This website will contain a number of stories regarding the O’Connors who arrived from Ireland into Australia on the Medway in 1857.
We start with Michael O’Connor and his wife Ellen Hayden back in Mountrath during the 1820’s and 1830’s.
Details of the O’Connor Family in Ireland before 1830 and even up until they emigrated to Australia in 1857 are very sketchy. It seems that they were poor farm labourers in the then Queens County and there is clear evidence that they lived in and around Mountrath from the mid 1820s until at least 1839.
We are fortunate that Ellen emigrated to Australia with a daughter, her four sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson in 1857. Her death certificate in Australia provides some of the starting points for discovering what happened to the O’Connors when they arrived in Melbourne.
In particular, it shows that Michael and Ellen had eight children. These names and ages on Ellen’s death certificate led to the discovery of the brothers Michael, Fintan and Patrick, not just Andrew, and subsequently two other significant arms of the O’Connor family tree in Australia.
Despite extensive searching, we can find no record of a birth, marriage or death for Michael O’Connor in Ireland. Advice from a family historian in County Laois is that the likelihood of finding any relevant records prior to about 1830 is very remote. We also have been unable to locate any birth information for Ellen (nee Hayden).
Historic Map of Mountrath area
The O'Connor Clan 