The Maloney Family or Moloney, or Malony, Or Molony...

So far everything I've posted about is on my fathers side, mainly because I've struck a number of rich veins that are easy for building into the story of my family. I'm corresponding with a great guy named Ron about the early Ewer family, I have my great-grandfathers letters reminiscing about his family, there's a box of old photos yet to be incorporated, and all these descendents had many children meaning there's a large extended family. I'll write about these sources one by one.

So I started thinking about the family records and the primary sources written by family members. My paternal lineage, the Hall family, come from Fenstanton (so far!). My father is Andrew, born Sydney. His dad was Jack, born Sydney. His dad was Norman, born Dubbo. His dad was Alfred Ernest, born Yass, and back through the ages. But that's another story.

Alfred Ernest Hall (1870-1954), a teacher studying at the University of Sydney, married Bridget Ann Moloney (1875-1942) in 1895 in Redfern. The Moloney family come from Limerick, and my cousin Chris has a wonderful site at http://www.moloneyfamily.org have a wonderful site about this side of the family. Bridget's father John Ryan Moloney arrived in Australia in 1864 from Ireland. There is many a mystery about his life in Ireland, and while I'll write on them here some day, moloneyfamily.org discusses all of this in detail.

It fits in like this:


John married Ellen Meyrick (Merrick) a few days after arriving in the pre-fire St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney. No mean feat, and he backed it up by having tree MP's sign his application form to be a teacher just a month later! There's some influence in his life that smacks of an influential letter of introduction in this pocket, but again more of that later.

John Ryan is a intriguing man, and Tom, another cousin through the Moloney's, found this copy of John Moloney's memoirs that my great grandfather Norman made.



My transcription:
""Extract from family memoirs

I John Moloney was born in the town land of Dromalty near the village of Cappamore, in the County of Limerick, Ireland. My fathers name was William, and my mothers maiden name Mary Ryan. I was born on the 8th January 1841.

I left Ireland for Australia in June 1864, and landed in Sydney on the 8th October 1864.
On this (8th Oct 64) afternoon Ellen Meyrick and an acquaintance came on board and I went with them. I was married to Ellen Meyrick on the Tuesday following (11 October 1864) at St. Mary's (old) cathedral Father Curley officitating. Ellen Meyrick born 14th Feb 1842."

Imagine if we could find the rest of this memoir, or even the copy that Norman Hall clearly made at some point. As it is, it's rich in information, written by an Irishman about a time when few records were kept in Ireland. I've been working with Chris and Tom on unearthing John's father William Maloney, an artist who has disappeared off the face of the planet.

A lot more to be written about the Moloney's. And the Maloney's.