The Connellys in New Zealand
1888
Ellen “Nellie” Mary Connelly (1888 - 1961) was the grandmother of Margaret Louise Robinson. But there are still gaps in the Connelly story and many unanswered questions, especially about their time in New Zealand.
Like almost all of Margaret Robinson’s forebears Nellie's family, the Connellys, were of Irish origin. Their route from Ireland to Sydney was not a direct one, having first spent a number of years in Victoria and New Zealand before eventually settling in Sydney.
Thomas Francis Connelly, Margaret’s paternal great-grandfather was born in county Galway, Ireland. Based on the details in his 1885 marriage certificate to Ellen Thomas was born about 1847 and his father, John Connelly, was a grain merchant.
Note: "Connelly" is one of several similar Irish name variants, including "Connolly", "Conely" and "Conneely". On some records, such as his 1885 Australian marriage certificate, Thomas' surname is shown as "Connolly". However "Connelly" is the variant most commonly used by family members.
Thomas’s future wife, Ellen Duggan, was also born in county Galway at Castlegar, about May 1849 (we do not have her birth certificate but we know she was baptised that month). According to her 1885 marriage certificate Ellen's father, Denis Duggan, was a ship's carpenter. Much later in life Ellen was to tell one of her children that she recalled rowing boats across Galway Bay.
The Connellys in New Zealand
The mid-19th century was a time of great hardship and famine in Ireland. Like many of their countryfolk Thomas and Ellen both left Ireland sometime in the 1850s, presumably in search of a better life. We know that they spent many years in New Zealand before finally settling in Sydney in the 1880s, but their exact movements are unclear.
According to information in his death certificate in 1899 Thomas, aged 58, had spent "five years in Victoria, 17 years in New Zealand and 18 years in NSW". That suggests that he was born about 1841, that he travelled from Ireland, presumably to Victoria about 1859, before moving to New Zealand around 1875 and then again to Sydney in 1881.
It is possible that Thomas was drawn to Victoria by the gold rush of the time. Unfortunately there are no records of either a Thomas Connelly / Connolly or an Ellen Duggan arriving in Victoria that match with this information, nor of either them later traveling to New Zealand. This period of the Connelly's remains a mystery for the moment.
There is a family story that the two met when travelling on the same ship and another story that Ellen became pregnant, presumably to Thomas on that voyage. However neither story can be yet be verified.
The first confirmed information we have of Thomas and Ellen in New Zealand is the arrival of their first child, Winifred Margaret, who was born in September 1875 at Oxford, near Christchurch.
Thomas is listed on Winifred's birth certificate as a railway employee. The 1870s were a period of considerable development in NZ railways so finding employment in this industry may have been relatively easy.
Around 1882 the family moved to Sydney (their sixth child was born in New Zealand in 1881, while their seventh child was born in Redfern in 1883). It may be that just as Thomas left Ireland he was lured back to Australia by the hope of bettering his prospects. Their ninth child and Margaret’s grandmother, Nellie, was born in Redfern in 1888.
As noted previously Thomas Connelly died in 1899. All we know of him after the family's move to Australia is that he worked as a station-master, continuing the involvement with the railways that had begun in New Zealand. His wife, Ellen, died in 1922.
The Marriage Mystery
On several of their children’s birth certificates it is stated that Thomas and Ellen married in New Zealand on 23 September 1873. However no record of this marriage has yet been found in the New Zealand official registry. To add to the mystery Thomas and Ellen went through a marriage ceremony in Sydney 12 years later, in May 1885.
So did Thomas and Ellen marry in 1873 or 1885? And why does Nellie’s 1888 birth certificate refer to the 1873 wedding rather than the Waterloo ceremony that took place just three years earlier?
Transcript of Nellie Connelly’s birth certificate, 1888. Note that her parents' wedding is given as having taken place in New Zealand in Sep 1873, not in Sydney just three years earlier
Perhaps the 1873 wedding was never registered and therefore undocumented. Alternatively it may be that the New Zealand marriage never took place at all and was claimed just for the sake of propriety. Either way Thomas and Ellen may have decided to go through a second marriage ceremony in Australia some years later to legitimise the status not just of Nellie, but of all their children.
The Connelly children
Thomas and Ellen had 10 children, but we have only scant information about them. Francis Kevin Connelly (1879-1967) was a first grade player for South Sydney in the early 1900s, first in rugby union and then newly formed rugby league code from 1908 onwards. According to his family Frank was even selected to play for Australia in England but his wife refused to let him go. It is said that he was also a fine boxer.
After his football career Frank was caretaker of Bayley’s Tannery in Botany until he died in 1967. He had a cottage on the Tannery site.
1905 South Sydney Premiership side. Francis was a forward playing in this side. If the larger picture on top left hand corner is Frank later in life then the player on the far bottom line left hand side could be him. But we cannot be sure.
Another child, Patrick Keirin Connelly (1877-1978) played an ongoing role in Nellie's life. The fourth born child he was known to all in the family as "Uncle Bubs" or "Uncle Bubsie", a nickname that apparently stuck with him all his life. Bubs lived with Nellie at her house at 225 Rainbow St, Randwick. This is the house that Nellie and her de facto Arthur "Robinson" (birth name Conway, later known as Sams) moved to in 1944 from Ultimo.
It seems that Nellie's children did have some contact with their other New Zealand-born Connelly aunts, one later recounting that within the family they were jokingly referred to as “Maoris”.
As for Nellie herself we still know nothing of her life up until she married Robert Robinson in 1906 at just 17 years of age.