John Burke (1844-1895)

John Burke was a brother to Martin Burke (my 2x-great-grandfather). He was born in Co Mayo in 1844, moved to Perth, Scotland with the family around the time of the Famine, and then emigrated to New Zealand around 1883. He died at the residence of his brother Martin in Burnham in 1895, and is buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery.

The first time we come across John is at his baptism. He was baptised on 2 June 1844, in Aghagower Parish, Co Mayo. His baptism entry reads:     June 2^nd John Michl Biddy Burke Derrycraugh   Richard Jennings Cathy(?) Flynn 

John’s parents, Michael Burke and Bridget Flynn, later moved to Perth, Scotland with the family. We also see those with the  sponsors’ surnames, Jennings and Flynn, in Perth. Bridget’s mother’s name (discovered from Scottish records) was Derrig / Derrick.

Aghagower (Aughagower) is a rural village, 8km from Westport, Co Mayo, that was once the site of a powerful medieval monastery on the pilgrimage route from Ballintubber to Croagh Patrick. It still has a round tower, and an extensive graveyard. This whole area was severely impacted by the Famine.

The rural townland of Derrycraugh was listed as the location of the family at the time of John’s baptism. Burton cousins who have visited report that there is nothing much to see there now, other than a few ruined buildings scattered in the rural landscape.

Within a few years of John’s birth, the family had left Aghagower Parish behind, and were next found in Perthshire, Scotland. Whether they left solely because of the Famine, and/or whether there might have been an eviction by the landlord, is not known at this stage. It's also not known whether they went directly to Perth or perhaps stopped somewhere else first.

By 1851 the Burke/Flynn family are established in Perth though I haven’t found them there in the 1851 Scottish Census. However, in April 1851, Mary, another daughter for Michael and Bridget Burke, was baptised there, and in 1852 we see that Patrick Jennings, a son of Richard Jennings and Mary Flinn, is also baptised there. (Richard was a sponsor for John’s baptism.)

At the time of the 1861 census we find the family living at 134 High St, Perth (having a room with 1+ windows). At home on census night is Michael Burke, aged 52, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Bridget aged 49. John is listed as being unmarried, aged 16, and a cabinet maker apprentice. Their son Martin is described as married aged 19, and a ploughman, while John’s unmarried brother Thomas is listed as being aged 20, and also a ploughman. His younger sister Mary is listed aged 9, with her birthplace given as Perthshire, Perth. She is the only family member with a birthplace other than Ireland.

In the 1871 census, the address of the family appears to be 129 High Street, with Bridget listed as head of the household, her husband Michael having died in 1868. John Burke is said to be aged 26 and a labourer. His older brother Thomas, younger sister Mary, and nephew Michael Burke are also living there.

In the 1881 Scottish census, we find just John and his brother Thomas sharing a household, and this is the last census in which we find mention of John Burke in Scotland. The brothers are both described as unmarried, and they are living at 126 High St  with their residence described as having two rooms with one or more windows. John is said to be head of the household and a railway porter. Thomas’s occupation is listed as waggon wright.

John emigrated soon after this census it would seem, as he was said to have been in New Zealand for 12 years at the time of his death in January 1895. He must have arrived in New Zealand around 1883, but I have found it very difficult to find out anything much about him here. (John Burke is a common name in South Canterbury, which doesn't help!) 

 In 1893, the first year in which women could vote, four members of the Burke family are enrolled to vote on the Selwyn Roll- including both Ann and Martin, and their two adult children, Thomas and Ann. These are John’s sister-in-law, brother, and nephew and niece. John, however does not appear. Perhaps he was living and working elsewhere? Or perhaps he simply never enrolled.

If I later find out more about John’s life in New Zealand, I will update this document, but for the time being I am going to skip to John’s death and burial.

A death notice appeared for John Burke in the Lyttelton Times on 7 January 1895, saying that he had died at his brother’s residence in Burnham on January 5^th, aged 52 years.

 There was a funeral notice the same day saying that Mr Martin Burke informed friends that the funeral of his brother John would leave his Burnham residence for the Darfield Catholic Cemetery at 8.30am on Tuesday 8^th January.

John’s death registration says that his occupation was a labourer, and that he died of cancer of the liver with a duration of six months illness. It is stated that he had been in New Zealand for a period of 12 years. His funeral was conducted by Fr Chataigner, a French Marist priest, and he was buried at Darfield Catholic Cemetery 

It is easy to find John’s grave, as his headstone is one of four tall similar ones, on the far right as you walk in the main gate of Darfield Catholic Cemetery.

