Author Archives: Helen Connor

From the Azores to Australia

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Do you know where the Azores are located? It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, which are an autonomous region of Portugal and located about 1,360 km west of that country. This is about my maternal great great grandfather Joseph Antoney and my paternal great grandfather, Emanuel Vero. What a coincidence, an ancestor from the Azores Islands on both sides of my family but two generations apart. Growing up on a remote group of … Continue reading

A colourful and sad cousin

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Colourful, what does that mean? Does it say they wore bright clothes? Or, does it mean they were ‘colourful characters’? Sorting through my family file for the colourful characters and after sorting through and considering this one and that one I have decided on a 1st cousin twice removed – Joseph Emanuel Antoney AKA ‘Manny the Murderer’. Manny was born in Walkerston near Mackay, Queensland on the 2nd April 1900 to Manuel Silva (Emanuel) Antoney and his wife Annie Marie … Continue reading

Finally finding a black sheep!

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I have several ancestors in my family who could be considered troublemakers or ne’er-do wells; the problem is deciding who would be the one to write about for this blog post. It must be William Nelson McCann, aka William McCann Neilson, he is fascinating, but I need to sort through the pile of newspaper clippings I have on William to write coherently. William Nelson McCann (my 2nd great-granduncle) was born on 27 September 1837 in Launceston, Tasmania, the son of … Continue reading