Hello out there to everyone, This is my first posting on this list which I read with interest. Of course, I have another difficult one with 'RYANS from Drombane". My Ryan forbears, Thomas and Honora(nee Fox) arrived on board the Birman , in Dec.1840, arriving in Port Adelaide with a number of small children, one of them being my ggrandfather Thomas, born around 1835. They sailed from Greenock via Cork, and from what records are available, it seems they obtained free passage. Thomas snr being a labourer, and eventually settling in the Saddleworth / Manoora area of South Australia, where they farmed. It appears that the place they were from is Drombane. Thomas snr died in 1873, aged 70, and Honora in 1871 of a similar age. She was born around say 1801, Thomas snr in 1803. Before settling in Manoora, they had another child, Mary born 1842 who died two year later in 1844, at the Emigration Depot in Adelaide. A son John was born in 1846, died 1911 in Manoora. He married a Mary Kiely, possibly form Clonoulty,( father Patrick) in 1867. John and Mary had the following children who lived into adulthood : Anthony, Winifred(Coombe), Joseph(married Ellen Madigan) and Mary Ann(Bond). Thomas jnr married a Margaret Suffren(Sufferan) in Melbourne in 1865, and after being in Saddleworth, the family returned to Melbourne and lived in Carlton. 4 children, Julia b1868, Rose Ann b later, William b after her and my grandmother Elizabeth B 1873 . Julia born Saddleworth South Aust, the others not sure. I am wondering whether any of this rings any bells at all?? I would appreciate some advice as to what parish I try and search to find any marriage /baptismal records etc. There were other Ryan families who also came on the Birman on the same voyage in 1840. I do have those details. Funny, no one who I have connected with in South Australia has ever gone back that far. Also, another question form one who is a little ignorant: I have seen references to "Ryan Dans' and 'Rody Ryans'. Could someone please explain. The only other piece of information that could help is the name of a priest who was a reference for Thomas and Honora Ryan. Any help appreciated. Thanks, Esther Kahn Melbourne Australia

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 8:24 AM, Esther Kahn <[email protected]> wrote: I have seen references to "Ryan Dans' and 'Rody Ryans'. Could someone please explain. The only other piece of information that could help is the name of a priest who was a reference for Thomas and Honora Rya! >  n. Any help appreciated. Thanks, Esther Kahn Melbourne Australia Esther, What you are looking at are nicknames for Ryan families. Suppose you live in Village and are a Connor Ryan. You have 4 sons - Matt, Paddy, Tom and Mick. Each of those boys have 4 sons, often with the same names, and each of them have 4 sons. You now have 17 male Ryans [and many female Ryan's] in a village and no easy way to identify them and keep them straight, so you start using nicknames. All of Matt's children [boys and girls] use Ryan (Matt], and so do all his descendants forever. Anytime we run into a Ryan (Matt), we know his/her ancestor was Matt the son of Connor from Village. The more nicknames in a village, the longer Ryan's were there, and the more places you find a particular nickname, the older that nickname is. For Drombane aka Drumbawn you have the following nicknames [so far]: Con, Denis, Matt, Lanty, Fox, Jim, Mich, Nell, Ogue, Owen, Peg, Taylor, Dans/Dance?/Dens? Ryan's have been here a long time and have accumulated many nicknames. A few years ago I had posted all these and you can look back and see where else these nicknames might be found to see where their descendants went to live, and/or where these people may have been before Drombane. Any time you see something like Ryan (Con) or Ryan-Con, you know you are dealing with a nickname. If you know your Ryan nickname, you can usually, but not always, find where you are from; for some nicknames, we don't have a place yet. There is one other quirk. If a village gets too many people with the same nickname, you have the same problem as you did in the beginning, so you need to start new nicknames for families, or sometimes a family will adopt its nickname as its new surname. Not all families do this; some, like mine, just change the spelling of the surname a bit. Janet