In the podcast I talk about Patrick Ronan, the convict who seemed to have been the catalyst for my great-great-grandmother’s family to come to Australia. So how is he related to me?
Tamsin Meaney
Neville Meaney (my father)
Patrick Francis Leo Meaney (my father’s father and my grandfather)
Michael Joseph Meaney (my father’s father’s father and my great-grandfather)
Mary Sexton (my father’s father’s father’s mother and my great-great-grandmother)
Catherine Sexton (my father’s father’s father’s mother’s mother and my great-great-great-grandmother)
Patrick Ronan (my father’s father’s father’s mother’s mother’s brother and my great-great-great-great uncle)
So no not a direct ancestor but all the same his story in Australia seems intricately connected to those of my great-great-great grandparents, so it seemed important to start the story in Ireland and then show how events meant that my family arrived in South Australia.
As I discuss in the podcast Patrick came to Australia as a political prisoner from Ireland having participated in White Boy actions which was an agrarian resistance movement that was particularly strong in County Clare in 1821. The following link provides more information about his trial and transportation to Australia.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1831/sep/22/white-boy-acts
The following link provides more information about his trial and transportation to Australia.
http://www.jenwilletts.com/convict_ship_asia_1831.htm
Patrick ended up in the Hunter Valley working for John Bingle. Information about John Bingle can be found at:
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bingle-john-1780
Eventually he was awarded a ticket of leave which meant that he could live and work independently, as long as he attended muster and church each Sunday. In 1849, after 18 years as a convict her received his conditional pardon. The condition was that he was never to return home to Ireland.
There is a suggestion that he subsequently went to the Victorian gold fields but by 1854 he had arrived in South Australia. This may have had something to do with his brother Michael (who was born just before Patrick was sent to Australia) and his family arriving in Adelaide. On 29 July 1854, Patrick married Mary Collins a domestic servant from Cornwall who must have converted to Catholicism in order to be married in the Catholic Cathedral in Adelaide.
Soon after like many Irish families from County Clare, Patrick and Mary moved to Kapunda with Patrick’s brother’s and sister’s families, most likely originally to work in the copper mine.
https://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/03/08/3158406.htm
At least originally, they probably lived with other Irish families on Baker’s Flat a piece of land just outside of Kapunda.
https://australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/journal/the-occuapation-of-bakers-flat/
At some point, they moved to a small holding on Greenock Creek but close enough to Kapunda that their eldest son, Michael, could go to school there. At the age of 9, Michael went missing on his way home. Although the parents advertised to have their son returned to them, it seems that this did not happen.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/10495866
Two month later, Patrick fell into a fire and died. His brother-in-law was the foreman of the inquest jury and the jury found him to have been of unsound mind. This finding allowed Patrick to be buried in the Catholic cemetery of St John’s just outside of Kapunda.
My Forgotten and Invisible Family 
Hi Tamsin, my connection with your family is from my son’s friendship with Tom, at East Balmain.
Can I just say “Wow”, a fantastic effort for putting this podcast together. I only know a little bit about the Meaney family but it’s a fascinating one.
I’m in the midst of assembling my family story and I know how challenging it is to obtain primary sources of information let alone putting it into a podcast.
Looking forward to the next instalment.
Regards,
Alex Salomon.
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Thank you so much. I enjoy doing it but it is a huge effort and so the next one which will be about my great-great-grandparents will be a little while in the coming. But I will get there.
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Hi Tamsin. Patrick Ronan is my great, great, great grandfather on my mothers side. My eldest son is named after him. It was lovely seeing that someone else had an interest in him.
Regards
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That is great to hear that his family is still going. His seemed to be such a tragic life (fascinating but tragic) with the hopes resting on the remaining son. As he is not a direct ancestor, I did not follow through with what happened with his son so it is good to know the family survived and hopefully thrived.
Thanks for getting in touch.