The first headstone in the group was erected in 1892 for his niece Mary Riordan née Burke, who died aged only 29 of consumption. Alongside him is a headstone for his sister-in-law Ann Burke née Philp, who died just over two months after him. The last plot amongst the four was filled in 1911 when Patrick Riordan, husband of Mary Burke, died. (Ann was also said to have died of cancer of the liver, which makes me wonder whether something else like typhoid or hepatitis might have been the culprit for both her and John's deaths- just supposition though.) 

John Burke's headstone reads:
Of your charity pray for the soul of
John Burke,
who died 5^th Janry 1895,
aged 52 years.
R. I. P.
Have pity, have pity on me, at least you my friends.”

John Burke, late of Burnham, farm labourer, died intestate, and Letters of Administration had to be granted through the Supreme Court, Canterbury District to settle his estate.These were awarded to Martin Burke, ‘brother and next of kin of the said deceased’. Martin had to give an oath, and one of the things he stated was that John Burke was unmarried,  and that he believed the estate effects and credits would be under the value of two hundred and fifty pounds.

John, we don't know a lot about you and your life, but you are remembered as one of our family.  Rest in Peace.

Darfield Visit

 Today it was time for a trip out to Darfield and Charing Cross. First I went to the cemetery by the Catholic Church, where a quartet of headstones are there for my Riordan-Burke family. Mary Burke was the first one buried there, after she died of consumption when only 29 years old. Her mother Ann Philp (Burke) and her Uncle John Burke) died within months of each other in 1895. Patrick Riordan, Mary’s husband, died in 1911. 

Next I visited the Darfield Cenotaph, which carries the name of James Riordan, my great-uncle, who died of wounds received in the Battle of the Somme. 

The last visit for the afternoon was to Charing Cross where the Riordan farm used to be. Patrick raised sheep and grew crops, and it seems like similar uses of the land are still in place. But today there were large irrigators also in use. 

Burke Family Gathering

 Yesterday some of my Burke Family whanau had a gathering in Christchurch- a very enjoyable day. The first item for the morning was at Sydenham Cemetery where we had a blessing for a memorial plaque for Martin Burke- my 2x-great-grandfather. He doesn't seem to have ever had a headstone, and a group of us decided that it might be a good idea to erect one. Fr Simon Eccleton was the priest who came along to perform the blessing, a very special thing. He said he often does blessings for the month's mind at cemeteries, but for someone who died over a 100 years ago was a first for him!

Some of us then headed to Lyttelton and took a short cruise across to Quail Island. I appreciated being on the harbour to mark the day when everyone disembarked from the Mermaid, 160 years ago.

Next stop was at the Gondola, which gave a superb view down to the harbour, and also to parts of the Bridle Path that they had to climb over to reach Christchurch itself.

We finished the evening with a wonderful meal celebration with about 44 cousins. I particularly enjoyed meeting up with a couple of Riordan second cousins who I had never met before, and there was a group of Burtons there whose mother had helped me get started on genealogy many years ago. All round, it was a very special and satisfying day, getting to know a large group of whanau I hadn't met before.

Mary Burke- Biography

 

Mary BURKE was born on 21 August 1862 at Polgavie Cotter’s Houses in the Parish of Inchture, County of Perth, Scotland.

 

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.

---

^[1] With a birth in August 1862, I would expect her age to be 15 mths, not 5mths, on embarkation.

Martin Burke

Martin BURKE was my great-great-grandfather, who was born in Co Mayo, Ireland. His family moved to Perth in Scotland when he was a child, around the time of the Great Famine in Ireland.

Not much is known about Martin before his marriage to Ann Philp, on the second of February 1861, in St John’s Catholic Church, Perth, Scotland. He was aged 19 at the time, and his usual residence was given as Perth. His parents were named as Michael Burke, labourer, and Bridget Burke, whose maiden name was listed as Flinn. His wife Ann gave her usual residence as Abernethy, and she was aged 21.

Image from Family Search microfilm back in the days of their microfilms!

Shortly after their marriage, the census was taken for Scotland, on 7 April 1861. On this night, Martin was with his Burke family in a house at 134 High Street, Perth, Scotland. (At least one other family shared the house with them.) Martin was described as married, aged 19, and a ploughman. There were five other family members listed at the address on census night- his parents Michael (52) and Bridget (49); his unmarried brothers Thomas (20), a ploughman, and John (16), a cabinet maker apprentice; and his sister Mary (9). At the date of this census, his wife Ann appears to be with her father in Balvaird Cot House in Abernethy, as a housekeeper.

