About Us

Ann Shevill

My full name:  Margaret Ann SHEVILL
Called name:  Ann     Nick name:  Brabo
Birth date:  1927        Family name:  BRABAZON
Born in the town of Winton, State of Queensland, Australia
Presently residing in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Click to read more of My Story

Trained as an Accountant and Corporate Secretary, worked in hospitality, real estate, body corporate management.  I was widowed in 1988; in retirement I enjoy having two Stepsons nearby and three delightful young Granddaughters.


I have lived for eleven years in a small Retirement Village. I am no longer able to play sport (tennis and golf)
but up till now I have been able to busily pursue many and varied interests. It can be tiring and time consuming, but it is a special feeling to be remembered by and even still useful in my old age.

My favourite hobby is the Brabazon History Project and I am immensely grateful to Michael Brabazon who first wrote to me probably more than forty years ago, and broadened my Family contacts to an extent that I could not have imagined then. I have met many family members around the world and now enjoy regular email correspondence with The Team:  Michael, Shauna Flynn  (USA)  and Jan Barns (NZ)

My email address is  shevilla@bigpond.net.au  and I love to receive news from those from near and far with Brabazon connections. Memories slow up in old age, so, more for my quick reference than anything else, I have almost completed my Timeline which I would be glad to email a copy to anyone who might be interested.

Michael Brabazon

Hi, my name is Michael Brabazon and I am resident in West Cork, Ireland.  Previously my family and I lived in West Sussex and London, England.  My line of the Clan is the branch that ended up in Swinford, Co Mayo and I have close cousins in the USA, Canada and England.  I know there are a lot of related branches from Swinford in the English Midlands and I have attempted over the years to establish lasting contacts.  If any of them get to read this, please do get in touch.


I have been fascinated by our collective Brabazon history and individual branch histories since my early twenties - I'm now retired - and started the Brabazon Family website in 2003.  The more I research and exchange my knowledge with others, the more I realise there is still so much to discover.  You would be amazed at the number of enquiries that the Team (as our small group of researchers call ourselves) has dealt with over the years; a two-way traffic of knowledge and insights.

At the same time as the Family website commenced I also started the Brabazon DNA Project.  Although we have been disappointed at the relative low-level number of volunteers, it has been important in showing that the Brabazons are not a homogenous group, rather a collection of genetic and cultural sub-groups.  This new understanding opens up more avenues for research, as do the findings of Jan Barnes which show a much longer history of Brabazons in Ireland than previously appreciated.

I like to be part of a global family network, one that has been kept together and expanded by the efforts of many members over the years, and feel that the worldwide web offers new opportunities to take it to another level.  I do hope that the next generation will rise to the challenge and contribute to the next phase of what is always a work in progress.

Shauna Flynn

My name is Shauna Flynn (nee Burchill). I was born in Dublin. My father who worked for Singer Sewing Machines was transferred first to London and then to New York. A long way from Bandon, Co. Cork where my grandfather, who was a shoemaker, lived. He purchased a Singer to repair his boots and found that he would make more money if he sold the sewing machine door to door to housewives in the area. He was the first person to introduce the “never-never” plan in Ireland.

The Brabazon name always fascinated me - even though, due to religion and nationality, the only Brabazon in my family was my mother! We thought she was the ONLY one in the world, but when she was about 50 years old and living in New York City far from the city of my birth,  she was tracked down by a cousin and we found that there were, indeed, several of her relatives still living in and around Dublin. Now, there are in her family, an author, a Military Cross recipient, arranged marriages between cousins, a mysterious “wife” in India and the suggestion of illegitimacy. Perhaps one day I'll be able to find the connection to the larger Brabazon tree, but at the moment I can only go back as far as 1810.


Jan Barnes

I was born in 1942 and grew up in the west of Auckland, New Zealand, where we live at present, close to the bush and the sea. Now retired, in the past I’ve been a schoolteacher and exhibiting artist. My interest in the Brabazon name stems from a great-grandmother, Augusta Sophia nee Brabazon, who once owned the house where I lived as a small child, although by that time it had considerably reduced in size. I found her photograph in the box of family photos and began asking questions. Augusta came from a family who lived in Midleton, Co Cork Ireland; the first Brabazons recorded there being John (born near Dublin cir 1743) and his wife Grace. When Ann Shevill hosted a family reunion in Australia in 1991 I made contact with her, and other members of Augusta’s family who lived in Australia: so began a tree and research that has continued
ever since. My main interest at the moment is the later medieval period.


Damien Kee

I'm the technical help, keeping the blog up and running.  My Grandfather is Frank Brabazon Rudd and I'm in the process of tracing my way up the family tree!  I live in Brisbane, Australia with my gorgeous wife and two amazing boys.