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KEENAN FAMILY in Australia |
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Ivy E A Morris (nee Keenan) (1892 - 19??) Last updated 29/8/2021 |
Australian Generation: Second |
Born: February 1892 Parents: Aaron Keenan and Elizabeth Jane Morton |
Married: John Morris in Tumut. Reg No. 12240 |
Occupation: Farmer |
Residence: "Clearstream" ?, Batlow, NSW |
Deceased: 28 August 2003 |
Where buried: (?) |
Children: |
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Photograph: Click here for the other Photographs page. |
Correspondence: |
John Kerr of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, has in his possession two letters written in May 1913 and August 1914 by Ivy Keenan of Batlow to her aunty Elizabeth Kerr (nee Gamble) of Lislea, Northern Ireland. (Elizabeth Kerr/Gamble was John's grandmother. She was born in 1858 and died in 1935. Between 1882 and 1894 she had 8 children.) In August 2018, while visiting John, I was able to read these letters and dictate copies of them. Transcripts of these appear below.
Miss Ivy Keenan, Batlow via Gilmore, New South Wales, Australia
4 May 1913
Dear Auntie
(Miss Elizabeth Kerr (nee Gamble), Lislea, Northern
Ireland)
You will be surprised to get a letter from me, but my grandmother (your sister, Mrs Hopson)
asked me to write to you in place of and for her to let you know how she
is. My father is her second son. His name is Aaron.
Well I must now tell you that grandmother is away from home and will be away for a few months. She took her daughter,
Grace (who has been an invalid for several years) away to home where she
has to leave her. Poor grandmother has had a terrible a burden looking
after her, waiting on her hand and foot, even to cutting the food up for
her, and she has not been to bed for nine months, but sat in a chair by
the fireside all night. And grandmother had to be up and down all night,
looking after her after (... illegible ...) and as she is in her 69th year. It is too much for her to do.
Grandmother was well but was worrying herself about having to part with
aunt Grace. Uncle Stuart, her single son who lives with her, is also
well.
Grandmother, after taking Grace to the home,
went to stay with Uncle Jack, her third son who lives not far from the
place. She cannot see aunty for a month after she was admitted.
I am the eldest of our family. I was 21 last February. My eldest brother is 19 years, next 16,
the next 14, the next 12 and the next 9, and my only sister is 6 years,
and my baby brother is 9 months old.
Batlow is only a small town yet we have only two general stores, one butcher shop and one
butcher shop and blacksmiths, and one hotel. But the town is lighted by
electricity and our nearest railway station is 16 miles away, but there
is talk of getting an electric railway. But I suppose it will be a long
time before we get it.
I will now draw to a close, hoping that you and all of our relations over there are well.
With best of love from your sister and all of us, I am yours loving great niece, Ivy Keenan.
If you write to me, I will be able to show your letter to grandmother when she comes
home. She is going to send you a photo of herself when she gets a good
one taken. There is no photographer in Batlow, only one visits here
sometimes.
Miss Ivy Keenan, Batlow via Gilmore, New South Wales, Australia
25 August
1914
Dear Auntie (Miss Elizabeth Kee (nee Gamble), Lislea, Northern
Ireland)
I ought to have answered you're welcome letter long ago. It is about 5 or 6 weeks since I received it. I started to
write before, but when I heard about the War. I thought it was no use
writing when the ships were not travelling between Australia and Great
Britain. But I saw by the paper that they are running again now. I also
got the papers you sent and we like them. My brother Henry is reading a
Herald now.
You said in your letter that June was your busy time
getting in the crops. It is the other way around here: December and
January are the harvest months accept the potatoes; they are digging
them now. Father is starting to plough for the maze. There is 25 acres
to plough and sow.
I hope this letter finds you all well. We are
well a present. Grandmother is away again, staying with her son, John.
She told me to send her love to you and to tell you she hopes you are
well and that all the trouble over the Home Rule would end soon (that
was before we heard of the other war ).
Thank God it did not get any worse, but is not the other great war terrible? It has caused the
great excitement out here and they're calling for volunteers all over
Australia. Some have left for the war already. Three young men have gone
from our town already. They joined the Light Horse, and there are likely
to be 45 members of the Batlow Rifle Club called any day (that is, if
that many volunteer). They received word just after the war was declared
that 45 of them were to be ready as soon as they were called.
Father and George, my eldest brother, and Henry, my second brother,
belong to the rifle club, so if they are called I suppose one will have
to go. George says he would go, but I do hope none of them will have to
go, that the war will be all over soon.
You wanted to know how many uncles and aunts I have here. Here are grandmother's three sons,
beside father: Uncle James, Uncle John and Uncle Stuart Keenan and their
two sisters, poor Aunt Grace and Aunt Mary. Aunt Mary lives in Victoria.
Her married name is Houston and her husband is a coal miner. His name is
Jock Houston. He is Scotch. Mother send your address to Aunty Mary and
she asked for it and I said she wanted to write to you. Have you heard
from her yet? Lina is just two years younger than I am. I was 22 in last
February.
You wanted to know how Aunt Grace is. She is no better, getting worse instead of better. Indeed it would be a blessing
if God would take her. But then He only knows what is best and does
everything for a purpose.
I will tell you how many of mother's brothers and sisters there are. There is Uncle David, Uncle James, Uncle
Robert, Uncle Francis and Aunty Emma (who is married to father's
brother, John) and Auntie Lina, and she is single yet. So you will see
that I have plenty of uncles and aunties on both sides.
I'm glad you liked the photo, but am sorry it was not a very good one. I must
persuade grandmother to get her photo taken again and send you one.
You said you thought my brother was a bit like grandfather. Mother
says, and father too, that my second brother Henry John, is more like
grandfather. That is why he bears his name.
George is more like father I think, although father is more like grandfather than any of his
brothers or sisters. I'm supposed to be a good deal like grandmother.
I will now end this letter and I hope you will excuse if it is a bit
jumbled up, but I am not very good at explaining.
With love and best wishes from all out family to you and all of yours. I am your
loving niece, Ivy Keenan.
I am always glad to get your letter and will not keep you waiting for an answer so long again.
Mother's maiden name was Morton. Her Christian names are Elizabeth Jane. Her
father is alive still. He will be 88 years of age next February. He is a
native of Armah in Ireland. His people live there still.
I received the postcard you sent and I was very pleased with them. Is the
church the one that was there when grandmother left?
Another thing grandmother said to tell you was that ever since she came home
last September, until a week before she went away this month, she has
been out nursing and has helped 11 babies into the world, that is an
average of 1 a month.
Peter Keenan note regarding these letters:
Ivy Keenan's paternal grandfather (and my great grandfather), Henry John Keenan, died in 1889, before Ivy was born. So her references to him in her 1914 letter - for example, mention of the likeness his grandson, Henry John, bears to him - probably came from her mother and father, Aaron and Elizabeth Keenan. Elizabeth Kerr/Gamble's remark that one of Ivy's brothers looks "a bit like grandfather" (i.e., Henry John) probably comes from Elizabeth Kerr/Gamble having grown up with him back in his homeland of Glenone.