In the census, the Burke family all had their birthplaces described as “Ireland”, except for Mary, who was born in “Perthshire, Perth.” Mary was aged 9, so must have been born around 1851/52. If John was born in Ireland some 7 years earlier than this, around 1844/45, the family presumably left Ireland sometime between 1845 and 1851, during the Famine. Maggie Gaffney, a third cousin and fellow Burke descendant, has done extensive research in the baptismal/marriage records in Perth, and has discovered that several related Burke/Flynn families also came to Perth.

We haven’t found a baptism for Martin Burke. In the census, his birthplace was just listed as Ireland, though his death registration in New Zealand says he was from Co Mayo. Maggie Gaffney discovered the likely townland/parish origin of the Burke/Flynn family and eventually found they were from Derrycraugh (Derrycraff) in the RC Parish of Aghagower. The location was finally confirmed when an 1844 baptism record was found for John Burke, Martin’s brother. (Maggie has a record of this from rootsireland.ie, though a transcript can also be found on FindMyPast.)

Tower at Aghagower, Co Mayo, from Nigel's Photo Blog

 In 1862, Martin and Ann’s first child, Mary Burke, was born on 21 August at Polgavie Cottar’s Houses, in the Parish of Inchture in the County of Perth. Martin Burke was the informant for the birth as father, and he was again described as a ploughman.

We next hear of the family when they emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in Lyttelton on 16 February 1864, on the Mermaid, from London. Martin Burke was listed as a ploughman, aged 22 from Fifeshire, with wife Ann aged 21, and one child Mary, who was listed as being 5 months- though Mary must have been 15 months old by this stage. I was told by Sr Martina Burke that there is an oral story told in the Burke family that Martin Burke hoisted Mary onto his shoulders for the walk over the Bridle Track from Lyttelton.

There were two more children born into the Burke family in New Zealand. In December 1864 a second child, Ann (Annie) was born at Addington in Canterbury. Their third child, Thomas, was born in September 1866 in Christchurch.

At some stage the Burke family moved out to the rural area of Burnham where they were farming. In the Wises’ directories we can find a listing for ‘Burke, Martin, farmer, Burnham”, from 1880-81. Electoral listings for 1887 (Lincoln) and 1890 (Selwyn) list “Burke, Martin, freehold, Burnham, farmer, rural sec 28098.”

This indicates where the Burke rural section was in Burnham. I obtained a copy of an old Leeston survey map that had similar numbers along Hawkins and Burnham Rd, but couldn’t find section number 28098. Maggie Gaffney then found an earlier map online with the correct section number included- it became clear that two sections had later been joined and renumbered.

It's not clear exactly when Martin Burke sold this piece of rural land, but by 1898 it was clearly owned by a Mrs E Burdon, who was offering sections 28098 and 28099 for sale. (Papers Past, Press, 20 August 1898, page 12.)

In 1892, Martin and Ann faced the death of their firstborn daughter Mary Riordan née Burke, aged 29, of consumption. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery, one of the earliest burials there.

In 1895, Martin faced two other significant deaths amongst close family. In January, his brother John Burke died at Burnham. He was 52, a labourer, and was said to have died of cancer of the liver. He had been in New Zealand for 12 years so must have arrived around 1883. He was unmarried, and was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near his niece Mary (Riordan, nee Burke) who had predeceased him.

Then just over two months later, on 13 March 1895 at Burnham, Martin’s wife Ann died, aged 53. She was also said to have died of cancer of the liver. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near her daughter Mary Riordan and brother-in-law John Burke. (A quartet of graves was completed in this cemetery in 1911 with a fourth headstone for Patrick Riordan, Mary Burke’s husband.)

Graves for John Burke, Ann Burke née Philp, and on the other side, Mary Riordan née Burke and Patrick Riordan. Darfield Catholic Cemetery

 Martin Burke died on 27 November, 1918 at Nazareth House, Sydenham aged 78, of chronic heart disease and heart failure. On his death registration it said that he was born in Co Mayo, Ireland, and had been in NZ 53 years. He was buried in the Sydenham Cemetery, Block Number 22B, Plot number 63. A newspaper death announcement said he died at Nazareth House, but was late of Harewood Road, Papanui. 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19181128.2.3.2

There is presently no headstone on Martin’s plot, but a small one is being erected and will be unveiled in February 2024 at a Burke Family Gathering.

