Last week, 23 January, was my mother’s birthday, or at least it would have been was she still alive. Mum died in 1999 on August 28. We were living in Sweden at the time, our twins, Hanna and Samuel were not yet two years old, and Isak, our youngest, was not even born. Our return to Australia was planned for October or November, when my brother Peter and his wife Sarah, then living in England, were also planning to move to Australia. When Dad phoned us to tell of Mum’s illness, an aggressive pneumonia which progressed rapidly to septicaemia, Peter and I immediately booked flights, arriving in Tamworth, Australia almost simultaneously a few days later. Mum died the night after we arrived, plunging our family into a dark time of shock and sadness.
That was over 14 years ago and as always, life goes on, despite the hole that is left by the passing on of a loved one. There is still a deep sadness that comes over me at times, at birthdays and anniversaries especially. I was thinking about Mum the other day and her life, and her background, which of course I would love to know more of. I get so annoyed that I cannot ask her about how things were, though of course I heard much of her life when she was here to tell us. And Mum was a great teller of stories.
What I don’t think I ever realised properly was that Mum was only first generation Australian. Her father was English, growing up in the west of London, migrating to Australia in the twenties when he was 18 years old. His parents, the grandparents Mum never met, were both English, though his mother was born in South Africa for reasons I have not yet been able to ascertain. Mum’s mother was Australian born, but both of her parents, Mum’s maternal grandparents, were Irish, having migrated to Australia when they were young. The circumstances of these migrations I have yet to discover, though doubtless Mum could tell me if she was here. So Mum’s grandparents were English and Irish.
Mum’s English grandfather, George Simmonds (previously George Lilley), was in the British army in WW1, as I have written about previously. Her Irish grandfather, George Byrne, who lived in Australia, was born in 1861, and was therefore 53 years of age at the outbreak of war 100 years ago, too old to serve. However, Mum had one uncle on her mother’s side, Uncle William Byrne, who was born in 1895, and was therefore 19 at the outbreak of WW1. He served in the war too, but the details of his war service I have also yet to discover. I would also love to know more of how Mum’s mother, my grandmother Gertrude, and her four sisters, experienced the First World War, since it must have had a profound effect on their early lives. Three of those sisters, Kathleen, Frances and Isobel, never married. I have wondered if part of the reason could have been the lack of young men at that time, so many having embarked for Europe never to return?
Mum’s grandparents, George Byrne and Susan Hickson, were both born in County Kerry, Ireland, in the 1860s. How they came to Australia and when I have yet to discover, but they met and married there, and raised a family of five girls and a son. That son was the WW1 veteran, William. Three of their daughters, as mentioned, died as spinsters. I remember visiting them in the Blue Mountains when I was a child. They all lived together at that time, and I remember thinking how polite and fragile and odd they all were. We had tea in their living room, in a little cottage in Springwood, if I remember correctly. It never occurred to me at that time that they had once been young and vibrant and full of life and dreams. For children, old people have always and only been old.
I don’t remember ever meeting Uncle William, so perhaps he died before I was born. I believe he married but never had any children. And thus that branch of the Byrne name was lost. Gertrude Byrne, my grandmother, became a Simmonds when she married, but her three surviving children were girls. Mum became a Holford, Auntie Dorothy a Murdoch, and Auntie Joyce never married. So the Simmonds name in my family has also passed into history, only two generations after my great grandfather chose it. My grandfather had three brothers, all SImmonds, but as far as I am aware none of them had any sons to carry on the family name.
Mum’s English grandparents were George Simmonds (originally Lilley) from Surrey, and Mabel Butler from Bristol, and her Irish grandparents were George Byrne and Susan Hickson, both from County Kerry. I have pieced together Mabel’s life more than any other. I am getting to know George Simmonds, bit by bit. George Byrne and Susan Hickson, the Irish, are complete strangers to me. Perhaps I can become acquainted with them too in the years ahead.
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Forgotten tales 
David ,don’t know if you will get this…I am Marion Schulz {nee Simmonds}my father was John Simmonds .son of George and Mabel.I have been trying to do a search of Grandfather and some how came across your blog.it was great reading…..I remember your mother and her sisters came to visit my family in Queensland, I am looking for grandparents marriage, It would be great to hear from you.I live in Perth now
Wow, Marion, its good to hear from someone from the Simmonds line. I have so little knowledge of my grandfather, George Simmonds’, siblings. I did meet your father, John Simmonds, just once, in Brisbane, but it was probably thirty years ago. He was the one who told us the story of Osterley House, which you will have read about on my blog (if you don’t already know the story). That was what really got me interested in family history. George Simmonds senior, who died in 1928 in England, I have really found very little information about, but I suspect he was born George Lilley, the son of a farm labourer in Surrey. I have not been able to find any document to prove that however. It was information passed down to me from my mother. Mabel has not been easy to find information about either, but a good deal easier than George. She came from a wealthy family in Bristol, but was orphaned in childhood and things didn’t go too well for her. She married George in 1917, during the war, but they had been together a good while before that, since their first child, my grandfather, was born in 1905. I have a copy of their marriage certificate. Anyway, I would love to hear about your family – that is, your parents and any siblings you might have and all your various children, since I know none of you. It sounds like you married into a German line? As you may have guessed from my blog, we live in Sweden, but we are relocating to Australia in a few months.
