Hi all, I have hit a couple of walls surrounding my GG-Grandfather, Daniel Coyle. As far as I can ascertain, he was baptised in January 1822 at St Marys Pro-Cathedral in Dublin City, the son of Anthony and Bridget (Curren) Coyle. At the time the family were living in Townsend Street. The family was, and remained, 'Church Of Rome', even as far as the 1940s in Australia. Daniel trained as a shoemaker.
Then I have got a blank until he turns up in Sydney and married my GG-Grandmother, Ellen Ryan, from Gowran, Co. Kilkenny, in St Marys Cathedral, Sydney on 29/09/1851. NSW BDM Reg. No: 328/1851 V1851328 97. They went on to have seven children (three died as infants), first in Sydney, then up in the Hunter Valley at the then booming river port of Morpeth where they ran a shoemaking and leathergoods store. Then about 1863-1865, both parents disappear off the face of the planet, while the two older surviving children, my Great-Grandfather John and his sister Mary, turn up further up the Hunter Valley in the Tamworth area in 1875, and the two youngest boys, Thomas and Alfred, remained in the Morpeth/Maitland area for most of their life, before moving to Sydney where they both died in a TB ward two years apart, and are buried together in Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
After more than two years of searching, I still have no idea how Daniel got to Sydney, whether voluntarily or in chains, and where they disappeared to after 1865, so any assistance would be greatfully accepted.
I am reasonably certain that Daniel had brothers and sisters in Dublin, I have found four possible siblings, Miriam (Mariam) baptised at St Andrews Dublin on 09/02/1818, Thomas baptised at St Andrews on 22/03/1819, Daniel in 1822, a second Thomas baptised at St Marys on 16/06/1824 and Bridget baptised at St Marys on 16/03/1827.
Did Daniel and Ellen return to Ireland to live out their later years, possibly with one of their siblings, or did they remain in New South Wales and just vanish?
Terry_Chadban
Tuesday 28th Nov 2023, 04:29AMMessage Board Replies
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Terry,
I don't know if this will help. On Ancestry there are several trees with Daniel and Ellen. Some suggest they stay in Australia. Per the trees, Daniel died in Maitland, NSW in 1903 (Death Registration 10986) and Ellen also died in Maitland in 1926. They note she was buried at Sandgate Cemetery in Maitland. I checked out the cemetery and found an Ellen Coyle buried in 1926 but it suggested she was 60 years, 11 months old. Maybe there is another Ellen Coyle in the cemetery or the info was inaccurate. I could not find an arrival date for Daniel. The ones I found on Ancestry trees did not make sense, based on date and age.
Regards- Mary
MaryTV
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Terry,
Ellen's Immigration, f
rom Ancestry-
NameEllen Ryan
Birth Yearabt 1828
Age22
GenderFemale
Arrival Date15 Oct 1850
Vessel NameKate
Origin LocationGoran, County Kilkenny, Ireland
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From RootsIreland (subscription)
Maybe? Jeremiah and Mary were names listed on her immigration record
Name:Ellen RyanDate of Birth:
Date of Baptism:27-Dec-1827
Address:GowranParish/District:GOWRAN
Gender:FemaleCountyCo. Kilkenny
Denomination:Roman Catholic
Father:Jeremiah RyanMother:Mary Tyrrell
Occupation:
Sponsor 1 /
Informant 1:Patrick Connors
Sponsor 2 /
Informant 2:Mary RocheNotes:
[S][FATHER GIVEN AS JEREMIA] [E][SP1 GIVEN AS PATT]
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Regards- Mary
MaryTV
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Hi MaryTV,
Thanks for the replies, but they are the wrong Daniel and Ellen Coyle. I have got Ellen's birth and arrival sorted, you are right, she arrived on the 'Kate' in 1850, and that baptism is correct, which corresponds with her given age on arrival. But if she was buried in 1926 she would have been 98 years old! The Daniel and Ellen Coyle buried at Sandgate Cemetery were the son and daughter-in-law of another Coyle family, Daniel and Caroline, (no relation) who arrived in Australia around 1859 and moved up to the Clarence River area of NSW. To make things even more confusing, that family stopped off in Maitland in 1860, long enough to give birth to a daughter there, before moving further north, so both Daniel Coyles and their families were in the same area at the same time! No wonder the extended family got confused!
I know that some members of the extended family insist that our Daniel and Ellen remained in the Morpeth/Maitland area, and were buried in Maitland, and they may be right, but there is no actual evidence to back it up. If those people with the family trees bothered to check their own sources they would see that the Daniel Coyle death registered in 1903 was registered in Newcastle, not Maitland, and he was the son of Daniel and Caroline, not Anthony and Bridget. That corresponds with the Daniel Coyle and his wife Ellen buried in Sandgate Cemetery, which is on the outskirts of Newcastle.
There were three cemeteries in the Morpeth/Maitland area in the 1860s, and I have checked the burial records for all of them, and also contacted the Cemeteries Department of Maitland Council, and there is no record of any of the Coyle family being buried in the area, even though I know that the children were buried at West Maitland in 1860 and 1861 by their death registrations. I have even had volunteers trek through all of the cemeteries checking headstones, but no luck, although they found a number of unmarked gravesites.
The problem is that in 1953, then again in 1955, the Maitland/Hunter Valley area had two massive floods, which destroyed most of the historical records, so there are people buried all over the area which the council has no records for. But the civil records are held in Sydney and they weren't affected by the floods, but there is no credible death registrations for either Daniel or Ellen in New South Wales. I have also checked the records for Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and even New Zealand with no luck. Which is why I am starting to lean towards the possibility that they may have jumped on a ship and sailed back to Ireland, or even to the 'promised land' (USA). Morpeth in the 1860s was the second biggest port in Australia, with dozens of International trading ships arriving and departing every day, and Daniel was brought up close to the docks in Dublin, so it must have occurred to him at some stage.
My hope is that the descendant of one of his siblings may know something about why he decided to pack up and travel halfway around the world, and possibly even what happened to them in their later years. Or maybe some form of local Dublin sources can help shed some light?
Cheers,
Terry Chadban
Terry_Chadban