Carole’s Family Tree

I have been researching my family tree for a few years now, and there is always more information to find, more names to research, more relatives to talk to. My Australian family surnames are Eason, Irwin, Ewin, and Bell from Northern Ireland; Goode, Miles, Oates and Pascoe from England; and Stewart, Thomson and Simpson from Scotland. My Fijian surnames are Riley, Andrews, Whippy, O’Connor, Brown and Simpson.

My family tree is not complete – it may never be complete. It’s here so that you can contact me if you see anything that looks relevant to you or you if would like to add something to it.

Click here to enter my family tree.

• Australia Day family history events
  It's Australia Day, and I was inspired by Shelley's blog to find out what happening on this day in my own family's past. Here are the highlights: 1616 - Eleanor Nicholas, my 9th great grandmother,...
• When is a substandard photo a great photo?
  I've recently updated my Facebook photo from the Christmas version to my normal one. The normal one is taken from an unusual angle, and it's a bit fuzzy. I love it, though, because of the photographer...
• When to say Enough is enough
  I've been part of the 1st ProGen Study Group for nearly 18 months now. Each month we study a chapter or two of the book and do an assignment which is submitted to others in the group for review. As...
• Free access to World Vital Records for 3 days starting today!
  An announcement from World Vital Records: World Vital Records is announcing the addition of the largest number of records to be released in a single day since the site launched in 2006. To commemo...
• The Riley name
  My name is Carole Gillian Riley. My father's surname is also Riley, as is that of my five brothers and sisters. My Dad's father was William (Bill) Riley, and his father was David Riley. David's father...

My name is Carole Gillian Riley. My father’s surname is also Riley, as is that of my five brothers and sisters. My Dad’s father was William (Bill) Riley, and his father was David Riley. David’s father was Mathew Riley. All of these Riley’s from Mathew down to my Dad’s generation were born in Fiji. It is Mathew’s father that is the tricky one.

The family story is that his name was George. What follows is an amalgam of the family stories that I have heard, mostly from my Dad.

He was probably Irish, and he came to Fiji from Australia. He was a Catholic lay preacher. He married a chief’s daughter of Verata, and had some land near the coast, some of which was given to the Catholic Church to build a mission. He was also given the island of Naigani and the couple lived there. Later, the family gave all but a few acres back to the Naigani people.

I have been to Naigani. The house where my great-grandfather lived is now the main bar and restaurant of a tourist resort. There is what looks like a garden bed out the front of the house that I was told is the grave of Mathew Riley.

Unfortunately the documentary evidence is fairly thin. Civil registration in Fiji began in 1874, although there are few registrations until a few years later. I have copies of the death registrations of William and David that state their parents’ names and I believe these to be reliable. David is stated as being the son of Mathew Riley and Maria Andrews.

So far the only other evidence I have of Mathew’s existence is a Land Claim Commission Report from the National Archives of Fiji (LCC 578) that states that his father was first given the land. His father is referred to as Na Bete Riley. Na Bete means ‘the teacher’ according to my Fijian-English dictionary. It also states that Mathew died in 1876, between the first and second reports on the land claim.

The given name of this first Riley is still a mystery, as is his place of origin. He may have been Irish, he may have been Catholic, he may have been an escaped convict from the Colony of New South Wales.

Here is a brief time line of the Rileys in Fiji that I can substantiate:

1860 David Riley born to Mathew Riley and Maria Andrews on Wakaya Island

1876 Mathew Riley died, buried on Naigani

1897 William Riley born on Naigani

1937 David Riley died in Levuka, buried at Naigani

1954 William Riley died in Suva.

It’s not much, is it? I’ll be working on this line and hope to be able to report some progress soon!

• My family tree
  Carole's Family Tree I have been researching my family tree for a few years now, and there is always more information to find, more names to research, more relatives to talk to. My Australian famil...
• A visit to Fiji in 1832
  On the 15th May 1831 the barque Peru from Salem, Massachussetts arrived in the Fiji Islands to look for beche-de-mer, turtle shell, and other trade goods. The Captain, John H. Eagleston, wrote a log w...