I have recently acquired a death certificate for Mary O'Dowd which is helping me research information for her descendants as she is hard to track. Mary's maiden name was Quinlan, her parents were Connor Quinlan and Catherine Kelly. Mary died at the age of 98 in the year 1904 at Walcha, New South Wales, Australia (birth date around 1805-1806). I'm still trying to work out if Mary was married 2 or 3 times - some family trees show a 'Michael O'Dowd' also as a husband. However her death certificate only shows 2 marriages, one to Bert Bathie and the second to John O'Dowd with four children listed as the issue of the second marriage - Bridget 68, Mary 66, Thos 64 and Ellen 55 (their ages at the death of their mother in 1904).

I have recently acquired a death certificate for Mary O'Dowd which is helping me research information for her descendants as she is hard to track. Mary's maiden name was Quinlan, her parents were Connor Quinlan and Catherine Kelly. Mary died at the age of 98 in the year 1904 at Walcha, New South Wales, Australia (birth date around 1805-1806). I'm still trying to work out if Mary was married 2 or 3 times - some family trees show a 'Michael O'Dowd' also as a husband. However her death certificate only shows 2 marriages, one to Bert Bathie and the second to John O'Dowd with four children listed as the issue of the second marriage - Bridget 68, Mary 66, Thos 64 and Ellen 55 (their ages at the death of their mother in 1904).

Hi AllyB
Thank you for your information. There were a few surprises and some of the dates I have don?t quite line up. I have the Mary & James and Ellen and the probability is that we are talking about the same pair.

I have only recently taken up the quest carrying on from some of the work my father had started. I can probably help you in following one line of the dynasty created by James and Mary in Australia and perhaps give you a few leads in other lines.

My primary source documents are the Immigration arrival forms Family folklore, has the ?O? being ?lost in the bush? during the Tenterfield gold rush in a fight over religion (the old orange and green thing). Reality is that upon arrival, immigration crossed through the O on their documentation.

Other folklore suggests that;
? The family followed the gold rushes
? Gillemore (shortened to Gilmer) was supposedly to be used in the name of first borne sons (I got stuck with it as a second name) and
? A branch of the family went to the US and made it big in the brewing industry

My line is from John - William - James - Gilmer - me - 2 sons - 4 grandsons.

In regard to John,& Mary (could not write or speak English), they apparently arrived with 1 child (son Thomas born about 1838/9)

Does any of this coincide with what you have thus far