Martin Burke made a will with the Public Trustee as executor on 24^th April, 1918, giving his address at the time as Guthrie’s Boarding House, Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch. He described himself as a retired Farmer. He gave two bequests. He gave £100 to the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese, Canterbury, for the Cathedral Building fund; and £100 to his son Thomas. His freehold property of 35 acres at Redwoodtown, Blenheim was left upon trust for his daughter Annie Burton, the wife of Francis. On 31^st October 1918, less than a month before his death he added a codicil to this will, giving the sum of £40 to Nazareth House, Sydenham, ‘for the benefit of orphan boys and girls who are inmates thereof’. 

There is an M Burke listed on a marble plaque listing benefactors that was in the now demolished Cathedral in Christchurch. It seems likely with his donation(s) that this was our Martin Burke. I understand this large plaque has been rescued, so it will be interesting to see if it finds some kind of place when a new Cathedral is erected.

An earlier, shorter version of this blog post appeared here.

Margaret Riordan, 9 December 2023
Please contact me if you are also a Burke-Philp relative, or if you would like copies of sources etc. 

See website for the Burke Family Gathering or the associated Facebook page .

 

Calling all Burke-Philp descendants

If you are a reader of this blog, and happen to be a descendant of Martin Burke and Ann Philp, we are having a Burke Family Gathering mid-February 2024 in Christchurch. 

Martin and Ann arrived in Lyttelton in February 1864 onboard the Mermaid, with their first child, Mary Burke, my great-grandmother.

This gathering marks 160 years since the Burke family arrived in New Zealand, and will also allow us to view the new memorial plaque for Martin Burke in Sydenham Cemetery. 

You can read more about what's planned for the gathering on this website.

https://burkefamilynz.org/

"FAN" discovery in a cemetery

Several related Burke and Flynn families left Derrycraff in Aghagower Parish, Co Mayo, around the time of the Famine, and ended up settling in/near Perth in Scotland. We don't presently know whether they left because of starvation and extreme hardship, or whether they were evicted from their land.

Recently my third cousin Maggie Gaffney visited the Perth area, and made a visit to Wellshill Cemetery to see the grave of our mutual 3x-great-grandparents, Michael Burke and Bridget Flynn. She had made a previous visit, and had given me a copy of a photo of their headstone.

This stone marks the burial place of Michael Burke and his wife Bridget, whose maiden surname of Flynn is used on the stone, and of their daughter Mary. Mary is found on the 1861 census as a child aged 9, the only member of the family listed at 134 High St Perth who was born in Perthshire, Perth, rather than in Ireland. At the base of this headstone you can vaguely read the name of John, who died in New Zealand. He was the son of Michael and Bridget, and brother of Martin Burke, my 2x-great-grandfather. John is buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery in New Zealand, alongside his sister-in-law Ann Burke née Philp, and his niece Mary Burke, the eldest daughter of Martin and Ann.

When Maggie sent me the above headstone photo, she also sent me another photo from a slight distance, that gave an overview of the position of the headstone in the cemetery. There was another headstone quite close to 'our' one, but I never gave it much thought.

On Maggie's recent return visit to this cemetery, she took some time to clear the earth from the base of our 3x-grt-grandparents' headstone so you could read John's details more clearly. She also sent me a close-up photo that had both headstones. On the adjoining headstone, the name was Judy Flynn. Flynn is quite a common name in Ireland, but the proximity of these two stones had me querying whether there was a FAN relationship going on here, ie Friends, Associates and Neighbours. Could the Flynns in neighbouring graves be connected somehow? Judy was not a name I had ever heard of in our family, but it seemed it was worth exploring the possibility.

On this headstone Judy Flynn was listed as being 58 years old when she died in 1861, so it would seem she was born around 1803. The second name on the headstone was Ann Mulroy who died in 1908. This raised questions about whether Mulroy might be Judy's married name, and whether Ann could perhaps be Judy's child.

As it turned out it was surprisingly easy to get an initial answer to my query about whether Bridget and Judy Flynn were related. There was help on Ancestry, as several people are clearly researching the Milroy/Mulroy family, and someone had put a death registration for Judy on her profile.

It became immediately obvious that Judy and Bridget were most likely to be sisters. We know that Bridget's parents were Patrick Flynn and Mary Flynn née Derrick/Derrig, and these names were listed as parents for Judy. We also know that Bridget had a brother called Peter Flynn who had come to Perth, and the informant for Judy's death was a Peter Flynn, who was described as her brother, present at her death.

