April A to Z Challenge - Celtic Cullas

Ancestry.com. Irish Names and Surnames [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2003.Original data: Woulfe, Patrick. Irish Names and Surnames. Dublin, Ireland: M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd., 1923.


My Culla ancestors emigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland to Botany Bay as bounty immigrants in 1842. I have previously blogged about Dennis Culla's untimely death here.



He left only one son to carry on the Culla name here in the colony - Dennis Culla, who married Margaret Jane McCormick. They went on to have at least 15 children - one stillborn [unnamed], John, Thomas, Mary Jane, Eather Ellen, Ada Caroline, Albert James, William, Lodisa, Catherine, Vincent Bede, Clare, Margaret, Aloysius Rudolph, and Vera Vivian.

But what of the Culla's left in Ireland? How did they fare? Did they ever hear of their family in the colony ever again? Did any of them ever come to join them here in Australia? I don't know, but I'll keep trying to find out!

I have found the Culla's in the Irish Tithe Applotment Books, and Dennis' father (also Dennis Culla) rented a considerable amount of land. Perhaps there were too many children for the land to support, and Dennis Culla and his new wife Mary Maloney took the opportunity to come to the new colony as farm labourers, hoping for a new life with their own land.

Image from Tithe Applotment Books, 1823-37, National Archives of Ireland.

This is a post for the April A-Z Challenge. This Challenge will cover each letter of the alphabet, one per day (except Sundays) for the month of April. I didn't register my blog with the organisers, but I'm going to follow along anyway. You can too! See www.a-zchallenge.com for more information.

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