John Joseph Hickey

Life

How we know this: The cemetery inscription documents John’s 1906 death, burial, wife’s name Ellen Condon, and mother May Hickey; the matching probate date and contemporary newspaper corroborate his death. His Irish origin, middle name, wife’s exact identity, and children remain unresolved. [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. 5 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

• Which Irish Ellen Condon became his wife; the inscription does not connect her to Castlelyons or Patrick Condon
• Whether the probate and death records name the reported children
• Whether Joseph was part of his name
• Whether the Ellen Hickey who died in 1882 was his wife
• His birthplace and occupation
• Order or inspect the catalogued but undigitised Queensland probate file SCT/P621, item ITM2814986; its contents may identify Ellen Condon and the reported children.
• [HIS PARENTS ARE NO LONGER A GUESS — 10 August 2026] This page carried William Hickey and Mary Grady as his parents with the link marked unproven, and seventy-seven people descend through it. It was one of the two largest unverified joins in the archive. The Queensland death index settles it. Registration 1906/C/2799 gives: Death registration: John Hickey | Death date: 18/07/1906 | Mother's name: May Grady | Father/parent's name: William Hickey. The death date matches this archive's to the day. The link is upgraded from unproven to documented. Two honest caveats. This is the free index, not the certificate — the image costs AUD 26.40 and would add the informant, the cause and his age. And the registry writes his mother as May, where this archive holds Mary; the two are the same name in ordinary Irish use and both are now attested, but the registry's form is May.
• The wife is now named as Ellen Condon, but the inscription gives no Irish birthplace. Obtain the Queensland death registration, marriage record, and probate file ITM2814986 to test her origins and the reported children; do not equate her with Patrick Condon’s Castlelyons family on surname alone.
• Compare the 1882 Ellen Hickey burial with a death certificate before merging her. No record found so far connects John to Joseph Hickey, the 1884 Bayonne baptism sponsor.
• The ship and the year he came out. He was born in Tipperary in 1827 and married in Queensland in 1860, so the crossing falls somewhere in those thirty-three years, most likely with his parents.
• [MERGED 7 August 2026] This person had been entered twice — as `john-joseph-hickey-1827` and as `john-hickey-1827` — 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] With the parish registers searchable, his baptism was looked for — a John Hickey of about 1827 to a William Hickey and a Mary Grady. Nothing in Ireland. The register set that covers Cork and Kerry does not appear to reach Limerick Junction in Tipperary, or does not reach back to 1827 there. His link to William and Mary carries seventy-seven people and remains the largest unchecked one in the archive.
• [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] Ipswich EverAfterBack to citation 1a Back to citation 1b
2. [2] Queensland wills index APIBack to citation 2a Back to citation 2b
3. [3] cemetery recordBack to citation 3a Back to citation 3b Back to citation 3c
4. [4] The Brisbane Courier, 26 July 1906Back to citation 4a Back to citation 4b
5. [5] Australia, Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802–2005: John HickeyBack to citation 5a Back to citation 5b Back to citation 5c
6. [6] Hickey family memorials, Ipswich General Cemetery, QueenslandBack to citation 6
7. [7] John Hickey memorial, Ipswich General CemeteryBack to citation 7
8. [8] Queensland death registration index 1906/C/2799 — John Hickey, 18 July 1906Back to citation 8
9. [9] Queensland marriage registration index 1860/C/106 — John Hickey and Ellen Condon, 5 June 1860Back to citation 9

See also

• Return to the Hickey / McGreevy branch
• See this family in the full tree
• Browse all original records