Michael Kissane (1847 - 1890)

Born 5 May 1847 in Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Ennis) Kissane — married 1871 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Descendants

Died 25 Oct 1890 at age 43 in Echuca, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

^[1]Michael was born in 1847. He passed away in 1890. Michael Kissane was reared in the Frankists tradition of his grandparents and his wife Anne was also from a Irish Frankist family who he married in Geelong Victoria. They later moved to farm in Echuca. He died of the yellow fever in 1890. After his death his wife ceased to observe the Frankist traditions and conformed to the Irish Catholic customs of the local Church. The Jewish origins of the family were hidden from the younger children of the family. His daughter Johanna (always called Hannah by the family) was close to her father and on his death moved to work in Melbourne for her Jewish aunt where she returned to the practice of orthodox Judaism in the St Kilda synagogue and became the nanny/housekeeper of the family of Rabbi Blaubaum.

Michael was baptised and registered at the Beaufort Church in Kerry in 5 May 1847 according to the crypto-Jewish customs. His godparents were Maurice Walsh and Johanna Walsh.

Chief Rabbi Raphael Kassin's great grandson Michael Kissane was born in 1847 in Gortnascarry Kerry (near Beaufort) which is an area between Killorglin and Killarney. Gortnascarry is by the Laune River and not far from the Black Valley a region of Kissane (Kassin/Ciosain) settlement. His parents were Patrick Kissane and Mary Walsh who were married in 1846 in Beaufort Kerry.

It would seem that Gortnascarry was the home of the Walsh family of his mother Mary Walsh and the home of his father Patrick Kisssane (Kassin|Cassin)family was at Cappa (or Cappagh) an hours walk south of Gortnascarry (about 5.2 km). The Kissane were rent or tax collectors under the famous Lord of Kerry in the 18th century. Michael's father was a sailor and may have taken Michael to the Middle East to stay with his grandfather when he was a teenager. After this he was employed by the Montefiore family and sailed to India and New Zealand before finally arriving in Australia.

Michael married Anne Ennis who worked for the Montefiore family when she arrived in Melbourne in 1869 from Ireland. Michael's mother was a relative of his wife Anne through the Galvin (Galvan) family of Barbados, Killarney and Athlone.

Michael Kissane had 10 children with his wife Anne Ennis:

1) Mary Ann Agnes Kissane (Molly) b. 1872 Dune, Victoria d.1943 Wagin, Western Australia. She married Michael Joseph Ennis (Mick) b.1871 Tubberclaire (near Athlone) in Ireland d.1959 Narrogin WA the son of Patrick Ennis (1844-1922) and Mary Coronton (1847-1928). They had 8 children.

2) Johanna Kissane (Hannah) b.1874 Rochester, Victoria d.1957 Maddington, Perth WA. She married Leonard Horatio Lewis in 1896 in Wangaratta and they had 7 children.

3) Catherine Clare Kissane (Kate) b.1875 Echuca Victoria d.1938 Wagin WA. She married Matthew James Spurr (Matt) b.1871 Kapunda SA d.1955 Wagin WA. They had 4 children.

4) Rose Ellen or Helena Kissane b.1877 Echuca d.1890 Echuca of the Yellow (Russian) Fever.

5) Margaret Elizabeth Kissane (Maggy) b. 1879 Echuca d.1896 Echuca of the Yellow (Russian) Fever.

6) Daniel Patrick Kissane (Dan) b.1880 Echuca d. 1947 Dumbleyung WA. He married Sarah McDonald and they had 5 children.

7) Edward William Kissane (Eddy) b.1882 Echuca d.1968 Perth WA. He married Ruby Elizabeth Ware and they had 5 children.

8) Michael James Kissane (Mick) b.1885 Echuca d. 1929 Dumbleyung WA. He married Arabella Smyth and had 3 children.

9) Helen Josephine Kissane (Josie) b.1887 Echuca d.1968 Wagin WA. She married John Boyd. They had two children.

10) Alice Monica Kissane (Ally) b.1889 Echuca d.1973 Rivervale, Perth WA. She married John O'Brien. they had 3 children.

