Issue of Michael Francis Coonan and Mary Hanora Meehan. 1. Michael Patrick Coonan

Above: Lunch break at the shed at 'Tara'...left to right: John Slavin; Michael Coonan Jnr; Tom Coonan; Mary Costigan; John Coonan and property owner Michael Patrick Coonan (son of Michael Francis Coonan and Mary Meehan)Source: Mary Coonan Waters, daughter of Michael Patrick Coonan and sister of Michael Jnr, Tom and John.

Michael Patrick Coonan was born on December 4, 1883, at Flowerdale, Victoria, the eldest of five children born to Michael Francis Coonan and Mary Hanora Meehan.
Michael grew up as no stranger to tragedy..he was five years old when his little brother Jeremiah died in 1889; eight when his brother Edward died in 1892; nine when he lost his father to an accident in 1893, and sixteen when his mother Mary died of heart disease in 1900.

He and his surviving siblings, Margaret Frances and Thomas Emmet, were raised after their mother's death by their paternal aunt, Margaret Coonan Butler. Margaret was the only surviving sister of their father Michael, and at the time of adopting the three Coonan children was in her mid-fifties. She was the wife Thomas Butler, but had married in her late forties, so the marriage had been a childless one.

When Michael Patrick Coonan reached his legal age, Margaret Coonan handed over the Coonan land to his keeping, and he carried on the excellent farming tradition of his father and grandfather before him.
In 1908, at the age of 25 years, Michael Patrick Coonan married Margaret Mary Sullivan, the daughter of Eugene Sullivan and Mary Doran.Over the years they became hugely respected in the Flowerdale/Yea district, raising a large family.
The children of Michael Patrick Coonan and Margaret Mary Sullivan were:
Margaret Coonan
Michael Coonan
Mary Coonan
Gerald Coonan
Patrick Eugene Coonan died Yea 1920 aged 2
Thomas Coonan
Eugene "Percy" Coonan
Kathleen Coonan
John Coonan

I corresponded with Mary Coonan (married name Waters) for a period of time in the early 1990s, and she was one of the most lovely people I have ever written to. She was a great help to my research, and I very much enjoyed her letters describing her very busy life in Yea. The photocopies of photos of Mary Meehan Coonan and "Aunt Butler" are treasured by me, as are the photos Mary was kind enough to send me of her childhood at 'Tara' and 'Cannon Vale'.

The Electoral Rolls have the following entries for Michael Patrick Coonan:

1909: Michael Patrick Coonan, Doogalook, Yea, Grazier

1914: Michael Patrick Coonan,Homewood, grazier
Margaret Mary Coonan, Homewood, home duties

1919: As above

1924: as above

1931: Michael Patrick Coonan, Whittlesea Road, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan, Whittlesea Road, Yea, home duties
Margaret Junior Coonan, Cannon Vale, Yea, home duties

1936: Michael Patrcik Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, Home duties

Michael Patrick Coonan Jnr, Cannonvale, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan Jnr, Cannon Vale, Yea, home duties
Mary Catherine Josephine, Cannon Vale, Yea, home duties


1943: Michael Patrick Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, yea, home duties.
Gerald Coonan, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan Jnr, Cannon Vale, home duties
Mary Catherine Josephine, Cannon Vale, yea, home duties
Thomas Francis Coonan, Yea, butcher.

1949: Michael Patrick Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, grazier
Margaret Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, home duties.
Eugene Edward Coonan, Cannon Vale, farmer.
John Coonan, Cannon Vale, Yea, farmer.
Kathleen Marie T. Coonan, Cannon Vale, Yea, home duties.
Margaret Coonan Jnr, Cannon Vale, Yea, home duties.
Gerald Coonan, Yea, grazier
Thomas Francis Coonan, Yea, butcher.


1954: Michael Patrick Coonan, Yea, farmer
Margaret Coonan, Whittlesea Rd, Yea, home duties.
Eugene Edward Coonan, Cannon Vale, Yea, farmer.
Margaret Coonan Jnr, Cannon Vale, home duties.
Gerald Coonan, Yea, grazier.
Eileen Flora Coonan, Yea, home duties.
Jane Margaret Coonan, Yea, home duties.
Kathleen Marie Coonan, Spring Valley, Home duties.

Michael Patrick Coonan died on June 24, 1950, at 28 Pender Street, Thornbury, aged 66 years.He was buried in the Yea Cemetery on June 26, 1950.The doctor who had last attended him was his wife's cousin, Dr. Francis Eugene Costigan (their mothers were sisters...Johanna Sullivan who married James Christopher Costigan, and Margaret Sullivan, daughters of Eugene Sullivan and Mary Doran).