Convict or Grocer?

A genealogical researcher with ties to Australia will often hope for and experience great delight in locating a convict or convicts in their own family history.   Delight because the records related to Convict transportation from the United Kingdom to Australia between the late 1700s and the mid-1800s are very comprehensive.  Convicts are some of the poorest and most maligned early European settlers to Australia, and have the largest collection of easily accessible historical records which relate to many facets of their lives.   Being able to build a more complete picture of who your ancestor was, where they lived and with whom, to trace their journey across the globe and to know the colour of their eyes and what they looked like is ‘meat on the bones’ of genealogical research. These pieces of information add colour and depth to our research and provide us with a much greater and precious connection with our family history.

Years ago, my family incorrectly claimed an Irish Convict named Eugene Connor as our own. To be fair I am largely responsible for this error, as I made a connection between the arrival of this man to New South Wales on the Convict vessel Hive in 1835, and Eugene Connor, a Grocer who raised his family in the Cumberland district of Sydney in the 1840s and 50s. My view was mirrored and supported by other researchers and over the years my family have continued to believe that our grandfather, John Hugh O'Connor husband of Eliza Sarah Wightman who lived in Kawhia, New Zealand, until his death in 1954 was the grandson of Eugene Connor an Irish Convict.  

I’ve learned a great deal more about genealogical research in the 15 years since I found Eugene the Convict, and now with a Diploma of Family History from the University of Tasmania under my belt I can safely say my research is a great deal more comprehensive and robust.

I now know there were two men named Eugene Connor in New South Wales in the same time frame, both from County Kerry, in Ireland.   One a Convict who made a dramatic arrival to NSW on the vessel Hive in 1835 and the other a Kerry farmer’s lad who became a Grocer and who arrived in Sydney as a bonded immigrant on the vessel Susan in 1839.

My stories of both men can be read here:

Eugene Connor the Convict        Eugene Connor the Grocer

If you are descended from either of these men I would very much like to hear from you.

Grocer

The story of Eugene Connor and Elizabeth Griffin who arrived in Sydney as bonded immigrants in 1839 is coming soon.