My goodness! This is all very very gratefully received and confirms some of what I do know, and opens quite a few new lines of pursuit.
I WILL get to respond individually to you all asap.
The Quinlans are a very bewildering family to pursue and I will TRY to fill you all in with what I know of this jigsaw puzzle with lots of pieces missing.
To begin at the end of this thread with 284 Tyler Street Preston electoral roll:
1. John Owen Morgan and Florence Morgan were my Morgan grandparents.
2. John Owen Morgan was the grandson of Ellen Quinlan, sister of Jeremiah Quinlan whose name began this thread.
3. William Quinlan was Ellen Quinlan-Morgan's brother. They had another sister in Melbourne, Anne Nora Quinlan, later Johnston. While it is clear from the records that this William Quinlan is the son of William Senior and Margaret McDonald, Ellen and Anne Nora certainly look to be the Margaret and Mary Bridget Quinlans born to the same parents. They seem to have chosen new names when they came to Melbourne, for reasons best known to themselves. The violent death of their father suggests some unsavoury possibilities for aliases. Since there are clear and convincing reasons to believe the three were siblings, the name changes are perplexing to those of us who descend from them.
4. The Gordon William Quinlan also at 284 Tyler Street was always said to be William's son, and the birth and death records tend to confirm this, but for reasons best left alone for now the records for his birth and death confuse his birth mother totally. And raise more questions than answers. They are buried in the same grave at Preston cemetery. Many in our family doubt the accuracy of this father-son connection
5. In Tasmania, the records place most births in Launceston and the father dies in Campbell Town (where oral history suggests, rightly or wrongly, they lived for some time. Oral history on the subject of the Quinlans has proven fairly unreliable).
6. Ellen (Mary Bridget) Quinlan married Owen Orr Morgan, and their daughter Annie Morgan was my great grandmother (mother of John Owen Morgan mentioned above). Another complex story best left alone here for now.
7. Digger ... TAS BDM Pioneer index has been attached (I hope). I have relied on it largely to date.
Hope this helps .. it's a jgsaw with lots of gaps.
Again, my thanks to all who have had a go at helping with this thread.
Rodney53