3.Mary Corvan

Mary Corvan was the third child and daughter born to Anthony Edward Corvan and Mary Torsa Healy. She was born in the June 1/4 of 1848- I have ordered her birth certificate from the U.K today, and will add it to this blog entry when it arrives in a week or so.
Mary appears as a three year old in the 1851 U.K census, living at 73 Lisson Grove, Marylebone, in London.In the household on that night were her mother Mary and three month old sister Rosa, as well as her maternal Irish grandmother Ellen Healy, a servant and three bakers who would have been employed in the bakery formerly run by Anthony Corvan. He was missing from the family unit on the night of the census, because he was in Debtors' Prison for bankruptcy. Also missing was eldest surviving sister Ellen Annette Mary Corvan-aged about five, I can't find her anywhere. Perhaps her disappearance is as simple as an enumerator's mistake in leaving her off his form.
Mary was six years old when she emigrated to Australia with her family. Of the three surviving Corvan sisters, Mary is the one about whom the littlest is known. For years I have known that Ellen and Rosa Corvan both married in the late 1860s and raised families in Victoria. There was no mention of Mary in family stories, and no trace of her in records.
I had started to think that because Victorian records showed no sign of either Mary Corvans- mother or daughter-they must have followed Anthony over to New Zealand in 1863 and lived their lives there.When New Zealand death records also failed to find them, I had to retrace my steps in Victoria again, and finally came up trumps (sort of!) for Mary the daughter.

Mary Corvan Olsen died in the Cheltenham Benevolent Asylum in Melbourne on April 11, 1916. Her death certificate states that she was 59 years old, but since she was born in 1848, Mary was actually 67 years old at the time of her death.The cause of death was given as "Pneumonia and heart failure". Her parents were Anthony Edward Corvan, baker, and Mary Corvan, formerly Henley. Her birthplace was London, England, and the informant, an authorized agent, unfortunately knew little else.He stated that Mary had spent 52 years in Victoria(it was actually 61 years) and that she was married, but no other details were available. The certificate also revealed that there was no issue, but who knows if this information is correct since everything else is so full of holes.
Mary was buried in the Cheltenham cemetery on April 15, 1916, and it is interesting to note that the service was conducted by a Roman Catholic Priest, the Rev. James O'Ryan. Although the Corvan family back in London and Ireland were Catholic,neither Ellen Annette or Rosa Corvan kept their faith or raised their children as Catholics.It seems that Mary was the only one of the three Corvan sisters to remain a Catholic.
I have looked through the Victorian marriage index to no avail for a marriage of Mary Corvan/Corven/Cor*/Cow* to anyone with a name remotely like 'Olsen'.There are several Mary Olsens appearing in the Victorian Electoral Rolls, but none jump out as being our Mary.
As with her parents, I will just have to be patient and never give up the search...something else concrete about her life will have to turn up some day.