The In-Laws – Keady Family in Victoria

Family connection to Border Checkpoint

You might have noticed the roadblocks recently set up to limit travel between Victoria and New South Wales at Albury. The key checkpoint is located on Wodonga Place, just after the road crosses the Murray from Victoria. This is not the first time this location has been a critical checkpoint for travellers between New South Wales and Victoria.

The checkpoint is right in front of the Albury Regional Museum which has close family links to the Keady family.

Albury Regional Museum, Wodonga Place, ALBURY

(Sourced: “Turk’s Head at the Union Bridge: From Licenced Hotel to Regional Museum) Dirk HR Spennemann. Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University)

Originally the Museum building was developed as a Hotel in the 1850s, went through many developments and incarnations until it finally closed as a Hotel in the 1920s. One of its many names was the Turks Head Hotel.

Our grandfather’s Uncle and Aunt, James Oddie and his wife Elizabeth (nee O’Leary) were the licensees of this hotel from December 1885 – June 1891.

Refresher on the Keady connections

Mathew John “Barney” O’Leary and his wife Johanna (nee Lombard) arrived at Port Phillip aboard the “Enmore” from Cork, Ireland on 4 October, 1841 about a month before John and Honora Keady arrived. They brought their daughters Johanna who was 5 years old and Betty who was only 8 months old.

By 1845 the O’Learys were living at Merri Creek, the same location that John and Honora Keady had established their family home. We know the O’Learys lived at Merri Creek because they received some notoriety because of an incident near the corner of Little Bourke Street and Swanston Street in April 1845 when taking their triplets to be baptised. Barney hit a tree stump which tossed the three babies and their nurses on the side of the road. (Very hard to imagine a tree stump in Little Bourke Street>)

One of the O’Leary girls, Margaret O’Leary married John Francis Keady (our Great Grandfather) on the 1 November, 1869 at St Patrick’s, Kilmore.

Margaret’s sister, Elizabeth Mary O’Leary married James Oddie, an Englishman from Lancashire in 1868 at Beechworth. James and Elizabeth went on to have eight children.

It would seem that the Oddie family moved from Beechworth to Albury in the mid 1880s. James was the licensee of the “Turks Head” Hotel from December 1885 to June 1891. At the time this was the main crossing point of the Murray River on the road from Melbourne to Sydney. The main clients were passing travellers who had to stop to pay a Bridge Toll when crossing the adjacent Union Bridge if heading south to Victoria, and those who had crossed the Bridge heading north had to stop for Customs Inspections.

You’d think there would have been quite a reasonable amount of interaction between the Keady family living at the fairly remote Koetong township in Victoria, upstream on the Murray, and the Oddie family at Albury.

The Oddie family maintained a strong connection with Albury with some of the girls living out their lives in the town.

In addition, Margaret and Elizabeth’s father, Mathew “Barney” O’Leary finished his days in Albury, passing to the other side in 1897 at the ripe old age of 102.

So if you see the roadblock on the Evening News, or you are travelling past going north or south once the restrictions ease, you will be able to look at the Museum and take pride that a distant relative used to pour beers there for weary travellers !

Precious Photos – Patrick and Mary Keady – Koetong

While family photos of the first generation Keady family are pretty scarce or at least cannot be found yet, there are a few which have been passed down through the generations. The following photos of Patrick Keady, his wife Mary Ann Quinlan and the Keady farm at Koetong have been provided by one of Patrick’s descendants.

The first two photos are large portraits of Patrick and Mary which hung on the wall of the farmhouse at Koetong. (The farmhouse with some additions is still standing at Koetong, although no longer in the family.)

The following photos were taken on the family farm. The first was possibly taken in the early 1920s and shows Patrick and Mary in the fields around the farmhouse. (This is an educated guess based on the appearance of Patrick and Mary.)

The second photo of the Keady farmhouse, with snow on the ground is thought to have been taken in the 1950s.

If you have any early photos tucked away, or have any thoughts on leads to follow up, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Irish Families Stick Together

The Keady family no doubt formed close friendships with other Irish immigrants when they arrived at Port Phillip in November 1841. One family in particular, Mathew “Barney” and Johanna O’Leary formed a close relationship with John and Honora Keady.

The trip from Cork for the O’Learys and the other 96 sponsored immigrants took them just over 4 months. The shipping record notes that Barney and Johanna could not read or write and that Barney’s occupation was “Farm Servant”.

By 1845 the O’Learys were living at Merri Creek, the same location that John and Honora Keady had established a home for their family. We know the O’Learys lived at Merri Creek because they received some notoriety because of an incident near the corner of Little Bourke Street and Swanston Street in April 1845.

The article below from “The Port Phillip Herald” of 3 April 1845 gives a good explanation of the near tragic accident.

Also the following article from “ The chronicles of early Melbourne, 1835 to 1852: historical, anecdotal and personal/by “Garryoweb”” gives a slightly less artistic description of the incident. It is worth noting that it is reported that the triplets were only the 2nd set of triplets born in the colony.

The triplets were Ellen, Mary Anne and John. Baptism records show Barney and Johanna had two other children after they arrived in Australia, Catherine, 1843 and Mary in 1846.

Jumping forward 24 years and John Francis Keady (1840-1902 ) marries Margaret O’Leary at St Patrick’s, Kilmore on 1 November, 1869. Details on the Marriage Certificate means Margaret would have been born in 1835, and her place of birth was given as County Limerick, Ireland. This would suggest that the “Johanna” listed on the shipping record was indeed Margaret.

The following image is the only known photo of Margaret which was found in the family bible of John Francis Keady.