Dear Karen, Hi. As you haven't supplied specific and/or approximate years of when Michael Leary/Margaret Driscoll etc were born, I've found the following but they may or may not be your ancestors:-

ASSISTED IMMIGRANTS ARRIVING SYDNEY/NEWCASTLE 1844-1859
Michael LEARY aged 20 years arrived in NSW in 1858 aboard ship "Telegraph", so born 1838.
Margaret DRISCOLL aged 15 years arrived NSW in 1850 aboard ship "John Knox", so born 1835.

ASSISTED IMMIGRANTS ARRIVING SYDNEY 1860-1869
DRISCOLL Margaret aged 14 years and sister arrived in NSW 1874 aboard ship "Jerusalem", so she was born 1860.

INDEX TO CERTIFICATES OF FREEDOM
Michael LEARY arrived NSW aboard ship "Isabella" in 1823, granted freedom 1830.

Michael LEARY arrived NSW aboard ship "King William" in 1840, granted freedom 1847.

So these guys were convicts transported to Australia for a term of 7 years, then granted certificates of freedom which can be purchased for a reasonable fee under $20 I think from the State Records of New South Wales. Ask me if you want the website link.

QUEENSLAND STATE ARCHIVES SEARCH
Couldn't find any record of John REID.

GENERAL TIP:
If you purchase the Death Certificate of ancestors, it usually has more information, i.e. all the children's names/ages etc.

Al in QLD.

Hi Al
You have been busy :)
Not sure on these?? If my Mary Ann Leary was 21 when she married John in Gympie Qld 1890,that means she was born c1869, so that makes one of the above Margarets only 9 at the time! The first Margaret b c1835 could be a possibility. That makes her about 34 when she would have had Mary? Is that a bit old those days??
As for Michael, if he is the 1st one, he is younger than Margaret,that's possible! As for the other two, not having an age makes it hard. The 1st convict Michael would have been too old going by the dates and the 2nd Michael prob would have been too, so no luck there I think. So frustrating isn't it? Sorry if not much help here :(
As for John Reid, I was told he married Mary Ann Leary 2 Jul 1890 in Monkland, Gympie, Qld.
I have purchased a few cert's over the years but can be so expensive and you have to be so sure of the details before hand or could be the wrong person etc.
I had a gentleman from the Gympie Genealogy Society find the connection for John & Mary from details I gave him a few years ago. All I had was James Alexander Reid b 21/4/1891. My Mum always said he was born in Gympie, so that was all I had to go on at the time.
I knew trying to find how they arrived would not be easy, plus I have only just started my searches again after a few month break from it all. Was trying to do too many branches at once, as you do! Can't help myself :)
I will keep all of this info on file till I can have a better think on it.
Thank you for all your trouble so far
Regards
Karen
Sunny Pilbara
Western Australia

Dear Karen, Hi there. Ok you definitely need some concrete facts before you go off on a wild goose chase. I suggest sending a personal message to username 'Finding Ancestors' asking that person to kindly do a lookup for you. State as many facts as you have.

Let us know how you get on.

Rootschat - Australian Lookups Offer

And with genealogy research, it's best to either stick with one surname at a time, or one family at a time otherwise it can be easy to get sidetracked.

With the age of one Margaret Driscoll that I found being 34 wasn't really considered old in those days. The poor things usually kept on having children till they expired and were replaced with wife no.2!

Bye now.