Post: Finn DNA travels to Australia

My great great great uncle Thomas Finn (1841-1903) lived all of his life at Kiltycreen in the south west corner of County Sligo, Ireland near the County Mayo border. He married Ellen Gorman (1849-1909) on 16th December 1865 at Bunninadden, County Sligo, in the church pictured below that I photographed when visiting in August 2024.

Kiltycreen, consisting of four or five houses, according to the 1901 and 1911 censuses, is a townland, part of the Kilshalvy District Electoral Division (DED), north of the small town of Gurteen. This next photo shows their old house in Kiltycreen – picked up from an Ancestry tree – copyright unknown. Thomas was the brother of my great great grandfather John Finn (1821-1889) and their father was another John Finn (1796-1877).

This is the gravestone of Thomas and Ellen in the nearby Mount Irwin cemetery, another picture I took during my recent visit. Also shown is Ellen J Finn, known as Ellie, the twelfth of their fifteen children, who unlike many of her siblings, did not leave the area.

Gurteen is a small town with the focus being at a crossroads, on which is situated the Coleman Music Centre that features traditional Irish music, pictured by me in August 2024. Being a Sunday, it was closed, but the poster in the doorway advertised an upcoming event where two Finns, not known to me, were featured on the bill.

In an earlier blog page entitled “Finns in Australia” I detailed the family of John Joseph Finn, who emigrated to Australia, the fifth of the children of Thomas and Ellen. I had a DNA match of 111cM to his grandson, Raymond Flanagan. At the end of August 2024, I found that I had a new DNA match of 104cM to Noel Keohane. The Ancestry Shared Matches for both of them linked to my grandfather’s Sligo Finn family, where I have many already researched DNA connections.

I wrote to Noel through Ancestry and received a reply from his daughter Patricia Markulija (Trish), with whom I have a 23cM DNA match as a fourth cousin. Trish stated that Noel emigrated to Australia in 1951 at the age of 17, having been born in Leeds. He left from Glasgow on board the Cameronia. He was now living with Trish at the age of 90 in Melbourne and he wanted to find out more about his family back in the UK and Ireland. In his early life in Australia, Noel continued to receive letters and photographs from his mother Nellie Keohane, who was living in Salford, part of the Greater Manchester area. Nellie was a single parent and Noel did not know the name of his father. Noel gave his address when leaving the UK as St Joseph’s Home, Patricroft, in Worsley Road, Eccles, Greater Manchester, which is a Roman Catholic children’s home, pictured below.

Nellie was born on 3rd October 1904 and her older sister Mary Ann Keohane, known as May, was born 27th September 1901, and a younger sister Margaret Josephine Keohane, known as Joan, was born on 18th August 1913, all in Skibbereen, County Cork. May and Joan also wrote to Noel in Australia. The three sister’s parents were Michael Keohane and Hannah Crowley, who both came from County Cork, where I have no known connections. Michael was in the Royal Navy.

The Keohane family moved together to Salford. Nellie was living in Prestwich in the north of Manchester in the 1939 Register, along with her mother Hannah. Nellie was noted as incapacitated. There is no record I can find of where Nellie lived after 1939, until she passed away in Southport, on the coast, just to the north of Liverpool, on 3rd October 1970.

Trish wrote back to me saying she had discovered a half sister called Michelle Johns, who also lived in Melbourne. I have a DNA connection to Michelle of 42cM. Michelle was brought up by Kevin Johns, whom she believed to be her father, who passed away in early 2024. Michelle had now found out that her biological father was Noel. Trish also discovered she had a new half niece Kodie Johnson, Michelle’s daughter, with whom I have a 12cM connection. Huge changes to absorb in their lives.

It was pointed out to me by Trish that Noel, Michelle and Trish had DNA connections to a sister and her brother, Kathleen Lawler and Richard Lawler. Their father, Stephen Lawler, was about to take a DNA test. I had a 27cm connection to Kathleen and 16cM to Richard. When Stephen’s result came through, I also had a 22cM connection to him. Stephen’s father was John Albert Lawler (1928 Liverpool – 1989 Liverpool) and his mother was Joan McGreevy Durber (1933 Liverpool – 2011 Liverpool). Joan’s mother was Louisa Durber (1915 Liverpool – 1968 Liverpool) and Stephen confirmed that she had a relationship with Frederick John McGreevy (Fred), hence his surname being Joan’s middle name. Another round of surprises, because Stephen and his family did not know they had half first cousins, a half niece and, in Noel a half uncle. Some challenging developments to come to terms with in their lives too.

