Johanna Cahill: Setting the record straight!

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 of Hannah and Minnie and family names of Montague or Ceci.
  • Henry Hill Grainger (1859 to 1951) was the father of Roseanna.
  • Johanna had a second daughter, Florry Cahill, on 15 June 1882 in Singleton.
  • Two children of Johanna, Annie Florrie Montague and Charles Montague, were admitted to the Sydney Benevolent Asylum on 12 January 1889.
  • They were discharged on 14 February 1889 to "the boarding out officer".
  • Annie Florrie Montague was Florry Cahill and Charles Montague was Reginald Montague.
  • Annie went on to marry Harry Element (1888 to 1916) on 25 March 1911 in Glebe Point.
  • Harry died of wounds sustained in France during the First World War and is buried in England.
  • Annie was widowed with two young sons, Charles (1913 to 1981) and Leslie (1915 to 1977).
We're still searching to add to the story of Johanna:-
  • When and were did her first husband Charles Montague die?
  • What happened to Dominic Ceci after he deserted Johanna in late 1887?
  • What happened to Charles (Reginald) Montague when he was discharged from the Sydney Benevolent Asylum in 1889?
  • What happened to Johanna after she left goal in mid 1899?
  • What happened to Annie Element (nee Montague) after 1963 when she's shown in the NSW Electoral Roll living in Daceyville?
You can read the stories of Johanna and Annie in full HERE and HERE.

If you're 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 Johanna, her husbands, Charles and Dominic, and children, Annie and Charles.

Popular posts from this blog

How a DNA match led to finding Agnes's older brother, Thomas Cahill. Or is it Carroll?

Image
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
Read more

Agnes Cahill - My Woodlands great-grandmother

Image
Since early in 2016, I've been looking at my paternal grandfather's family - researching, questioning and sharing with a few of "the cousins" along the way.  There've been a few surprises!  The biggest being that Cornelius Bray was my grandfather's biological father and James Woodland (Snr) was his step-father.  We knew my grandfather as James Oswald Woodlands but his birth name was Oswald Cahill. So it's probably time that I started to record some of what I've uncovered...  After all, there's a lot more to research - my grandfather's biological Bray family and his known (or social) Woodlands family! My grandfather's biological pedigree My grandfather's "social" pedigree Agnes Cahill is at the centre of the story.  Agnes's descendants are a small groups these days - one granddaughter, great-grandchild (including me) and great-great-grandchildren.  Maybe we'll find out how many as more join our Facebook group! Here
Read more

29 April 2021:150 years since the birth of Emily Jane Carroll (nee Hookeywin)

Image
I couldn't let today pass without letting my Cahill/Carroll cousins know that it was a significant day for the family of James and Eliza Cahill being the 150th anniversary of the birth of their daughter-in-law Emily Jane Hookeywin.  Emily was born on 29 April 1871 near Narrandera to Thomas and Ann (NSW birth registration 18540/1871) .   Emily first entered my family history when I was researching my AncestryDNA match with "ER" as part of my search for what happened to the siblings of Agnes Cahill, my great-grandmother.  You can read about how I unravelled my match with "ER"  HERE.    Agnes's brother Thomas had changed his family name (or it had been changed for him).  He and his family were known as Carroll.   After researching a photo on ancestry.com, I found the article about Emily published in the Koori Mail on 24 October 2007.  Emily and Thomas had married in 1907 in South Grafton (NSW marriage registration 7676/1907) .   I've had a lot of contact wi
Read more