Stories of Agnes Cahill

Here's the link to Myra's story  Part 1  and  Part 2 . Myra is my half grand-aunt. On 11 October 1919,  twenty year old Myra married fifty year old divorced father of two, Robert Hollyford Whitworth, in Sydney. Myra was estranged from our family in the second half of the 1920s. I found Myra in 2017.  The last piece of this puzzle was to find out about Whitworth's family. Family Notices (1919, October 20).  Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954) , p. 4. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14007329 The parents and siblings of Robert Hollyford Whitworth Robert Hollyford Whitworth was the fifth of the six children of Robert Percy Whitworth (RPW) and Margaret Rivers Smith. RPW was born in 1831 in Devonshire England (1). Margaret was born in 1834 in Lancashire. They married in 1854 at Manchester Cathedral. RPW was a barrister's clerk.  Their first child, Alma Rivers Whitworth , was born in 1855 in Man...

Here's the link to  Myra's story (Part 1) . Myra is the half sister of my grandfather, James Oswald Woodlands. On 11 October 1919, my twenty year old half grand-aunt, Myra Woodland, married fifty year old divorced father of two, Robert Hollyford Whitworth, in Sydney. This is the only photo we have of Myra who is with her little sister Lorna around the time of her marriage. Both Lorna and my Dad, Myra's half nephew, remembered meeting Myra when they were young children. Dad was six years younger than Lorna. Their recollection was that she would return home when she was in need and would then depart without warning. There was never any mention of a marriage. On one occasion, her father told her that, if she left without warning again, she wasn't welcome back. That was the last time Lorna and Dad saw Myra. We don't know if her parents had any further contact with Myra. I'm thinking this would have been between 1923 and 1930 when James and Agnes Woodland moved from ...

Born Myra Cahill, known as Myra Woodland(s), Marie Constance Woodland and Jean Olive Whitworth  Part 1 of Myra's story was originally published in August 2017. The time has come for an update. Myra is the third child of my great-grandmother, Agnes Cahill.  She was born on 5 November 1898 at Union Lane Newcastle. Her birth is registered as Myra Cahill. A father is not named. Anges was the informant on the registration and records that she's 27 years of age, born at Branxton and a spinster. I've located a newspaper report dated 10 September 1898 which shows that James Woodland was living at 10 Union Lane Newcastle at the time. Although Agnes and James weren't married until 16 January 1901, James is probably Myra's father. The only record that I can find of Myra's early life is in March 1911 when she was twelve. It's reported that, at the "Operative Bakers' Picnic", the members' daughters' race was won by Myra. She was presented ...

Thomas John Cahill was born on 26 August 1866 at Black Creek (near Singleton), NSW. He's the eight of the eleven children of James Cahill and his wife, Eliza Dunn. Agnes was the next child born. Cahill family historians have been searching for Thomas for years. In May 2018, twelve trees on ancestry.com.au showed Thomas but none included any details of Thomas's life after his birth. We did think that Thomas was alive at the time of his mother's death in 1890 as he's recorded on Eliza's death certificate as "living" and aged 25.   Genetic genealogy is a tool that I'm using more and more in my family history research. In August 2017, "ER" reported as a match to me and other "Cahill/Dunn cousins" at AncestryDNA. ER's predicted relationship to me was 4th cousin ie predicted that we shared 3rd great-grandparents. I messaged "ER" a number of times but, as is too often the case, no response. "ER" did have a small t...

Over the last five years, we've used traditional and DNA research to find out more about the eleven children of  James Cahill  and his wife,  Eliza Dunn . Johanna is their fifth child. She was born between 15 April 1862 and 21 July 1863 in the Hunter region of NSW. In spite of extensive research, we can't find details of the birth, baptism or death of Johanna.  Family of Johanna Cahill When we started our search, we knew that:- Johanna had a daughter, Roseanna Cahill on 15 July 1879. Johanna married Charles Montague on 21 February 1883 in Singleton. Johanna and Charles had a child, Reginald Montague, in 2 February 1884 in Sydney. Roseanna stayed in the Hunter with Johanna's mother and later uncle, James Cahill. Roseanna married John O'Connell (1866 to 1938) on 2 May 1904 in Singleton. Roseanna died on 24 September 1938 in Branxton. During this time, we've found that:- Johanna, a widow, married Dominic Ceci on 14 March 1887 in Sydney. She was know by the given names ...

One hundred and forty years after her birth, we've reunited Annie with her Cahill family with traditional family history and DNA research. We're still looking for Annie's brother, Charles. If you are a descendant of any of the Cahill siblings, please use the blog's contact form to see if you can assist in the search. For the last five years, we've been researching the eleven children of James Cahill and Eliza Dunn who were born in the Hunter region of NSW between 1856 and 1870. Johanna Cahill, known as Hannah, was their fifth child. We've been searching for her birth and death registrations. You can read the full story  HERE.   Hannah married Charles Montague in 1883. They had one son, Reginald, the following year. He becomes known as Charles. Hannah, a widow, married Dominic Ceci in 1885. She's then known as Hannah or Minnie Ceci. We can't find any trace of Dominic after 1887. The last trace we have of Hannah is in 1899 Here's the first evidence we ...