Tamsin
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Hi Tamsin,
I am a great-great-grandson of Andrew Ronan, Patrick’s brother, and the only one of Andrew’s living descendants bearing the family surname. As my father, John Gerald Ronan passed away a couple of months ago, I have since been inspired to dig into my family’s history and I would say that I was greatly impressed from listening to your podcast. I think if my Dad was still around, he would’ve enjoyed it just as much, if not more than I did.
I was always under the impression that the family had moved out to Australia together, but now I know different. I think the impact of Patrick’s actions as a young man definitely had much greater effect than he could have ever known.
As for Andrew, as far as I know, he settled on a farm in Pinkerton Plains, near Hamley Bridge, about 25-30mins drive from Kapunda. He and his wife, Catherine are buried in the Pinkerton Plains Roman Catholic Cemetery, their grave isn’t marked, but Dad did tell me which one is theirs.
At this particular cemetery with Dad one day about 10-15 years ago, I remember running into Allan Meaney (not sure if the first name is the correct spelling) and Dad was saying something about how there was some relation.
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Wow, that is so exciting that you found my podcast. I am in the process of finally doing the next one which is on my great-great grandfather and mother Patrick and Mary Meaney (they take time to research and the last year has been quite a difficult one). Mary was Andrew’s niece. There were 3 brothers (and a sister and a father) who came out to South Australia, much the same time as the other Ronan’s did to join Patrick. Each of the brothers have very large families (my great-great-grandparents had 17 children of which all but one survived to adulthood) so there are enormous numbers of Meaneys in the area and Allan would have been one but perhaps more indirectly related to me. But the more I dig into the area, the more I find that almost all of the Irish Catholics came from County Clare and they inter-married over the generations. I am almost convinced that 80% of those buried at St John’s cemetery at Kapunda is related to me one way or another (if not through blood then through marriage). Pinkerton Plains also figures in my family history because the family of my great-grandmother Mary Anne Kerans lived in this area. Her father helped to build the railway from Adelaide to Gawler but are buried in the cemetery at Pinkerton Plains.
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Yes, there’s definitely a common theme with Irish Catholic families of the same time. From Andrew, to his son Patrick Bonaventure (my great-grandfather), to most of their 10 children and now my father are all buried at Pinkerton Plains. I’m not typically a religious or spiritual person, but when you know that a single place contains so much of your family history, it definitely has a special feeling about it. But, I also definitely get that feeling of being related to most of those who are buried there. That’s probably also helped by the fact the land for the cemetery was donated to the Catholic Church by James Carrigg, Patrick Bonaventure Ronan’s father-in-law, also from County Clare.
The interesting thing about thing Patrick Ronan though, and I was discussing this with a second cousin of mine, who has done some research on our history, it seemed as if it was never mentioned to us about his conviction. I don’t think Dad would’ve even known either.
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I think that Patrick Ronan’s past was soon forgotten. Certainly my family were somewhat horrified that I had dug up a convict, when i tired to work out why South Australia was chosen when the Sexton family were original engaged to work in Melbourne. My family were so sure that South Australia had no transportation and so we were “untainted” by having a convict in the family. However, they reconciled themselves when it turned out he was transported as a political prisoner. I also think that by the time the family were reunited in the 1850s, Patrick had been first on a ticket of leave and then a conditional pardon for some years and so the cause of his being in Australia may never have been known to the generation of his nephews and nieces. I think that Patrick Ronan’s grave at St John’s has a sign that tells that he had been a convict, so there was somebody who knew. It was certainly not an easy thing to unearth the whole story but absolutely fascinating when it became clear what I had stumbled upon. I do wonder if Patrick Ronan’s descendants knew of the connection.
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Hi Christopher and tamsin
I’m Allan meaneys grand daughter. I may be able to fill in some blanks
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That would be great. But I am sorry I am unsure where Allan Meaney fits into the family tree. My Uncle Lance told me that because the Meaneys produced so many children and used similar sets of names, that my grandfather was known as Pat-Mick-Pat to show that his grandfather was Patrick Meaney and his father was Michael (Joseph) as a sort of combinatorial exercise to show what the relationship was. So it would be great to know where Allan fits in and what you know, not just about Patrick Ronan as well as the rest of the family. The research takes such a lot of time, I often focus in on just a few members at a time.
