This is the O’Brien Clan website. But of course, there’s millions of O’Briens.

So, how do you know if this is YOUR O’Brien Clan? Well, this website is dedicated to that part of the O’Brien family which came to Australia in the early 1800’s, mostly from Ireland.

At the core of the story are Thomas Bede O’Brien (Bill) and Catherine Irene Casey (Irene), who married in Junee in New South Wales in 1916, and who went on to parent 12 children.

Check if any of these names sound familiar:

• Irene and Bill’s grandparents (all born between 1794 and 1825): Catherine (nee Kiely) and William King, Caroline (nee Purcell) and John Casey, Ellen (nee Maloney) and Patrick Ryan and Catherine (nee Garvey) and John O’Brien.

• Irene and Bill’s parents (all born between 1835 and 1851): Caroline (nee King) and Thomas Casey, Margaret (nee Ryan) and Thomas O’Brien.

• Irene and Bill themselves – Catherine Irene Casey born in 1891, and Thomas Bede O’Brien born in 1888.

• Irene and Bill’s 12 children, 11 of whom are shown in the photo at the end of this page: Mary Caroline (1917–1994), John Thomas (1918–1985), Allan William (1919–1944), Harold Joseph (1920–2003), Cyril James (1923–2009), Helen Margaret (1924–2006), Joan Therese (1925–1994), Francis Patrick (1927–2002), Gwendoline Irene (1928–2020), Reginald Michael (1929–2000), Claire Evelyn (1930–2015), Anne (1931–2020)

Maybe you already know you’re a part of this O’Brien Clan, or maybe you think you might be. Or perhaps you have a close connection to the family. If so, and you’d like to learn more, then please register to become a member. During that process you’ll be asked what connection you have to this O’Brien Clan. Your request will go through an approval process, during which one of our administrators may email you to find out more about your connection to the family.

Once you’re an approved member, you’ll have full access to all the people on the website by clicking on the People option in the header area above. That will allow you to move up and down through the various generations, reading stories and looking at photos, documents and potentially even video.

There’s no harm in registering your interest…and you can do that by clicking here: here.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, then please take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions page. If you don’t get the answers you need there, then there are contact details here.