Looking for any information about his family (parents, siblings etc). He was transported for supposedly participating in the 1798 Irish Rebellion. However, the revolt was launched, and suppressed, in May, 1798, and the date of John's conviction was recorded as being a month earlier, in April 1798 when he was about 38 (?) and was sentenced in Dublin for a term of seven years. However, it is possible he was involved in the preliminary skirmishes which preceded the outbreak of full-scale rebellion. He sailed on the Minerva, a vessel noted as carrying Irish rebels, which after leaving Cork in August 1799, arrived in Sydney on January 11, 1800. We know a lot about him after he arrived as a convict but would love to know more about his "Irish" days.
Greg