Hi Laraine, Thank you but I really don't know if my John Michael Heffernan (Snr) was born here or not - I believe he could be the son of Roger/Rody and Johanna Heffernan, who arrived as migrants from Ireland 1857 on Matoaka and settled in the Hawkesbury NSW area but I just don't have the documentation to prove it. I am resending my earlier email of 23/6 in case you didn't see it. As John and Eliza didn't marry, there is no marriage cert to give me details of John's birth, parents etc. The childrens' 3 birth certs don't give any info either, as they say "illegitimate" and are registered under the surname Greenhalgh. It is only from the childrens' marriage and/or death certs (as previously stated at some stage they all started using the Heffernan surname) that I know their father's name and occupations of labourer and railway worker but no other details. Below is my previous enquiry. Thanks, Kerry. I would like to hear from anybody with any information on John Michael Heffernan (my great grandfather). I know from various newspaper articles John lived in Richmond NSW from at least 1876 until late 1881, when he and de facto wife Eliza Greenhalgh (nee Kennedy) left, possibly for inner Sydney (Redfern/Waterloo area). While in Richmond they had 3 children: John Michael (my grandfather 1876-1933), Johanna (1877-1966 married name Henley), Robert Emanuel (1880-1903). These 3 births were registered as Greenhalgh but at some point the children all started using the Heffernan name. Prior to taking up with John Michael Heffernan, Eliza married William Greenhalgh at Castlereagh in 1861. Their children were: Mary, Robert, Donald, Sarah and Sydney. Eliza was born at Nepean approx. 1839/40 to Donald Kennedy and Cecilia Frazer and died 1911 in Newington Asylum. Little is known of John senior, other than occupations labourer and railway work (from children's B D & M certs). Laraine Dillon <lmcd440@hotmail.com> . to me Hi Kerry, I have bits and pieces on Heffernan’s, my Great Grandfather was Michael Heffernan.. so I have files on heaps of them I note one bit of infopr on a John Heffernan or Fermoy Co Cork, could this be him. I have a shops list that I will go over for you and Immigrant ship list or was he a convict.