Thanks
Tamsin
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Hello Tamsin, I am responding to your post of June 24, 2020, specifically where you mention that 3 brothers and a sister and father came out to S.A.
My brother Robert and myself are updating a file on the 3 brothers you mention viz. Thomas Meaney(c1829-1895), John Meaney(c1832-1910), and Patrick Joseph Meaney(c1835-1926), and their families.It is quite a large file as you can appreciate- between them, the three brothers and wives had 42 children-and much of the research was done by Michael Jelly (now deceased).We are also searching for info on their father, John Meaney(c1813-1896) who he married, and how many children they had.
We suspected there would have been more than 3 brothers in the family, and have no knowledge of the sister you mention.
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Michael Jelly was my father’s cousin so I am sorry to hear that he has died. I met his sister as well as Great Aunt Molly (although I had met her earlier) at my grandfather’s funeral but never met Michael although i see his name a lot in the Ancestry.com records. I am unsure what he has, my information is only from the small amounts I can find here and there in the family but almost all from documents online. Mary Meaney seems a likely candidate for a sister to the brothers because she arrived with Patrick (I can find no mention of him being Patrick Joseph, but he did have a son called Patrick Joseph – Joseph appears quite a lot in the names of that generation probably because of the presence of the Sisters of Joseph in the area) and with John Meaney. The marriage certificate for her clearly states that her father was John Meaney so a lot of coincidences if they were not related.
Can you tell me who you are related to? Perhaps we can share some information although most of what I have is in the podcast.
Best wishes
Tamsin
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My father is Thomas Francis Meaney(1920-2014), and his father (my grandfather) is Francis Andrew Meaney (1872-1969).
So your great grandfather Michael Joseph, and my grandfather Francis Andrew are brothers.
Here is some trivia for you: Your Grandfather Patrick Francis Leo Meaney and myself were born on 22 December (he 51 years before me), and we both served in the Royal Australian Artillery- he during World War 1, and myself during the Vietnam War.
I have spoken with Lance recently, and he is chasing up Birth and marriage details for Neville, Maxwell, and Jillian plus their families.
Thanks for the info re Mary- I shall endeavour to find out what I can about her history.
Regards, Peter
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Okay so then we are cousins of the not-too-distant kind. Most of what I worked out is in the podcast but if there are any details that I allude to in it, then I can send you details. Mary Meaney is listed on the Utopia records along with Patrick and John. She is variously listed as being 14 or 17 years old on the records that come with the ship and her request to immigrate. Someone of this name with a father called John Meaney married John Thomas Potter Gibbings Price on 3rd June 1863 at Kapunda. As I said just too many coincidences for her not to be related. However, they left the area quite soon after they were married and this is why they don’t seem to appear in stories (although in my family, stories are almost non-existent anyway). The stories about Patrick Ronan and our connection to him was a real surprise. Uncle Lance along with my brother was horrified that we had a convict connection but what a convict to be connected to!
Are you still living in the same area? Once the pandemic is over and after I visit my father and son, I really want to come to South Australia and visit some of these places that I manage to mispronounce in the podcast. But at the moment this does not look like it will happen, any time soon.
Best wishes
Tamsin
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I have lived in Adelaide all my life, and for the past 28 years in Glandore, which is exactly half way between the city and Glenelg.
Do you know where Mary and her husband moved to when they left the Kaunda district?
Some in the Meaney’s moved to the southeast viz. Penola, Mt Gambier and Robe, but I’m not sure where they fit on the “Tree”.
I noticed that the B-Index for Mary is different from that of Patrick and John, but I am not sure of the significance of that.
Delving into family history can certainly reveal some interesting info- as an example, research on my mother’s side revealed that she was adopted by her biological fathers parents, and we had no hint of that being the case.
Keep up the good work Tamsin.
