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« on: Friday 20 May 22 01:43 BST (UK) »
Hello, I am looking for information on Ann Kelly born around 1829. She was in a Donegal workhouse and probably in Letterkenny. She was sent as a Orphan Famine girl to Port Philip in what is Melbourne in Australia. I have all the information I need of her in Australia. I need information about her in Ireland. She has a very common name.
A letter she sent on arrival in Australia to her mother indicates she was in the Letterkenny workhouse. On Ann's marriage and death certificates she is called Mary Kelly. On the death certificate it states her mother was Jane formerly Sweeney and then Hetty. Ann or Mary married Edward Joseph Bedford in 1850 in Melbourne area. Edward was from Dublin. The letter Ann sent to her mother states it's for Mary Sweeney. In the letter Ann sends her love to her brother John and sister Margaret. I do not know what their last names are.
I saw online that the Letterkenny workhouse has digitized their records, but they are not available online. They are only available at the Letterkenny workhouse museum. I wonder if Ann Kelly is mentioned in minute books when she was chosen to go to Australia. I live in the USA and do not know when I will be able to travel to Ireland.
I am wondering if Ann's full name was Ann Mary Kelly. Perhaps her mother was Mary Jane Sweeney since Ann was called Ann when she left Ireland. Ann traveled on Lady Kennaway in September 1848 from Plymouth to Port Phillip in what is now Victoria. She was employed with Dr. John Patterson in Melbourne.
I would like to know of any birth or christening record for Ann Mary Kelly. She was Roman Catholic, but I do not know if she was born in Donegal. Her death certificate (1897) states she was from Donegal. Like with so many other famine orphan girls, it is my understanding they did not talk much about where they were from or Ireland. Probably because of some stigma having been in the workhouses.
Than you so much for reading this and I know this is complicated.
Hera