From my perspective, there was a puzzle to solve, because my Finn DNA, is within Noel Keohane and his descendants and resides in the Lawlers too. None of us knew the common denominator, until Stephen’s DNA result came through. His result for Noel was 856cM. This is close to the average result for a half uncle of 871cM. His result for Michelle was 463cM and for Trish 389cm, with the average result for a half first cousin being 449cM. These results show that Stephen’s and Noel’s family share one parent and as the mothers are known, the shared parent had to be their father.

Researching further into Fred’s background provided the answer to the Finn DNA conundrum. His mother is Bridget Beatrice Finn, the oldest of the fifteen Finn children of Thomas and Ellen Finn. Bridget was born at Kiltycreen on 23rd January 1867 and her husband was John Patrick McGreevy, who was born in Stockport, Lancashire on 8th January 1876. Bridget emigrated to the USA in 1885 and married John Patrick in Philadelphia in 1897. In 1898 they had daughter Lilian McGreevy also in Philadelphia.

The following year the new family moved back to John’s hometown of Stockport which is just south east of Manchester and not far from the airport. It is the first stop when leaving Manchester on the high speed rail link to London. On 13th January 1900, Frederick John McGreevy was born in Stockport, when they were living at 2 Mary Street. Four further siblings followed, all born in the town.

The key point from the foregoing is that Fred was carrying 50% Finn DNA from his mother. Fred had a confirmed relationship with Louisa Durber in 1933, hence the Lawler DNA connection. Fred, in all probability, then had another relationship in 1934 with Nellie Keohane, hence the strong half uncle/half first cousin DNA link to the Lawlers.

In the 1921 Census. John Patrick McGreevy, his wife Bridget and four children were residing at 49 Pencoed Road, Burry Port, Carmarthenshire, South Wales. Also living with them was Lilian McGreevy, now Finn, who had married her uncle Frederick Alfred Finn in 1919. He was the youngest of the fifteen siblings mentioned above and, it should be noted, marrying a niece has always been illegal in the UK. As it is a good distance from Stockport to Carmarthenshire, I was not sure that I had got the right McGreevy family, but the presence of Lilian, born in Philadelphia, provided the confirmatory evidence. In a separate entry in the 1921 census, Frederick John McGreevy is listed as a police constable, born Stockport, stationed at the Munitions Factory in Burry Port.

The next event was Fred getting married, in the third quarter of 1921. His bride was Rhoda Burge. The marriage lasted until 1933 when a news report in the South Wales Post dated 23rd June outlined the reasons for her divorce application. Rhoda said she was now a waitress at Ashburnham Golf Club, Burry Port and her husband was formerly a police constable at the Munition Works. She said she was married in September 1921 and that her husband had “subsequently misconducted himself in Liverpool”. This placed him in Liverpool at the time of his known relationship with Louisa Durber.

The Electoral Registers provided a timeline of when Fred was living alone in Liverpool. In 1932-3 he was living at 12 Carrington Street. In 1938-40, he was at 30 Coltart Road, also confirmed by his entry as living alone there in the 1939 Register.

In the first quarter of 1940, Fred married Constance Haigh and they lived together at 19 Chetwynd Street in the 1945-47 Electoral Registers. Constance died in the third quarter of 1947 and was buried on 24th July at the young age of 46. Fred continued to live alone at 19 Chetwynd Street, giving that address when he departed for Australia on 22nd July 1950, going on board the Empire Brent in Glasgow, bound for Sydney. Nothing more is known about him until he passed away on 8th December 1969, except for an Electoral Register entry in 1963 at 9 Bowral Street, Kensington, New South Wales. He is buried at a cemetery in Randwick City, New South Wales and this is his gravestone. I do not now who arranged for the gravestone, but it indicates the possibility of other family members in the Sydney area.

