Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
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In reply to:
John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
Rosemary MacLean 12/02/01
Hello Rosemary,
I hope to give you some tips on researching your mother's background.(I presume she was your natural mother, rather than your adoptive mother?).
I had a look at the marriage records in my Australian Breen database and searched for your mother's marriage.There are a few possibilities:-
1) Anne Breen, married 1918 in Marrickville NSW to Leo Prendergast, reference 8763
2) Nance Breen, married 1922 in Victoria to David Bernard Murray, reference 866[She appears to have been born and died as Ann Veronica, dau of Patrick & Catherine nee Dunn, so not the one you want]
3) Nancy Breen, married 1926 in Victoria to John William McCarthy, reference 8470 [No record of death in Victoria as McCarthy nee Breen to the end of 1985]
4) Ann Breen, married 1940 in Albury NSW to James McMahon, reference 9172
Re 1) & 4) above, and assuming you are living in or near Sydney, I suggest you look through the electoral rolls, Probate index, burials and newspapers for these women and their husbands.By this means you should be able to find when they died, what age they were and more about their backgrounds.Use the resources of the Mitchell Library and State Library of NSW to do this - it's free.
While at the State Library, you should also use the English/Welsh BDM indexes (also known as the GRO indexes or the St. Catherine's House Indexes), and search for Ann/Nancy's birth, looking in the June and September quarters of 1904.If you don't find it there, try the Mar and Dec quarters of 1904, plus three years either side of 1904.
You may find several possible entries.Make note of them all and compare them with other records you locate in your searches.Keep an eye out from 1910 or so onwards, when the mother's maiden surname appears in the middle column of each entry.If you see any entries for Breen (Briggs), note the details - they will probably be Ann/Nancy's siblings.
Also, look for the marriage of her parents, from at least 1904 and working backwards for up to 10 years IF Ann/Nancy really was their first born.If not, search for another 10 years before that.Check under both surnames until you find a reference in the same quarter that matches - i.e., event, year, quarter, district, volume and page number are all identical.
Once you've done that, order the certificates.Try going through an LDS Library - the more you order through them at a time, the cheaper it is until you hit the lowest price limit.If not through them, try a search agent by the name of Joy Murrin in NSW - she does register checks in the NSW Registry Office and also has an agent in the UK to get certificates more cheaply.Everyone else charges rip-off prices.The counter fee in London for an application is either 6 pounds 50p or perhaps it is now 7 pounds.No need to pay more than $22.00 Australian to get a certificate via an agent.
If you cannot find the family in England/Wales, go on-line to the Scots Registrar General's Office and pay to do an on-line search of the indexes, then order a certificate directly from the office.Not very cheap, but the certificates are worth it - almost as good as Victoria's and NSW's ones.
You may also be able to search the Scots 1891 Census returns on line.If not, use the 1881 Census CDs-ROM for Scotland, England & Wales to see if you can locate the Breen or Briggs families, based on what the certificates tell you.
Regarding Ann/Nancy's arrival in Australia, go to the Australian Archives Office Web Site - check for their location in Sydney - and enquire as to how to do a search for her.They will probably charge for it and maybe they won't allow open access to the registers, so this is a nuisance, but you can't have everything for nothing these days!
As to Orangemen, that may be a family myth.Don't base your research on this until you have the biographical details down pat.He could just as easily have been a draft dodger, regular criminal, refugee of a recession, an itinerate labourer or anything.A huge number of Irishmen and women migrated to Glasgow and Liverpool in search of work in the 1800s.If they didn't go to the USA/Canada or even Australia/NZ, they went to England/Scotland.It was closer, cheaper and they could get home more easily when the time was right.
Good luck with your research,
Cheers,
Heather Johnson
Victoria, Australia
More Replies:
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Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
Rosemary MacLean 12/07/01
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Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
Heather Johnson 12/09/01
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Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
Rosemary MacLean 12/10/01
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Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area
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Re: John Breen Ireland to Newcastle/ Durham area