The Colemans & Dwyers: Our Australian Cousins

This is the ninth post in a series about my Coleman and Dwyer ancestors.

My great-grandmother, Kathleen Coleman, emigrated from Melbourne, Australia to America in 1919. However, she had relatives who stayed in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. These families remain there to this day.

Kathleen’s brother Albert died as a boy. Her sister, Maggie, seems likely to have died as a young woman, since I can find no record of her after 1905. Our relatives still in Australia descend from Kathleen’s aunts and uncles, not her siblings. I will first discuss the relatives from her father’s family, the Colemans.

Andrew Coleman’s sister, Ann Nora Coleman*, married Peter Doyle on September 30, 1885 in Merino, Victoria, Australia. They had six children.

1. CATHERINE AGNES DOYLE, born 1886 in Sandford, Victoria, Australia; died 1956. She married Denis Patrick Ryan.
2. ALICE MARY DOYLE, born 1887 in Muntham, Victoria, Australia; died 1970. She married Edward John Flynn.
3. MAUD BRIDGET BOYLE, born 1889 in Sandford, Victoria, Australia; died 1967. She married John Patrick Dineen.
4. JOHN ANDREW “JACK” DOYLE, born 1893 in Sandford, Victoria, Australia. He married Mary Ellen Heenan.
5. AGNES HONORA DOYLE, born 1897 in Casterton, Victoria, Australia; died 1969. She married Edward Buron on May 17, 1927 in Casterton.
6. HONORA FRANCES DOYLE, born 1900; died 1900.

You’ll notice the repetition of family names amongst the names of these children. We believe that Ann Nora and Andrew’s maternal grandmother was named Honora. One child has the middle name, Bridget, like Ann Nora and Andrew’s mother. Two more have the middle names Mary and Andrew, like Ann Nora’s siblings. Alice was the name of Peter Doyle’s mother.

Here is what I know about these individuals and their descendants:

Catherine Agnes Doyle married Denis Patrick Ryan in Victoria, Australia in 1912. They had seven children, James, Joyce, Kathleen, Thomas, William, Yvonne and Agnes Nora Ryan. The children of Catherine and Denis remained in the Melbourne area.

Catherine Agnes Doyle (source)

Alice Mary Doyle married Edward John Flynn in 1911. They had four children, Charlie, Jack, Jim and Mary Nora Flynn. They also appear to have largely remained in and around Melbourne.

John Andrew “Jack” Doyle served in World War I in the 5th Machine Gun Battalion, AIF (Australian Imperial Force). He enlisted in 1915 and returned to Australia in 1919. His unit appears to have spent the war fighting in France, but I am still researching the specifics of Jack’s military service. He married Mary Ellen Heenan and they had three daughters, Maureen Agnes, Clare and Enid Honora Doyle.

Agnes Honora Doyle married Edward Burton in Casterton, Victoria, in 1927. They had two sons, John and Kenneth Burton, both of whom lived and died in Victoria and had children there. These children are my third cousins once removed.

Agnes Honora Doyle (source)

*Ann Nora Coleman is listed in some online family trees as actually being named Honora Coleman. This would make sense, given that Honora was her grandmother’s name, but I don’t have any proof of it. Other sources, including Australian birth, death and marriage records, list her as Ann Nora, so I’m sticking with that name until proved otherwise.