To summarise then, we have my Finn DNA confirmed in Noel and Stephen. The likeliest source for Noel is the same source as Stephen, as outlined previously. This chart summarises all of the family connections mentioned above.

UPDATES 26th January 2025:

  1. I have heard from Stephen Lawler that his first cousin Stephanie Lawler does not have a DNA match to the Keohanes. This confirms that the link to the Keohanes is through Frederick John McGreevy, because otherwise it might have been a generation earlier, and then it would have shown up on Stephanie’s test result.
  2. After the death of his wife Constance Agnes Haigh, John Frederick McGreevy arranged for his daughters to go to an orphanage under the sisters of Nazareth in Liverpool and in 1948, he appealed for assistance to travel to Australia. His three daughters were on the Asturias that left Southampton on 8th February 1950 arriving in Freemantle on 6th March, for onward travel to Sydney. Their names were Maureen 7, Constance 6 and Stella 5. They were transferred to St John’s Orphanage, Thurgoona, Albury under the control of the Sisters of Mercy. There is a record of Constance (junior) passing exams at Thurgoona and, unfortunately, later passing away at the age of 21 at the same address as her father in Kingsford-Smith, Sydney. Nothing further is yet known about the other two sisters Maureen and Stella. One of the funeral notices in the Sydney newspapers mentioned that Constance was a fond niece of Marie. She has been traced to be their mother Constance’s sister Marie Teresa Haigh, who was a year older than her sister.

Backler Post – Margaret Buchanan-Smith née Bowden

Isabel Angela Margaret Bowden is my half first cousin once removed, who was always known as just Margaret. She was born on 28th May 1934 in Derbyshire. She is the daughter of my half great aunt Florence Alice Matilda Backler, who was born on 17th June 1904. Florence married Walter Edward Bowden on 4th August 1924 and they had six children. The other five have been mentioned towards the foot of my blog page ‘My Line of Backlers in Warrington’. There is a picture on that page of Bill, Eileen, Ron, Ruth and Roy together at Ruth’s ruby wedding anniversary and that is repeated below. Margaret was unable to attend this family event. Written on the back of that photo, my Aunt Betty Brown added a further annotation to the list of names provided by Ruth, “Aunt Florrie’s children” and on the next line she wrote, “another Margaret lost touch”. This photo and the writing on the reverse are shown below and it appears we have now identified a little more about Margaret.

I have a half second cousin relationship with someone who uses the Ancestry name ianbowdey, with a DNA result of 46cM. I am pretty sure this is Ian Bowden, son of Roy Bowden on the right of the above picture. Ian confirmed that his Dad had two brothers called Bill and Ron, plus aunts Eileen and Ruth. Ian shows his father, known as Roy, as Thomas Royden Bowden on his Ancestry tree. He did not provide any information about Margaret. Ian stated recently that he believed that the only one still living is Ruth.

Margaret married Stuart Alexander McIntosh in the third quarter of 1959 in Hampstead, London. This was an unusual location because Stuart came from Edinburgh and Margaret’s family were based in Lancashire. The location of the bride’s family would normally have been the expected venue for most marriages in those days. Stuart was an adventurous soul. In 1954 he had a narrow escape trapped in a blizzard in the Cairngorm Mountains in Northern Scotland. He was a veterinary student and a Captain in Edinburgh University’s Territorial Training Corps. Another Captain, a medical student, J. A. Rae, and their commander, Colonel William Sinclair, were on the same trip. Unfortunately, Colonel Sinclair perished in the incident and the two young Captains were exposed for many hours before rescue. Stuart was a buyer of Icelandic ponies and owned Alnwickhill Stables in Edinburgh. He was on an expedition in 1960, pony trekking in Iceland guiding a party of 34 Sea Scouts. Unfortunately, he was drowned whilst leading the Scouts across the swollen River Bruara as he was trying to cross on horseback. The Scouts made heroic efforts to save him, forming a human chain, to no avail. Shortly before this tragic accident, Stuart and Margaret became parents with the birth of their daughter Fiona Jane McIntosh in the summer of 1960 in Edinburgh.

