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Orphan Number: 4193
Orphan: Jane O'HARA
Mother:RUSSELL, Catherine
Father:,
Mother's ship:Blackfriar
Father's ship:
Age when admitted:10yrs
Date admitted:3 Jun 1851
Date discharged:15 Jan 1855
Institution(s):Queens Orphan School
Discharged to: mother, Ticket of Leave and married
Remarks:
References: SWD28


This orphan has been claimed by: Thelma McKay

Jane O'Hara was born in West Meath Ireland, the daughter of Michael O'Hara & Catherine Russell. she had two sisters Kate and Mary. The Registry of Female Convicts in the Grangegorman Depot in Ireland records Jane aged 7 and Kate 5 with their mother Catherine Russell and were received there in October 1850. Another daughter Mary was born in the prison on 19 November 1850. The family sailed for Hobart Town on 11 January 1851 on the 'Blackfriar'.

On arrival in Hobart Town on 29 May 1851, the eldest two girls, Jane aged 10 & Kate 7, were admitted into the orphanage at New Town. Kate was discharged to her mother in February 1854 and Jane on 15 January 1855.

On 10 December 1856 Jane O'Hara, a servant aged 19 years, married James Kershaw, widower and sawyer, at St Joseph's Church in Hobart. Jane's step-father James Burns was one of the witnesses. James Kershaw had arrived as a convict in July 1844 on the 'Maria Somes', he had been tried at the Central Criminal Court on 5 February 1844 for stealing silver plate from a house in St John's Wood. (CON33/1/57)

James & Jane had at least five children born between 1862 to 1874, at their residence in Huon Road. Their son William in 1862 became a whaler, first on the 'Aladdin' in 1882, then the 'Asia' in 1884. after his marriage to Elizabeth Mary Pointon in 1885 and their children were born, William went back to whaling on the 'Watchwitch, the 'Helen' then cook on the 'Lena'. He died in St John's Park 1938. Another son Frederick did not marry, he went prospecting on the West Coast of Tasmania where Kershaw Creek and Mount Kershaw, four miles from Roseberry, are named after him. Frederick also died in St John's Park in 1933. James & Catherine's daughter Catherine did not marry and died in Roope Street North Hobart in 1947, another daughter Annie Ada married Charles Whelan and died in Queenstown in 1909. 

Jane and James Kershaw celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on 10 December 1906, Jane was originally from West Meath Ireland and James from London. (The Mercury 10 Dec 1906)

James Kershaw died in his 91st year at his residence in Wentworth Street Hobart on 23 March 1910. Jane Kershaw also died at her residence in Wentworth Street on 1 April 1917 and was buried with her husband James in the Queenborough Cemetery in Sandy Bay



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 Site last updated June 2021