Clearly at some stage more research will be needed to uncover more links and confirmation. From the trees on Ancestry, it seems as if the Milroy descendants don't know about Judy's nephew Martin Burke who came to New Zealand. Contacting them is on my list of things to do. Meanwhile, I am just glad I thought of pursuing the possibility of a FAN relationship, even if the neighbours concerned were in a graveyard.

Thanks to Maggie Gaffney for sharing the headstone photos with me, and for thus sparking off this whole FAN investigation!

Reorganising Files- BurkeNZ

I am in the process of reorganising all my genealogy files. They were already organised to a certain extent, with an elaborate numbering/lettering system that only I could follow, and it meant I couldn't always find information I knew I had that was buried in folders somewhere. Also it was tricky to work out where to file new information. A few months ago I worked out a system for one family line where I used dates and categories within family folders/files. It seemed to work quite well so now I have extended it. I have just spent some of the weekend hours reorganising my Burke-Burton information.

My great-grandmother, Mary Burke, was born in Perthshire, Scotland, in 1862, to an Irish father who had left Co Mayo at the time of the Famine, and a Scottish mother from Fifeshire. She emigrated as a toddler to New Zealand with her parents Martin Burke and Ann Philp, arriving in February1864 in Lyttelton. Her sister Ann was born in NZ in December that year, and a brother Thomas was born two years later in 1866. Mary married Patrick Riordan from Charing Cross, Canterbury, NZ in 1882 as a young woman.
Both her brother and sister married members of the Burton family from Redwoodtown, Blenheim. The Burtons had emigrated from Galbally in Ireland with quite a few Irish-born children in 1876. Ann Burke married Francis Burton in 1888, and Thomas Burke married Nora Burton, one of the youngest Burtons and a New Zealand born member of the family, in 1899. 

Annie Burke and Francis Burton, Marriage notice

Thomas Burke and Nora Burton

 

 

This double lot of Burke-Burton lines has been a bit confusing for me at times, and I have met third cousins who seem a bit dubious that I can be related to them! I am of course cousins with everyone descended from the Burke marriages with Francis and Nora Burton, but then there are a whole lot of other members of the Burton family I am not genetically related to. Hopefully, having reorganised all my files,  my mind is now clear about how everyone fits in.

Mary Burke's Birthplace

Early on when I started delving into my family history, a trip to the local Family History centre led to the ordering of a microfilm for the Scottish parish of Inchture. It wasn’t long before I had the joy of discovering the record of the birth of Mary Burke, my great-grandmother. She was born on 21^st August 1862 at 3h30am in the Parish of Inchture in the County of Perth, in what I had interpreted for many years as Poleavie Cotter's Houses. She was the first child born to Martin Burke from Co Mayo, and Ann Philp from Fifeshire.

In the last couple of months, to help me find out more about how to research my Scottish ancestors, I have done an excellent course through Pharos Tutors, taught by Chris Paton, called Scottish Research Online. This course has really opened my eyes to the abundant riches available on the internet for researching in Scotland.

One of the topics we looked at was Maps, and I decided to use the excellent maps found on the National Library of Scotland website to try and work out more exactly where Mary Burke was born. But much searching in the OS maps only turned up Powgavie as a place near Inchture. Looking at the handwriting more closely I realised it had a "g" and her birthplace was "Polgavie" rather than Poleavie. Powgavie and Polgavie appeared to be in pretty much the same place on different maps, but there was still a difference of spelling to reconcile. You can check out a map on the Old Roads of Scotland site.

Next, in the Ordnance Survey Name Books- Perthshire, 1859- 1862  I discovered that there was a relevant note that explained it: ‘It would appear from a correspondence with the Examiner Corpl Webster that there is some attempt made to distinguish the farm name above from the name Powgavie as applied to the houses about the little harbour or creek, but as this is only a difference in spelling the same name, I think it is better spell it alike in both cases.'

Both the old (1792) and New (1842) Statistical Accounts refer to a settlement where there is a harbour used for import and export, called Polgovie (1792)and Powgavie (1842).

Ordnance Survey Map showing Powgavie in the Parish of Inchture.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=14&lat=56.42512&lon=-3.15471&layers=1&b=1
NLS OS One Inch 1885-1900 Outline, with transparency overlay with modern map.

 
So it seems that Polgeavie and Powgavie are pretty much the same place. And today there are even self-catering cottages there that have been converted from farm houses into modern holiday homes. 

Whether these are the same cottages where Mary Burke was born would require a lot more research. It seems that some of the cotter’s accommodation of the time was very primitive, and was sometimes just a draughty lean-to on the end of the farm buildings. But she must have been born somewhere very close by. Maybe someone of the younger generation will go there one day and explore to find out more.