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Thursday, August 20, 2020

A Particularly Amiable Man

One day I hope to write the story of my 3xGreat-Uncle, Michael Harrington Ryan, elder brother of my Great-Great Grandmother, Bridget Ryan.  

In the interim, as well as references from books and journals found in archives, I have a Private List on Trove where I keep details of newspaper articles that mention Michael. This list currently has 161 references that provide a reasonable timeline of this pioneer priest's appointments and movements. However until today, when I decided to venture away from the Newspaper and Gazette Category on Trove, I didn't know much about Michael's character. 

With half an hour up my sleeve I decided to try my luck in the Magazines and Newsletters Category on Trove so I entered this term, "michael harrington ryan",in the search box and was rewarded with two hits.

My Search

The first of these articles (which are instantly available online) only confirmed that Michael had worked at Mayfield. 

The article from 1933, written by W.E.D. (an ex-pupil of St Mary's School), gives a insight into the character of Michael Harrington Ryan when he worked at St. Mary's Church, Newcastle. It is a nugget of Geneagold. 


2016, The Newcastle and Maitland Catholic Sentinel : the official organ of the diocese of Maitland National Library of Australia, Canberra viewed 20 August 2020 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-305925577

My next task is to search in this publication using variants of Michael's name in case there are more mentions of him. I was just so thrilled to find this article that I had to share it immediately.

1 comment:

  1. What a find! We do tend to just look at newspapers but there’s often gold elsewhere on Trove. I remember the wrath of God that we used to get the Monday after a missed Sunday mass. Like it was our fault the parents had taken us away!!

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