Good Morning Bill,

Not a great deal is known about Ellens life before Australia. There are family stories that she had a sister Margaret and two brothers who went to the continental USA and then one may have come to Oz. She appears to have come from Cork, possibly the Mallow area but to my knowledge no definitive proof. Some family here accept that a Margaret Flynn arriving in Adelaide was her sister but at the moment I have reservations as that person arrived paying her own passage while Ellen arrived as a famine orphan. Added to that they are supposed to have sold a piggery but the problem there is the family were RC and catholics were prevented from owning land and although that was being eased it was still prohibitively expensive and land in Ireland was in the hands of a very small percentage of the population.

Another problem, Ellen was born c 1833 and arrived in Australia 18 Sept 1849. Margaret was 19 when she arrived the same year. Which makes your Patrick significantly older than these girls.

Good luck with your hunting,

Glenys in Newcastle.