Hi David
I thought I would send you a message as I have some information for you. I enjoyed reading your pages on Sarah Byrne as we often wondered about the Byrnes and what happened to them.
George and Sarah Byrne lived in Chapel Lane Killarney as you know. It is the house with the bowed front with a brown border at the bottom on the right of the photo of Chapel Lane. It has been in our family since 1882 when our great gran aunt Ellen Hanlon bought it from George and Sarah Byrne. It was years before we worked out that they were mother and son. George Snr and Sarah bought it from the Bishop of Kerry Dr Moriarty in 1872. It was part of a deal done by George for property in Lower King St ((New Street) in front of the Cathedral as they wanted to open up the vista of the Cathedral. George and family were living there at least since June 1867 according to the records we have. Not sure how the property came into the hands of the bishop.
Unfortunately George died shortly after the purchase with Bronchitis but the family lived there until 1882 when they sold it. George was working in a hardware store in Killorglin.Not sure why they sold but it Clearly it helped finance George jnrs trip to Australia. Not sure why Sarah wound up in Tralee. However, she may have had Ruddle/Ruttle relatives there. I think Sarah and Richard may have been living in an alms house in 22 Church St before she died. If you check the national census for 1901 and type in church street and Tralee as the ded you will see that no 22 was an alms house occupied by a number of Protestant families although there is no evidence of this in the 1911 census. Obviously Richard emigrated shortly after. We have no record of Joseph.
It is unclear as to where Sarah is buried but most likely to be either Aghadoe or Killegy over in Muckross overlooking the Lakes.
Her father Thomas lived in Carrigafreghane nearby. He was a bank official as well as involved in the church. He was born in 1778 and died September 13th 1851. His wife Mary died May 25th 1859. Not Sue exactly when Sarah was born but I have 1825 approximately. The Ruddles were prominent in Killarney. Francis ran a school for Protestant children in College Street Killarney. They also owned property around the town. Check Griffiths valuations for 1849 and the lessors in particular. Also check the Slaters trade directory for 1846 on line for Killarney and Piggots directory for 1824.
To finish Ellen Hanlon lived in the house until she died in 1902. Checkout the 1901 and 1911 census for Chapel Lane. My aunt Peggy lives there now. We have great memories of Killarney and that house. My aunt says that when her mother Eily Galway was a girl some one of the Byrnes came from Australia enquiring about the family and the house but never came to the door. Maybe that was William Byrne mentioned earlier? A number of Anzacs visited Killarney during and after WW1.
Hope that helps. Thanks for sharing the info and pics of George and Sarah. Let me know if you need more information.
All the best
Michael Smithwick
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Hi Michael
Thanks for writing. You have really given me so much new information to digest. I was just beginning to think that I had run out of sources about the Ruddles and the Byrnes in Ireland, and then your message arrived. Thanks so much. Barbara Fromberg (granddaughter of James Byrne) will be excited, and I have forwarded your message to her.
Here are a few queries that were triggered by your comments:
Do you mean the buff coloured house between the blue house and the nearest one (with the Physique sign)? So your Aunt Peggy lives there now? Not sure when I’ll get to Kerry again, what with all the travel restrictions these days. But I’ll be sure to knock on the door now I know which door to knock on! Amazing to think that the house has been in your family so long, since 1882!
Do you mean that George (Snr) and Sarah were living in Chapel Lane since at least 1867 and then bought it from the Bishop in 1872 using some other property that George and Sarah owned in New Street? My understanding from the plaque on the wall at the entrance to Chapel Lane is that the land on both sides of Chapel Lane was ecclesiastical land owned by the church. Presumably once the cathedral was built the church rented out the property in the lane. It’s a shame that George died the same year that the house came into their ownership. But it is good that Sarah and her children had somewhere to live after she was widowed.
I have a copy of an indenture for George junior dated November 1876. He was apprenticed to a merchant in Killorglin named Roger Martin. It is signed by his mother, Sarah. He would have finished his five year apprenticeship in November 1881. I am fairly sure he left for Australia in 1882, which is the year the house in Chapel Street was sold to your great grand aunt. Perhaps Sarah and her two remaining sons moved to Tralee after the house was sold.
