Auckland Family History Expo 2019

My third cousin Maggie - a fellow Burke descendant- has a lot to answer for, and in this case inspired me to toddle off to Auckland for the weekend for a family history expo, organised by the Auckland Council Libraries and many other genealogy volunteers.

Day 1 was intense and useful brain food!

First up the speaker was Cyndi Ingle from the US, who spoke about building a digital research plan to answer a specific research question. This talk will probably have the most long-term influence for me. Cyndi spoke about having a very specific question to start with, then analysing what you already know, and identifying all the possible sources of records that might hold information to answer the question, before making a To Do List and research strategy. She talked about keeping a draft log of what research you complete, and also a report on your findings, and how all these things can be part of one document. I know I am unlikely to do this to the extent Cyndi did, but I am sure I will become more logical and structured in my approach. (OK, so yes, I will probably still go down some fascinating Papers Past rabbit holes!!!)

Raymond Naisbitt, direct from Utah, gave two of the talks I attended about using Family Search.This rich database has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, and I have never used it successfully. But I now understand far more about different ways to access the various records within. Sunday’s session will focus on strategies for using the Big Four record types for Ireland.

Fiona Brooker gave a very informative and clear explanation of how to get more out of your DNA results. I was one of the few in the room who haven’t tested yet, but after attending a day-long workshop in Feilding recently given by Michelle, the Patient Genie, and now attending Fiona’s talk, I think I will test with Ancestry ‘soon’- will just wait for a ‘special’ price to come up. If I can, I will ‘catch’ Fiona tomorrow, as I think we might have some shared Payn-Honey cousins- 2nd cousins for me, not sure which variety for her- and I am not sure how that kind of ‘by marriage’ link would show up in a DNA test.

The last talk of the day was by Dr Nick Barratt from England, who gave a totally engaging talk about how he researched an ancestor of his who turned out to be a ‘spy’. I was in awe of the way he drilled down to get such specific details out of the archival records, and how he then turned all his information into such a wonderful story.

So, a good night’s sleep- and it will time to do it all again...

Annie Riordan: Sr M St Majella RNDM

My grandfather Martin Riordan had five siblings, all born on the Riordan-Burke family farm at Charing Cross in Canterbury NZ. So far on this blog I have written briefly about my three Riordan-Burke great-uncles, John (a priest), Patrick Joseph (a farmer) and James (who died in WW1). But I also have two great-aunts in this line of my family, Bridget and Annie Riordan. Today I'll write about Annie, who became Sr M St Majella RNDM.

Annie Riordan was the sixth and last child born to Patrick Riordan and Mary Burke, on 23rd August 1891. Her mother Mary was already suffering from TB at the time of her birth, and she died in March 1892 while Annie was still only a baby.

Annie was baptised just two days after her birth, on 25 August 1891, by Rev James J O’Donnell, her father Patrick’s first cousin. Sponsors were Thomas Burke and Joanna Halpin.

This photo shows Annie Riordan on the left, next to her sister Bridget. (Annie reminds me very much of my sister Katherine in this photograph.) An inscription on the back implies that this photo was originally sent to cousin Jeremiah, who I think was almost certainly their cousin Jeremiah Malone in Ballinadrideen, Co Cork.

Annie excelled in music. She obtained her ATCL in piano in 1909. She passed an intermediate exam in Harp in 1907. She sang as part of a concert for the bishop in 1905. In the biography of her in the archives of the Mission Sisters order it said that she ‘was naturally gifted with a beautiful voice, …which she gave ungrudgingly to the service of God, particularly her voice, when singing in the Chapel — God’s praises.’

She became a boarder at the Sacred Heart convent when quite young, and entered the Novitiate at the early age of 15, on 6 January 1908.

Her biography says she ‘had inherited Consumption’ from her mother, but with the great care bestowed upon her, it appeared she had grown out of it. However, in November 1910 she had an attack of gastric influenza that left her weak. Five weeks before her death she took to her bed and the illness progressed rapidly. On 20 June 1911 she was administered the last Sacrament by the priest.

