Michael Cahill - brother to Agnes - was born on this day 150 years ago!

Michael was born on 23 March 1868 at Belford in the Singleton district of NSW.  He was the tenth of the eleventh children of James and Eliza Cahill.  Agnes was the ninth child.


Michael was our 1st, 2nd or 3rd great-uncle.  He was probably named after Eliza's older brother who was born about 1828 in Johns Well, County Kilkenny, Ireland.  James and Eliza had left there family behind in 1855 to live in Australia.  Michael's older brother, James, married Isabella Hogan, and their first son was called Micheal.  He was born in 1885 also at Belford.

There are only fragments of Michael's life that survive after his birth in 1868.  

On 9 November 1891, when he was 25, Michael appears in Maitland Goal's Entrance Book.  His conviction was for being drunk.  He was sentenced to 24 hours in goal or a 10 shilling fine.  Michael chose the 24 hours!  So through this brief encounter with the law, we find a few things about Michael.  He was 5 feet 8 inches, stout build with fresh complexion, red hair and blue eyes.  He was working as a labourer and could read and write.  

1891 NSW Goal Entrance Book
Michael did not marry.  His death notice is the only other reference that I can find.  He died on 17 February 1950, aged 81, at St Joseph's Hospice Lismore and is buried in Lismore Cemetery.  We read that he moved to Kyogle as a young man and then lived in Busbys Flat which is about 70 kilometres south west of Lismore.  He moved to the Hospice in Lismore about four years before his death.  I can't locate any other family members who lived in the area at the time.  As his father and brother, James, worked for the NSW Railways, I'm wondering if this is where Michael worked and that's what took him to Kyogle.  Did you ever meet Michael?

Michael Cahill's 1950 death notice


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