Keith McConachy (1908 - 1964)

Born 10 Feb 1908 in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Son of David Thomas McConachy and Daisy Beatrice Eleanor (Smith) McConachy

Husband of Anne Lenore (Swanson) McConachy — married 30 Jan 1939 in St ignatius, Richmond, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 12 May 1964 at age 56 in Gilderoy, Victoria, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Peter Cogan [send private message]

Biography

Keith was born on 10 February 1908 at 123 Nelson Road, South Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the son of David Thomas McConachy, compositor, aged 30 and Daisy Beatrice McConachy nee Smith, aged 25.^[1]

Keith McConachy birth registration 1908

In his younger adult years Keith was a keen egg collector and he has a page in the book "Passions in Ornithology: A Century of Australian Egg Collectors" published in 2020 by Ian J. Mason and Gilbert H. Pfitzner. This book identifies that Keith was a member of the RAOU (Australasian Ornithologists Union) from 1929 until about 1940. He collected around 60 egg clutches from around eastern Melbourne with most known clutches in the South Australian Museum, Adelaide (SAMA).^[2]

An image exists on info.ehive.com, an online cataloguing and pubishing for cultural heritage platform, of Keith McConachy in a tree observing the nest of a satin flycatcher. Follow this link.

Keith's daughter Marie Cogan (nee McConachy) recalls that Keith always had a deep interest in the natural world. He raised fish, such as walking fish, in the laundry wash troughs when the family lived in inner city Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria, raised a baby possum that he found orphaned when working timber in the Dandenong Ranges and took his daughters to observe a Lyrebird nests, hatchlings, and Lyrebird dance and song when living at Gilderoy. ^[3]

Peter was told by other family members that Keith worked in rubber factories in Melbourne and met his wife Anne Lenore Swanson in Richmond. Anne Swanson was a Catholic but Keith was from a Protestant family that was "Orange" - that is anti Catholic due to historical reasons related to the domestic Irish troubles. Keith became a Catholic so he could marry Anne Swanson and this caused problems with his McConachy family. This type of marriage was known as a mixed marriage in those days in Australia. They married at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Richmond on 30 January 1939.^[4]

McConachy and Swanson marriage

Curiously the 1936 Commonwealth Electoral Roll and the marriage registration of 1939 give Keith's residential address as 47 Brighton Road (sic), Richmond which was the address, 47 Brighton Street Richmond, of his future in laws, William and Annie Swanson, and where future spouse Ann Lenore Swanson also resided. There was no Brighton Road Richmond only a Brighton Street. This suggests Keith lived at the same address (boarded?) as his spouse to be for a number of years prior to actual marriage.^[5]

Keith and Lenore had five daughters: Margaret, Marie, Kathleen, Dorothy and Jacinta.

Up to at least 1949, Keith and Lenore and family, resided in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond. The 1949 Commonwealth of Australia Electoral Roll shows:

14136 McConachy, Ann Lenore, 7 James st., home duties, F

14137 McConachy, Keith, 7 James st., rubber worker, M^[6]

In the 1950's Keith and Anne moved to Gilderoy in the Dandenong Ranges and it was in Gilderoy that Keith died in 1964.^[7]

Keith passed away on 12 May 1964^[8] and his will is lodged, and can be viewed, at the Public Records Office of Victoria^[9].

Keith was buried at the Upper Yarra Cemetery^[10].

Detailed McConachy Clan family history found at The McConachy Clan Website. This includes a extensive downloadable family tree.

Research Notes

Keith was the grandfather of Peter Cogan, the profile creator, and died before Peter was born in 1966.