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So the information I have is that Mary Meany married John Thomas Potter Gibbings at Kapunda (his father was George Price) and the record is in volume 54, page 302). Their first two children were born in Penrice (Mary Jane who died after less than a month in 1864 and Alfred George in 1865). The next four children were born at Angaston (William John Gibbings 1866, George Nicholas 1867 twin, Allan Charles 1867 twin (who died one year old) and John Charles 1869). The final child, Jacob was born at Reed Beds in 1870. Mary died at Port Adelaide in 1872 with a suggestion that she was living there at the time. Hope this helps. The names mean that it is not always so sure you are tracking down the same person. I live in Norway, having been brought up in Sydney, so all my research is done by the internet. We used to go to stay with my grandfather in Brighton in summer holidays when I was a kid but most of my geographical knowledge of South Australia is pretty hazy so I rely on maps to make sense of things as best I can. There is an Ellen Meaney (nee Walsh) who had a husband John Meaney but she died in Penola before The Meaney brothers arrived in South Australia so this connection I considered to be too far fetched to really be a reality.
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Patrick Ronan is my Great, Great, great grandfather. Our father chronicled Patrick Roman’s history pertaining to inception and death.
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That’s really interesting, do you know Jodi or Christopher who also have him as a direct relative?
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I am not sure who Marty is, but going by what he is saying, he would be 4th cousin to me.
Gotta admit, I’ve never met half of my Dad’s family.
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My wish is that once the pandemic is over and I can return to Australia and have sometime, that I will come to South Australia and visit all the places I am documenting and hopefully meet up with all of you who are distant and not-so-distant relatives.
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Hello,
Jodi is my sister. Kathryn Ronan is my mother.
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Marty is my brother.
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Mary Price nee Meaney was their sister and daughter of John. I have DNA matches with her descendants. Patrick and Mary Meaney were my great grandparents as well. I also have other DNA matches with Sextons who are somehow related to the ones discussed above but not descended from them and a Michael Ronan descendant. What I really want to discover is who was the wife of John Meaney and mother of Patrick, Thomas, John and Mary. I know some trees have attributed an Ellen who died in Penola SA as the mother but I can’t see any evidence for this. There isn’t as far as I can see, a record of the mother coming to SA. I presumed, but may be wrong, that she died in Ireland. Hello to all of you cousins and thankyou Tamsin for all your research. Unfortunately the pandemic is still upon us, stay well everybody.
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I think that a post-pandemic trip to Ennis may be the only lead we have in trying to find the wife of John Meaney. I suspect like you that she died in Ireland because it makes no sense that the Ellen Meaney who died in Penola is related because she must have run away and arrived before others. Thanks for the DNA confirmation of Mary Price, that really helps. Having had a horror year with family deaths, I hope to get the next podcast out this week.
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Hello Tamsin
I think I am related to you as well, my grandmother Ileen (Kealy) Daley is related to the Meaney’s.
I am planning a visit to Ennis Ireland in June 2022, I was just reading through the comments and looks like you want to know the name of the wife of John Meaney. I was just looking at Ennis walking tours on the internet and the guide is named Jane O’Brien and she has a PhD in history- her email address is info@enniswalkingtours.com and phone number is +353 (0) 87 648 3714.
I am planning on going on one of these tours.
Kjersti Johansen
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Hi Kjersti (eller hei Kjersti)
You are indeed related to me. Robert and Peter who are second cousins once removed from me know your grandmother’s family in South Australia really well and they have been keeping a thorough list of all the Meaney relatives. Robert was thrilled to hear you made contact.
As it happens I was in County Clare at Easter and tracked down as much as I could (I have Patrick Meaney and Mary Meaney (nee Sexton) from there as well as on grandfather’s mother’s side. There is one lead still to follow up in County Clare but the Meaneys of Ennistymon Parish are still in the dark. Peter at the Clare Library genearology section is fabulous.
And with a name like yours I am presuming that you live in Norway as I do.
Best wishes
Tamsin
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Hi Betty
Sound how your message got changed to a facebook post. Could you edit this and add the original message. I am having a bad day and saw the message but then lost it. So I know you are related to Mary Meaney.
Thanks
Tamsin
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