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.