Fiona seems to have inherited her father’s spirit of adventure. She was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh from 1976-78 and then Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University. She became a renowned fencer specialising in the foil. She represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, 1988 in Seoul, Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. Her highest placing was reaching the final in Barcelona. She also represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, wining gold in Manchester in 1990 and a bronze in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia in 1998, as well as many other team medals. She was also British Champion on four occasions in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1994. She emigrated to South Africa and was last recorded as living on the slopes of Table Mountain, near Cape Town. Fiona wrote books “Seven Days in Mauritius”, “Table Mountain: activity guide” and “Dive Sites of South Africa & Mozambique” that reflected her wanderlust. She edited Divestyle Magazine too. She has skied to both the North and South Pole, climbed the highest peaks, dived to the depths and kayaked raging rivers. She summarised the above list as being about right to describe herself as an adrenaline junkie. Fiona is my half second cousin.

The recently widowed Margaret then married the Reverend George Adam Edward Buchanan-Smith the following year on 4th September 1961. George was born on 4th March 1929 and he was the chaplain and a master at Fettes College, where he taught from 1960 until his death. He became Housemaster of Glencorse, where the family lived. George passed away in 1981 at the relatively young age of almost 52. Subsequently, Margaret was shown for many years in the electoral registers as living at 34 Howard Place, Edinburgh. She died on 29th November 2020. George and Margaret had two sons and a daughter, all of whom attended Fettes College and they are also my half second cousins:

Hannah Mary Buchanan-Smith born 1962. Hannah is Professor of Psychology at Stirling University, having taken up a full time position there in 1995. She specialises in various aspects of animal behaviour and welfare, including interactions with humans. She attended Fettes College from 1978-80. Prior to Stirling she graduated from St. Andrews University, completed her PhD at Reading and lectured at Lancaster University. She has published numerous papers and is involved in many exterior organisations in her field.

George Adam Edward Buchanan-Smith born 1964. He attended Fettes College from 1975-83 and had an illustrious Rugby Union career, playing for London Scottish and securing two caps for Scotland. He was last noted as a franchise holder of multiple McDonalds Restaurants and is involved in the charity Ronald McDonald House Glasgow.

Stuart Hunter Buchanan-Smith born 1966. He attended Fettes College from 1976-84. Stuart began his career at Lloyds of London in 1988. He is a private client director within the Hampden Group, one of the largest companies involved in Lloyds. Stuart has a DNA connection of 112 centi-Morgans, which is in the expected range for a half second cousin. I have messaged him through Ancestry without reply, but this often happens because people conduct a DNA test to find out more about their ethnic origins rather than for family tree research.

Dame Mary Corsar is worthy of a mention in connection with Fettes College. She was the Reverend George’s sister and a governor of the college from 1982-99. Dame Mary died in 2020 at the age of 93. She was one of the first two female governors of the college appointed on the same day. She was Honorary President of the Scottish Women’s Amateur Athletic Association from 1973-91 and had many other voluntary appointments. It was as Chair of the Scottish Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) from 1981-88 and her further involvement as Chair of the UK WRVS from 1988-93 that she was awarded her DBE in 1993.

The above picture is a general view of Fettes College, Edinburgh. The college was founded in 1870 from a bequest by Sir William Fettes 1750-1836 who wanted to perpetuate the memory of his only son, William, who predeceased him in 1815. It was an all boys school until female pupils were admitted for their final year in 1970, before becoming fully co-educational in 1983. The college keeps in touch with Old Fettesians through an excellent magazine, the source of some of the data in this blog, along with Wikipedia, Companies House and good old Google. There is, therefore, room for error which is usual in this type of research, where it is hard to verify everything. Fettes College is an impressive institution and numbers amongst its alumni one former British Prime Minister – Tony Blair. That seems to be a good point to finish this blog page!

Suffice to say, it has been interesting researching my new connections to the Buchanan-Smiths and their strong connections through Fettes College. I have researched further into the Buchanan-Smiths, but concentrated on the people where I have DNA connections and those most closely connected to them. There are many interesting Buchanan-Smiths, as there are Bowdens, but their stories will have to be told by someone else, unless they have a “Backler Connection”.

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