your family
Ask our experts Q
I’ve been researching for 20-odd years and still can’t find my great grandfather’s origins or parents. The information I have is that David Doran was supposedly born in 1842 in Geelong, Victoria. This information came from his marriage certificate, along with his parent’s names, Michael Doran and Mary (née Burke). I have never been able to find anything at all about David’s birth or baptism (if in Australia), or any sign of Michael and Mary arriving in Australia in time for him to be born here. The family was Roman Catholic but I was told many years ago that the Roman Catholic records were non-existent for Geelong. I have not been able to find any other children that fit the family either. I would dearly love to know if he actually was born in Australia and if so, what happened to his parents. Nothing on his marriage or death certificates, or his Probate indicate anything about his origins. I do know the family was Irish. I did find a marriage for a Michael Doran and Mary Burke in Castleisland,
16
www.insidehistory.com.au
County Kerry in 1838 — coincidentally their marriage date of February 25 is the same as David and his wife Flora’s exactly 30 years later, and I wonder if that is a clue? I would dearly love to have my dad’s family history back further than his grandparents. Patsy McMillan Waikari, New Zealand
A
Shauna Hicks says My first thoughts were that perhaps there was a convict connection with Tasmania as many ex-convicts moved to Victoria when their sentences expired. However, a check of various name indexes online for the Archives Office of Tasmania didn’t return any likely matches with Michael Doran and Mary Burke. A search of BDM indexes for both Victoria and Tasmania for Doran and Burke and all possible spelling variations was without success. Searching for possible deaths for both Michael and Mary Doran without further clues could prove expensive as they are common names and numerous possibilities to work through, and there is no guarantee they died in Victoria.
Photography Edmond Archer
The elusive Doran family