Tag Archives: Casey

Jim and Elsie’s 1978 Tour – Day 11

Tuesday, 11 April 1978

The gardens area and trees are heavily covered with snow. It’s the coldest April day since 1940. Aren’t we lucky! Elsie couldn’t help laughing about coming to England in the springtime and having it snow so heavily.

From the hotel balcony the morning after we arrived in London

Big walking day:

To Aldwych to the bank (£100 in traveller’s cheques) ­– Wind very cold.

Down the Strand to Nelson’s Column and Trafalgar Square.

Down The Mall to Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace.

Queen Victoria’s Monument near the Palace gates

Buckingham Palace

Visited Guide shop and Scout shop (all very warm inside).

Cheap fish lunch in Vauxhall Bridge Road.

Called at Cosmos to pick up tickets and tour notes.

Back to Victoria Station to find Platform 7 in readiness for Sunday.

Tube to Knightsbridge and walked around shopping centre. Harvey Nichol’s – very expensive. Arrived at Harrods only 10 minutes before closing – will have to go back – appears to be a very big store.

Walked back to South Kensington. Lots of licensed restaurants but could not find any cafes.

Back to room after tea as it was very cold outside. Forecast of 0oC overnight.

Nancy’s Lemon Meringue Pie

Nancy Casey (nee Dempsey) was renowned for her lemon meringue pies and this recipe comes from her handwritten recipe book

1 can condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs separated
2 tbsp granulated sugar
baked pie shell

Blend together condensed milk, lemon juice, grated rind and egg yolks.
Pour into baked pie shell.
Cover with meringue made from egg whites.
Bake in moderate oven 10 minutes or until brown.

Slice of lemon meringue pie on wooden cutting board

Photo source: Depositphotos.com

Mary Jane Casey nee Cushley

Working on the Casey family tree over Easter I came across this wonderful photograph of Mary Jane Cushley who was married to Daniel Casey (see post of 28 December 2015) among a collection of family photographs we had received from an aunt and forgotten about.

The photograph was taken by the L Herbst photographic studio which operated from 28 Oxford Street, Sydney between 1890-1905. My guess is, the photograph would have been taken in the early 1890s.

Mrs Clark front

Now if only we knew why she was dressed like that?

Casey Origins Part 1

With genealogy, there are two attributes you need more than anything else … patience and persistence!

Searching one’s family tree is nowhere near as easy as the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series and the many Ancestry.com advertisements depict. Instead, it is only through patience and persistence that you eventually break down the brick walls of your research. And these two attributes are even more important if you are researching Irish ancestors.

As early as 1992 (when I undertook my first trip to Ireland), I knew that the Casey line originated in Cork, Ireland. What I wasn’t able to ascertain was whether it was the city of Cork – or the county of Cork – until my fourth visit there in 2013.

Daniel Casey arrived in Sydney, Australia, in the 1880s per the steamship Potosi. He had paid for his passage in steerage (third class) which meant that, unlike government assistant immigrants, there is no information recorded on the passenger list regarding his birthplace or parentage.

In 1887 Daniel, a pastry cook resident in Pitt Street, Sydney, married the 21-year-old Mary Jane Cushley, a domestic servant living at St Johns Road, Glebe. Daniel recorded his age as 25 years and listed his birthplace as Yorkshire England.1

After welcoming their only child in 1888, Daniel succumbed to tuberculosis and died on 22 September 1891 at Liverpool Asylum. Asylums were the precursor to today’s hospitals as we know them, and were used for many years to care for destitute and infirm persons.

Liverpool Hospital c1876 - Wikipedia Commons

Liverpool Hospital c1876 – Wikipedia Commons

The Register of Inmates for Liverpool Asylum stated that Daniel Casey was:

[aged] 30 years; a Roman Catholic; born in Bradford; came out 8 years ago on SS Potosi
as a passenger; married with one child; a cook last employed by the Sydney Catering Co.
3 months ago; been living at 277 Liverpool St; suffered from Phthisis [tuberculosis]; had a brother, J Casey (address unknown) living in Australia; and died 22 September 1891.2

Further information gleaned from the hospital register stated he was married with no property, had been in the Sydney Infirmary 22 days prior to admission at Liverpool Asylum, and had worked for the Sydney Catering Co. for 12 months.

Sydney Infirmary, 1870 / [attributed to Charles Pickering] the image is from the collections of the State Library of NSW SPF / 176

Sydney Infirmary, 1870  [attributed to Charles Pickering] the image is from the collections of the State Library of NSW SPF / 176

Tracing backwards, Daniel was born 20 March 1859 at 2 Craven Street, Bradford, Yorkshire – the second son, and fifth of seven children, born to Daniel and Maria Casey (nee Dempsey). His father, Daniel Casey Snr, was recorded on his son’s birth certificate as being a power loom/worsted weaver.3

The first English census held following Daniel’s birth was that for 1861 and the two-year-old Daniel was easily found living with his family at 2 Craven Street. Also enumerated on the census schedule was an elder, married, brother of Daniel Snr named Joseph. This census schedule recorded the first evidence that the Casey family originated in Cork, Ireland.4

The 1861 UK Census Schedule showing the 2-year-old Daniel Casey living with his family at 2 Craven Place, Bradford, YKS

The 1861 UK Census Schedule showing the 2-year-old Daniel Casey living with his family at 2 Craven Place, Bradford, YKS

Ten years later, the 12-year-old Daniel Casey was recorded in the 1871 census as working as a worsted spinner along with several of his siblings.5 The place of birth recorded for the elder Daniel was only listed as Ireland, so a definitive place of origin in Ireland was still not known.

By the 1881 census Daniel Casey was no longer living at home; his father had died, and his widowed mother was recorded as being head of the household.6 Maria Casey recorded her place of birth as simply, Ireland.

Daniel was eventually found in the 1881 census, at Weymouth in Dorset where he was recorded as being a private with the 1-14th Regiment.7 At some stage, Daniel had obviously decided that a life in the army had to be better than that of a worsted mill worker. More research needs to be done on Daniel’s life in the army, but for his stay at Weymouth we can assume he was housed at the Red Barracks. And perhaps it was from his military life that Daniel learned the occupation of pastry chef.

1 New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, Marriages: Daniel Casey Marriage Certificate No. 2641/1887
2 State Records New South Wales: Health Department, Register of Inmates, Government Asylums for the Infirm & Destitute, 7/3801-3, microfilm 2848
3 General Register Office (UK): Daniel Casey Birth Certificate, Bradford Registration District, 1859 Jun Qtr, Vol 9b Pg 56
4 The National Archives (UK): 1861 England Census Schedule RG9/3320/72/23
5 The National Archives (UK): 1871 England Census Schedule RG10/4460/58/27
6 The National Archives (UK): 1881 England Census Schedule RG11/4449/107/33
7 The National Archives (UK): 1881 England Census Schedule RG11/2104/19/31