Crowleys of Cork, Maitland, Mudgee, NSW

The Early Generations

On 20 April 1921 Patrick John Crowley married Eileen Marie Duggan in St Mary's Church, Mudgee, New South Wales. Patrick's parents were Cornelius Crowley and Ellen O'Brien. Eileen's parents were Malachi Duggan and Pollie Maloney.

Patrick and Eileen are the pivotal people in this family history. 1 The stories of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will take us into the twenty-first century. What perhaps is more challenging is to discover not only their story but also the stories of their parents and grandparents. Their grandparents were all, with one exception, born in Ireland and were part of the immigrant generation that arrived in the colony of New South Wales in the nineteenth century.

The aim therefore is to trace the beginnings in Australia of the four families that are the focus of this family tree: the Crowley, O’Brien, Duggan and Maloney families. Their journeys were different but eventually they were all living in the Mudgee district towards the end of the nineteenth century.

On the Crowley side the starting point for our search is Patrick John Crowley’s grandfather, also Patrick Crowley, who arrived in the Colony of New South Wales as a convict in 1826. He would later marry Mary McCarthy at Maitland on 4 April 1842. Both Patrick and Mary were born in County Cork, Ireland. After their marriage they continued to live in Maitland until the1850s.

With the discovery of gold in NSW, they left to seek their fortune on the Mudgee goldfields. Their son Cornelius was born at Windeyer in 1860 and in 1888 he married Ellen O'Brien in St Mary's Church, Mudgee. Cornelius and Ellen were the parents of Patrick John Crowley.

See the Full Tree here  and Life story of Patrick Crowley here.