James (you called him Joseph) Byrne was born in 1865 or 1866. Strangely we (Barbara Fromberg, his granddaughter, and I) have never been able to find a birth certificate for him. But his marriage certificates (he married twice) both clearly state his birthplace as Killarney and his parents as George Byrne and Sarah Ruddle. In Australia he worked as a French polisher.
Richard, the third son, may have also been apprenticed to Roger Martin in Killorglin. He appears to have emigrated in 1892 after his mother died. He became an accountant I believe. I have no contact with his descendants though there must be quite a few of them in Australia.
We remain puzzled about what happened to Hannah Byrne, George and Sarah’s firstborn.
I am interested by your thoughts about Sarah’s burial place. I could not find her in Aghadoe churchyard (the Protestant Church) or in the big graveyard up the road. But my search was not exhaustive. What was her connection with Killegy? Her date of birth would be 1822 if calculating back from her death certificate (died age 68 in 1890). However, calculating back from her marriage certificate it would be 1835 (22 in 1857). It was most likely to be somewhere between those dates. You mentioned 1825. I have chosen 1832 (see my most recent blog). Until I can find a birth certificate we will never know. I have wondered whether she was actually born in Kerry.
The Ruddles seem to have been a well known family around Killarney. Thanks for the extra info on them.
Now since this has become a very long message, I will ask one more question. Where do you live? I gather from the way you wrote you do not live in Killarney.
Thanks again for all the information. I will look up some of the sources you mentioned. I am interested in any more insights you might have about these families and places at those times.
Kind regards
David Holford
David has kindly shared your response to his blog regarding the Byrne family and what wonderful information you have provided. I too am a descendant of George and Sarah Byrne (my great-grandparents). My mother was the sixth child of their second son James. I am very excited to learn so much more about George and Sarah and her father’s family. Thank you so very much.
Barbara Fromberg (Australia).
No problem, glad to be of help and share my research with you both. I have some more information to share and I will send it your gmail address as listed earlier. Hope that’s ok. To answer your question the blue grey house and the cream coloured house were very similar and built around the same time in the late 1700s. The blue house was altered in the 1950s 1960s. The cream coloured house was George and Sarah’s. The walls are very thick and there is a good drop down from the lane into the house. I looked again today and learned that Sarah was living in Tralee when she sold the house in 1882. Ellen Hanlon bought it at public auction for £60 sterling which was a lot of money for a servant to pay. The other point to mention is that the story in our family always was that the house was sold as part of a swap for the field in front of the Cathedral and that it was a bad deal. It will become clearer when I send you the info. I think Ellen Hanlon must have known the Byrnes to have known about the swap and it not being satisfactory etc but we will never know. She died in 1903 not 1902 by the way. Killegy is the protestant graveyard for Killarney, over in Muckross and still in use. I live in London by the way and as you say we are all grounded at the moment. All the best to you both.
Dear David and Barbara
I forgot to say that it is possible that Sarah was buried in the church yard of St Mary’s C of I Killarney. There are a number of tombs and plots there, some of old Killarney families are buried there in the back and to the right of the church. It is the site of the pre reformation church of St Mary with St Mary’s holy well opposite behind the council offices.
The church in Chapel Lane was built in 1770 but because of the penal laws had to be built off the main thoroughfare. The Bishops Palace was built in front on New Street. I think you will see from Griffiths that all the properties in Chapel Lane were privately owned. The house in Chapel Lane seems to have been owned by a Matthew Wren but I have not found a record for him. However I do think the 2 houses in Chapel Lane were built around the same time as the church and may have been connected to it as they were big solid houses compared to the many smaller cottages and cabins in the lanes around. Chapel Lane was a busy place with Tan yards etc as you will see from Griffiths. The church in Chapel Lane was deconsecrated in 1855 when the Cathedral opened.
Finally Nathaniel Carter who was a witness to George and Sarah’s wedding in 1857 was a gun Smith in Killarney according to Slater’s Directory of 1846. I will try and send the other info tomorrow.
All the best.
Michael
Thank you David for keeping me in the loop. Is there no end to the wealth of information Michael has at his fingertips? It is amazing and exciting that he is so happy to share.
Sent from my iPad
Hi David
I sent you some info today via your gmail address. Let me know if you received it and what you think of it. It will take some time to go through and digest!
Regards
Michael
Thanks so much Michael. Received but not yet perused. I had a shocker of a day at work yesterday and literally went straight to bed after I got home and ate dinner. Today is shaping up much the same. That’s the problem with having two weeks holiday! But looking forward to reading through all your material tonight and tomorrow. I’ll be in touch.
Great, enjoy and let me know what you both think.
Hope you have a better day tomorrow.
All the best
Michael