may further your search.

Kind regards,                    

Genealogy Support

Thank you for your comprehensive information.  I have used some of these and I'm sure the others will be valuable for my overall family history research.

Some further work has identified that he arrived in Victoria on the Medway in December 1857.  I haven't yet been to the Victorian Public Record Office to look at the particular fiche but the summary available on their website leaves me wondering about his wife.  There seems to be a clear match with their first son, Michael aged 1 year, but there is no Margaret.  I need to do some more work.  Do you think there will be sufficient information on the fiche to identify more specifically where he was born or came from in Ireland?  I assumed the boat had sailed from England because they had been married in Sheffield in 1851.

Anyway, thanks again for your response.  Now it's time for me to keep searching through some of those websites you've provided.

Frank

Hi Frank,

I think the fiche would certainly be worth looking at. You can never be too sure about what may or may not have been recorded regarding a particular individual. A look at the shipping information for the Medway - if available - may also be worthwhile, or at least interesting, as it may have called in to several ports before making its way to the other side of the world.

I wish you the best of luck with your research.

regards,

Cynthia