My connection to ‘The Valley’ from the late 1850s

Denis James Guerin with his wife, Margaret, and eight children, moved to Moreton Bay sometime between 1856 and 1857 to take up a job as a weigher with HM Customs. This was quite a change for the Guerins as before leaving Sydney, Denis was the licensee of the Corporation Arms Hotel in Old South Head Road Sydney. Agnes Guerin, the ninth child, was born in Brisbane in 1857, followed by John, also born in Brisbane in 1860—hence, the family’s migration north fits into the 1856-57 timeframe.

The family was living in Fortitude Valley, street unknown, and with another child on the way, when Denis fell ill and died unexpectedly on 3 February 1861.