of Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland
“Mary Ryan has no variation in spelling for any of her children’s records.”From the research report · Rosanna Mooney
This Family Line
An Irish woman who arrived in Victoria around 1851 and settled in Tarraville, Gippsland. She buried a husband, raised children across two relationships, and watched some of them scatter beyond reach. Finding her family is the work of this line — one research question at a time.
Mary Ryan’s story — from Cloyne in County Cork to the raw settlements of Gippsland. A widow by 1856, raising children in Tarraville through two relationships and the slow dispersal of her family across Victoria and beyond.
○ In preparation Research ReportRosanna was Mary Ryan’s eldest child, born in Tarraville in 1853 and then lost to the record. This report proves that Rosanna did not die in Victoria — she travelled to Tasmania, married George Edwards in Mathina in 1875, and had nine children, raising seven to adulthood. Proven by documentary evidence and fifteen DNA matches.
● Available now Research ReportDNA matches suggest that Mary Ryan’s son Thomas Mooney fathered at least one child outside marriage. The identity of the mother and child has not yet been established. This report documents the evidence and the open question.
○ In preparationFrom the research report
Rosanna Mooney was born in Tarraville in late 1853, the eldest child of Thomas Mooney and Mary Ryan. Her father was dead before she turned three. She grew up, and then vanished from the Victorian record entirely.
Earlier researchers assumed she had died and been buried without records. DNA evidence told a different story. Rosanna had gone to Tasmania.