Research Notes

OCT 25 Mrs Hannah Lewis: A Crypto-Jewish Matriarch ^[2]

The River Laune on the Ring of Kerry (Photo)

Chief Rabbi Raphael Kassin's great grandson Michael Kissane was born in 1847 in Gortnascarry Kerry (near Beaufort) which is an area between Killorglin and Killarney. Gortnascarry is by the Laune River and not far from the Black Valley a region of Kissane (Kassin/Ciosain) settlement. His parents were Patrick Kissane and Mary Walsh who were married in 1846 in Beaufort Kerry. It would seem that Gortnascarry was the home of the Walsh family of his mother Mary Walsh and the home of his father Patrick Kisssane (Kassin|Cassin) family was at Cappa (or Cappagh) an hours walk south of Gortnascarry (about 5.2 km). The Kissane were rent or tax collectors under the famous Donal O'Mahony, Lord of Kerry, in the 18th century.

Michael married Anne Ennis who worked for the Montefiore family when she arrived in Melbourne in 1869 from Ireland. Michael's mother was a relative of his wife Anne through the Galvin (Galvan) family of Barbados, Killarney and Athlone. His eldest daughter Johanna (known as Hannah) spent some time living in Melbourne with her great aunt Mrs Mary Montefiore (nee Kissane) and she returned to the Jewish faith at the St Kilda Synagogue and was employed as a nanny/housekeeper by the Rabbi Elias Blaubaum. Two of Hannah's grandsons were named after two of the children of Rabbi Blaubaum, Athol and Eric Blaubaum. In the 1890's Hannah may have given birth to an illegitimate child secretly delivered by her mother who was a midwife and reared by her uncle John Ennis as his son in Echuca.

Rabbi Elias Blaubaum (photo

Hannah eloped and married Leonard Horatio Lewis in Wangaratta in 1896 against the wishes of both their widowed mothers. Leonard's mother Matilda was formerly of Cheshire England and a devout Jew (like her brother Simeon Levi West) in the privacy of her home, though for social reasons in England she was outwardly a member of the Church of England. Leonard and Johanna also later had a secret Jewish wedding performed by Simeon Levi West in his home according to the family custom. [Simeon Levi West's nephew Lindsay John Payne West recalled seeing 'Uncle Levi' with whom he stayed with as a boy donning his kippa (yamulke)and praying from a Jewish Prayer Book]

Hannah's mother Anne was a devout Irish Catholic of Frankist background. Anne ceased to follow most of the Frankist customs after the death of her husband Michael and hid all knowledge of the Jewish background from her younger children. It is believed that Anne was convinced by her confessor that the death of her husband and two of her children by yellow fever was due to her family clinging to Judaism in secret. Hannah had under the influence of her great aunt Mrs Montefiore with whom she lived in Melbourne returned to orthodox Judaism, however after her negative experiences with the Jewish community she left Judaism and followed her own path with a love of the Scriptures and a devotion to the angels. She married Leonard in the Wesleyan Methodist parsonage in Wangaratta. She received the last rites of the Catholic Church on her death bed under the influence of her younger sister Josephine (Josie) who brought a priest to her in her final hours. Johanna (who was always known by her Hebrew name of Hannah) was a talented midwife and teacher like her mother. Hannah influenced Athol Blaubaum in an interest in medicine and he later became a doctor as did two of his younger brothers who she had also looked after as small children and another one a dentist. Eric Blaubaum was killed in the first World War in 1916. Hannah last saw the Blaubaum children in 1908 in Melbourne before she moved to Western Australia with her mother, husband and children. At this time her mother Anne Kissane was living in West Melbourne before moving to Western Australia where she opened a maternity nursing home in Wagin.

Hannah was trained as a midwife and as a teacher by her mother Anne (known as Annie). Hannah had taught in her mother's school in Boileau Echuca. In census records she is listed as a teacher. Later in life she lived among the huge trees on the Warren River near Northcliffe in the south-west of Western Australia. She died in Perth in 1957 where she had lived with her daughter Marguerite. Leonard and Hannah were also believers in the teaching of the British Israelite movement to which they had been introduced by their Montefiore relatives. Hannah's relative Jacob Montefiore had been a leader in this movement in the 19th century along with Colonel Gawler the Governor of South Australia. Posted 25th October 2019 by Unknown

- In 1873 (September 23) Michael was in the Mt Moriac Petty Sessions Court. Geelong Advertiser of 25 Sept- "Michael Kissane having been ordered to pay Cornelius Moriarty for £7 6s 4d for board and lodging supplied". He had a wife and one child at this stage and seems to have left Geelong after this and in Feb 1874 his daughter Johanna was born in Rochester.

Sources

1. ↑ Montefiore Connections on ancestry.com
2. ↑ https://zohariststories.blogspot.com/2019/10/mrs-hannah-lewis-crypto-jewish-matriarch.html?showComment=1616795385668