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THE STORY OF THE 0'REILLY FAMILY

Thomas O'Reilly's place of birth is uncertain. There is some suggestion that he was born in England, possibly in Yorkshire, but the information on his death certificate suggests that he was born in  Ireland. In any event it was around about 1849 that he was born. His father, William,  was a labourer. His mother's name was Bridget. Catherine Fry was apparently born in Wales about 1855. Her father, Arthur, was a bricklayer.

How or why they ended up there we don't know, but by 1874 both Thomas O'Reilly and Catherine  Fry were living in Co. Durham. They were both living in the same street, Helmer Street in Thomaby  (Thomaby-on-Tees), but there is no evidence as to whether they were living in the same house or  not. On the 22/8/1874 Thomas and Catherine were married at the Registry Office in Stockton  (Stockton-on-Tees) in County Durham. The Registry Office records state that the surname for Thomas is RILEY but census records give the name O'REILLY. It would seem that their marriage was because Catherine  was pregnant, since their first child Maria was born around 1874 or perhaps early in 1875.

In 1875, the O'Reilly's decided to emigrate to Australia. It is possible that they had family out here,  since there were O'Reilly's in the Creswick area who were godparents to a later child, Bridget. In  any event, Thomas, Catherine and baby Maria made their way south to Plymouth where they  boarded their ship, the Lady Jocelyn and set sail on the 15/10/1875. They landed at Adelaide on  24/12/1875. In January 1876 they boarded the Aldinga and sailed to Melbourne. Catherine was  pregnant before they left England, and after their arrival in Victoria, the O'Reilly's moved up to  Springhill just out of Creswick. There Bridget Anne was born on 27/5/1876, followed by William a  year or so later. Within three years the family had moved north to the Numurkah district which was  just being opened up for settlement at the time. They settled at the small village/locality of  Dunbulbalane, (about halfway between Numurkah and Katamatite) where the remainder of the  family of eleven children were born. Thomas became a farmer.

The last child was born in 1892, and around this time Catherine's health must have started to  deteriorate. in 1895 she had been diagnosed as suffering from Asthenia (lack of strength, debility and  diminution of vital powers) and Phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis). She died on 4/9/1897, just 42 years old. Thomas suffered a brain haemorrhage (stroke) in mid 1910, and died at the Mooroopna Hospital on 7/10/1910. Catherine, Thomas and infant son Ernest Mortimer are buried  in the one grave. Grave site 295, Roman Catholic Section of the Numurkah Cemetery.

Family oral history says that Thomas O'Reilly and family lived for a while on the Cutter property  cutting timber. This is very unlikely as there was no Cutter property in Victoria at that time although  Percy Cutter did have a well established bootmaker shop in Katamatite. A more likely scenario is  that Percy and Bridget O'Reilly met in the normal social way as the O'Reilly property at  Dunbulbalane was not very far from Katamatite.
 

                      Family tree for Arthur FRY