She was the first child born to Martin Burke and Ann PHILP. Martin her father, had been born in Co Mayo, Ireland, and had emigrated to Perth in Scotland with his family around the time of the Famine. Her mother Ann was born in Fifeshire, Scotland.
Mary was a passenger to New Zealand aboard the ship Mermaid with her parents, while still only a baby. On the passenger list she is described as being 5 months old[1]. The Mermaid departed England in November 1863, and Mary arrived with her family at Lyttelton in February 1864.
Sr Martina Burke told me that her father told a story about how Mary was carried on her father Martin’s shoulders over the Bridle Track from Lyttelton to Christchurch.
Mary Burke married Patrick RIORDAN on 11th April 1882, at the Catholic Church in Lincoln. Her occupation was described as servant and her usual residence was given as Lincoln. Her age was said to be 20, but actually would have been 19. Ann Burke, of Burnham (at home), was one of the witnesses.
Mary and her husband Patrick Riordan had six children. Their first child, John, was born in January 1883, and became parish priest in Ross. Martin, their second son, was born in 1884. He was my grandfather, and settled in Taranaki. Other children were Patrick Joseph (1886), James (1887), Bridget (1889), and Annie (1891). Her youngest child, Annie, was born on 23 August 1891, when Mary was already suffering from consumption.
Mary died on 26 March 1892, after two years of illness with consumption (phthisis pulmonalis). She is buried in the Catholic Cemetery beside the Church at Darfield, in a group of four graves, amongst the earliest in this cemetery. She rests beside her mother Ann, her Uncle John Burke, and her husband Patrick Riordan.
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