DNA Confirmation

DNA confirms paternal and maternal linage to parents David Thomas McConachy and Daisy Beatrice Eleanor McConachy nee Smith.^[11]

DNA results confirm lineage to grandparents George Rose Smith and Fanny Blackford via comparison of Cogan/McConachy/McConachy/Smith and McBride/Price/Price/Smith routes.^[12]

DNA results confirm paternal lineage to ancestors Edward Still and Elizabeth Parker via comparison of Cogan/McConachy/McConachy/McConachy and Day/Bansgrove/Bansgrove routes.^[13]

DNA results confirm paternal lineage to ancestors David Thomas McConachy and Elizabeth Clark via comparison between daughter Marie's DNA and that of her second cousin once removed.^[14]

Sources

1. ↑ Victorian Government, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Search historical indexes, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history, Registration Number 5187/1908.
2. ↑ Passions in Ornithology: A Century of Australian Egg Collectors by Ian J. Mason & Gilbert H. Pfitzner, Published Canberra 2020, page 350, copy of book in possession of profile creator Peter Cogan
3. ↑ Personal recollections of Marie Cogan related to Peter Cogan, her son, on 7 June 2020
4. ↑ Victorian Government, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Search historical indexes, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history, Registration Number 1939/2475
5. ↑ Australian Electoral Rolls, Commonwealth of Australia, Victoria 1936, Commonwealth Electoral seat of Yarra, State Electoral Seat of Richmond, viewed on Ancestry.com on 2 November 2021

   2936 McConachy, Keith, 47 Brighton rd., rubber worker M (page 50)

   4945 Swanson, Annie Elizabeth, 47 Brighton st., Richmond, home duties, F

   4946 Swanson, Annie Lenore, 47 Brighton st., Richmond, machinist, F

   4947 Swanson, John Arthur, 47 Brighton st., Richmond, civil servant, M

   4948 Swanson, William, 47 Brighton st., Richmond, painter, M (all page 83)

6. ↑ Australian Electoral Rolls, Commonwealth of Australia, Victoria, Commonweath Electoral Seat of Yarra, State Electoral Seat of Richmond, page 236, viewed on Ancestry.com on 2 November 2021
7. ↑ Personal memories of daughter Marie Cogan relayed to her son Peter Cogan 6 June 2020
8. ↑ Victorian Government, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria, Search historical indexes, https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history, Registration Number 1964/8914
9. ↑ Victorian Government, Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), Search Wills and Probates, https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/wills-and-probates

   614/085

   Keith MCCONACHY

   Date of grant: 28 Aug 1964;

   Date of death: 12 May 1964;

   Occupation: Invalid Pensioner;

   Residence: Gilderoy

   PHYSICAL ITEM Not yet digitised

   DATE:1964

   SERIES: Wills

   AGENCY: Master of the Supreme Court

   CITATION: VPRS 7591/ P3 unit 544, item 614/085

   SERIES: Probate and Administration Files

   AGENCY: Registrar of Probates, Supreme Court

   CITATION: VPRS 28/ P4 unit 3218, item 614/085

10. ↑ BillionGraves.com Grave record for Keith McConachy (Died: 12 May 1964), BillionGraves Record 7832895 Yarra Junction, Victoria, Australia
11. ↑ Paternal and maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Peter Cogan and his first cousin once removed Peter McConachy (son of Leo). Their most-recent common ancestors are Peter's McConachy's grandparents, and Peter Cogan's great grandparents David Thomas McConachy and Daisy Beatrice Eleanor Smith. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 53% chance first cousin once removed, based on Peter McConachy sharing 317 cM across 19 segments. Actual relationship first cousin once removed.
12. ↑ Maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Peter Cogan and Kim McBride. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: third cousin, actual relationship third cousin, based on sharing 53 cM across 4 segments.
13. ↑ Maternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Peter Cogan and Athol Day. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: second cousin twice removed, actual relationship second cousin twice removed, based on sharing 129 cM across 8 segments.
14. ↑ Paternal relationship is confirmed by an AncestryDNA test match between Marie McConachy and her second cousin once removed Judith Humphreys. Their most-recent common ancestors are Marie's 3 x great grandparents, David Thomas McConachy and Elizabeth Clark, who are Judith's 2 x great grandparents. Predicted relationship from AncestryDNA: 3-4th Cousins, based on sharing 120 cM across 7 segments