Hi there, welcome to my family history home page. My name is Chris Horgan and I live on the Central Coast of New South Wales - Australia. I am retired from work and part of my retirement plan is to trace my family roots. This idea began about four years ago. Starting from scratch, I was amazed at the amount of information that was available from government records & genealogy sites here in Australia, USA and the United Kingdom. They contained all the information that I needed to commence my project.

For some reason my parents and relatives spoke very little about family matters in front of me. Being young, I thought it was not my place to ask questions. The idealology in those days was "children should be seen & not heard", we were simply excluded from any discussions amongst relatives. However, sometimes a little prying ear would pick up on some information. This is so typical with other people whom I have spoken with that are also tracing their family genealogy.

My motivation began in 2002 when I took my wife on a nostalgic trip to the town of my father's birth. A small town named Jerilderie in the Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia close to the Victorian border. I still had my last surviving aunt living there and an elderly amazing female cousin who in her 80th year was still farming and very active in the small community. I had some very fond memories as a young boy being taken on a long train trip by my father from Orange NSW to visit with my grandparents at Jerilderie.

My aunty Marjie and her cousin Mollie HORGAN took me to the local cemetery and we visited the graves of relatives. Most of them I had never ever heard of. I was told stories of my HANNA and HORGAN descendents. It was amazing what I learnt in a few days, and having a camera I eagerly took photographs.

This began my quest for more knowledge on my genealogy. During the last four years I have put together a history of the HANNA and HORGAN families, who were from very different areas of Ireland and beliefs. They came to Australia on the sailing ships to start a new life. Then there was my darling mother, I only ever knew that she had five relatives and I can only ever recall meeting two of them. On tracing these roots I was astounded by the amount of information and facts that I was able to source on the MINTERS of Queensland origin.

The most amazing discovery I made was when I placed a notice on a message board on a genealogy site in Ireland. Within a few months I had a reply from a cousin who shares HANNA great grandparents with me. What was more amazing he lives within half an hour drive of my home. Bill HANNA's previous family research, first hand knowledge and photographs of the HANNA family both in Northern Ireland & Australia was a treasure trove of information for my research.

Please, enjoy the information that I have put together. My research is still ongoing and this family history will be upgraded as information is sourced. I would be grateful for any suggestions, information or corrections to the recordings which I have made.

The above photograph was taken of myself and my precious wife Lesley in 2007 during a vist to "Sacred Spaces" Convent of Mercy - located in the Hunter Valley, Singleton NSW, Australia.