Ellen Condon

Life

How we know this: The 1906 cemetery inscription directly supports the wife’s name Ellen Condon. It does not establish her birthplace, parents, identity with the 1882 Ellen Hickey burial, or connection to the Castlelyons Condons. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Where they lived

Use the place list first. The map below is optional.

The pins show approximate places. The line only joins them in time order; it does not prove the route travelled. 3 of the places listed above are recorded only as a county or country, so they are not pinned. Cemetery and burial places have red pins.

Historical context

These background articles explain the places, work, and events in this entry.

What we still don't know

• Birth and parents
• Marriage details and children
• Arrival in Queensland
• Death certificate
• Whether she was the Ellen Hickey buried at Ipswich in 1882
• Whether she belonged to the Castlelyons family of Patrick Condon; surname alone is insufficient
• [HER FATHER IS NAMED AT LAST — AND HER MOTHER IS BLANK] The Queensland death index, registration 1882/C/2628, reads: Death registration: Ellen Hickey | Death date: 24/08/1882 | Mother's name: - | Father/parent's name: John Condon. The date matches this archive's to the day. This is the first record of any kind to name Ellen's father, and it names him John Condon, which is what the archive had carried on compilation alone. That is a real gain. It does not make him our John Condon. Whoever informed the registry in Ipswich in 1882 gave a name, not a parish; John Condon is among the commonest names in Munster, and nothing here ties him to the labourer of Castlelyons who was dead by 1865. The parent link stays compiled. And the mother's field is a dash. Not missing from the transcription — blank in the registry. So the one record that could have named Mary Cashin declines to name anyone at all.
• [HER FATHER IS NOT IN QUEENSLAND, AS FAR AS THE INDEX SHOWS] If the John Condon who fathered her had emigrated with her, his own death registration would name his parents and take the line back a generation. A controlled sweep of Queensland John Condon deaths 1860–1910 returns nine, of which eight name their own parents: sons of Patrick Condon and Mary Cashell; John Condon and Mary Barry; Jeremiah Condon and Annie Spillane; Henry Condon and Henrietta Knight; John Condon and Mary Francis Martindale; William Condon and Johanna O'Neal; John Condon and Bridget Hennessy; Michael Condon and Hannorah Murphy. The index gives no ages, so none can be shown old enough to be her father, and surname agreement is not evidence. None is claimed.
• [AND THE MARRIAGE REGISTRATION DOES NOT HELP] Marriage registrations sometimes carry parents. Hers — 1860/C/106, 5 June 1860 — does not: both the search response and the free downloadable index leave the mother and father fields blank for both parties. That route is closed.
• [THE REGISTER THAT SHOULD HOLD HER DOES NOT — 9 August 2026] Until now this page could only say that no record ties her to the Cork Condons. The Castlelyons baptism register has since been enumerated: every child baptised there to a father named John Condon between 1830 and 1855. Eleven children, five mothers — Margaret Murphy, Margaret Cronin, Johanna Cotter, Mary Moynahan and Margaret Joyce. There is no Ellen among them. The nearest is a Norry — Honora — baptised in 1837 to the Cronin household, which is a different woman and a different mother. So if Ellen were a sister of Patrick Condon in that parish, born about 1842, the register should hold her and it does not. Combined with the reported Sixmilebridge origin in County Clare, which is a different province from Cork, the case for treating her as a Castlelyons Condon is now weaker than it has ever been. Seventy-seven people descend from this link. What would settle it: her Queensland death certificate or her marriage certificate, either of which should name her parents. Both are behind the Queensland registry paywall — see the blocked-and-paid list, where this is the single cheapest large gain available to the archive.
• [HER MOTHER IS UNSUPPORTED] Her parents are carried as John Condon and Mary Cashin. The Catholic parish registers were searched for an Ellen Condon of 1835–1850 with a father John: seven candidates appear, with mothers named Mary Wall, Mary Tobin, Honora Brien, Johanna Nunan and Catharine O'Brien — and not one Mary Cashin. Seventy-seven people descend through her. See Mary Cashin Condon's page.
• Determine which Irish Ellen Condon became John Hickey’s wife. The cemetery inscription gives no Irish birthplace, and Condon is a common surname; it does not connect her to Patrick Condon or the Castlelyons family.
• Queensland marriage/death certificates, passenger arrival, and records naming parents. The tree-supplied Clare birth conflicts with treating her as a sibling in the Cork family.
• [CONFLICT] A reported Sixmilebridge, County Clare origin conflicts geographically with treating Ellen as a sibling in the Castlelyons, County Cork household. No fetched record ties her to John Condon, Mary Cashin or Patrick Condon.
• Her origin. The Condons in the Cork half of this archive are from the Mitchelstown union; whether this Queensland Ellen Condon belongs to them is entirely unknown and should not be assumed from the surname alone.
• Dates here come from a Find a Grave memorial rather than from the Queensland register itself. The registration would confirm them.
• [MERGED 7 August 2026] This person had been entered twice — as `ellen-condon-1842` and as `ellen-condon-hickey` — when the Queensland families were built out from Find a Grave without first checking the names already in the archive. The two records are one person and are now joined; the old address redirects.
• [CONTROLLED NEGATIVE — AND IT DEFINES THE LIMIT FOR 154 PEOPLE] Australian death certificates name both parents, including the mother's maiden name, which would settle this link at a stroke. FamilySearch does not have them. What it holds for Queensland is a cemetery index — a name and a burial year and nothing else — and an immigration index. Searched for Ellen Condon and for William and John Hickey: every hit is a bare index line. The certificates themselves are at the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, whose historical search this archive has already recorded as needing a person at a keyboard. Seventy-seven people hang below Ellen Condon and seventy-seven below John Joseph Hickey, and one Queensland death certificate each would document both.

References

1. [1] cemetery recordBack to citation 1a Back to citation 1b Back to citation 1c Back to citation 1d
2. [2] Australia, Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802–2005: John HickeyBack to citation 2a Back to citation 2b
3. [3] civil imageBack to citation 3
4. [4] Hickey family memorials, Ipswich General Cemetery, QueenslandBack to citation 4
5. [5] Castlelyons parish baptisms to a father named John Condon, 1830–1855 — a controlled sweepBack to citation 5
6. [6] Parish marriage — John Condon and Margt Murphy, March 1836, Castlelyons, Co. CorkBack to citation 6
7. [7] Queensland death registration index 1882/C/2628 — Ellen Hickey, 24 August 1882Back to citation 7
8. [8] Queensland marriage registration index 1860/C/106 — John Hickey and Ellen Condon, 5 June 1860Back to citation 8
9. [9] Queensland birth registration index 1861/C/514 — William Hickey, 24 May 1861Back to citation 9

See also

• Return to the Condon branch
• See this family in the full tree
• Browse all original records