I was told by Sr Martina Burke that Annie’s brother John came up from the Seminary when she was in her last illness, and was called in the early hours when her end was near. He ran over to the convent without even doing up his shoelaces.

Annie died of TB on 7 July 1911 at the convent of the Mission Sisters in Lower High St, Christchurch. Her funeral was held in the convent chapel on Saturday 8 July, then she was buried in the sisters’ plot at Linwood Cemetery, Lot 99C, Block 40.

Sources:
1: Birth Registration Image- Malvern, quarter ending 31 Dec 1891
2: When Mary Burke, her mother, died in March 1892, the death registration stated that she had been suffering from Phthisis Pulmonalis for 2 years.
3: Chch diocesan transcript from baptismal register for Darfield.
4: Most music results etc were recorded in the Tablet. (Catholic magazine)- Papers Past
5: “Biography” for Sr Majella was sent to me as a relative by the archives for the Mission Sisters.
6: Photos: Aunty Mary Riordan had this photo of Annie and Bridget.
7: I took photos of the sisters’ plot at Linwood cemetery with Sr Majella’s name on it -early 1990s.
8: Obituary: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/new-zealand-tablet/1911/7/13/32

My father- a railway worker

Recently I rejoined the Palmerston North Genealogy Group- which I had belonged to briefly in the early 1990s when I was first getting started with some genealogy research. When the newsletter editor recalled me helping make many 'leaves' for the display at the 1993 conference, I told her I'd also made a chart about my father as a railway worker, as the conference theme was "Tracking the Lines." Next minute I was asked if I would be willing to write something about that for the next newsletter. What I wrote has just been published in the latest newsletter- so I am taking the opportunity to put a copy of what I wrote here- with a few extra illustrations.

Charts I made about my father, a railway worker

James Kevin Riordan- Railway Worker
In the early 1990s I started doing my family genealogy, and joined the PN genealogy group. In May 1993 the group was hosting the NZSG conference, with the theme “Tracking the Lines”, that included Railways as a subject. My father, James Kevin RIORDAN, was a guard for New Zealand Railways based at Waitara while I was a young child, so this theme was of particular interest for me.

Members who had railway ancestors were asked to help with displays, and I made a large chart about my father as a railway worker.

Dad with Curly

My ‘reward’ for this was immediate: I was in the process of putting the chart on the wall when a man approached me and told me he was in my father’s unit in WW2. (He was in NZ Railways Construction and Operating Companies in Egypt.) He told me that my father was very much in demand in the canteen in the evenings with his glorious tenor voice, when he used to sing Irish folk songs.

Taranaki Herald account of the chase

I had an early childhood memory of a walk down to the Waitara railway yards with my father, and there was a wagon in front of the steam locomotive shed. I asked my father why it was there, and he told me it was so they couldn’t steal the train. I thought that answer was ‘silly’, but as a result of the NSZG conference, I was about to find out a whole lot more about the stolen train incident of 1962!


Mr Vern Ross, an assistant archivist for the NZ Railway and Locomotive Society, was one of the speakers at the conference. I spoke to him after his lecture, and then wrote afterwards to seek his help with finding out more about my father’s service in the railways. He generously replied with a listing of my father’s service record that he had been able to put together from their archives, as well as some newspaper accounts of the night-time chase after a stolen train in Waitara, on 3 March 1962.

Vern suggested that I should contact Mr Bruce Franklyn of NZ Rail to see if he could assist me with a copy of my father’s full service record, and he also was generous in his reply. He was able to tell me about a letter of commendation that Dad had received from the General Manager for his part in chasing the stolen train, and he gave me the title of the file in National Archives that this was now part of.

The file from National Archives proved to be fascinating. It held a copy of the letter of commendation my father received, as well as other newspaper accounts. It held a copy of the statement my father made, as well as a statement by the engine driver, and various reports about the incident by the chief mechanical engineer and the district traffic manager.

In the statement my father made he described how he ‘was awakened by the whistle of AB.817 which he knew should have been in the loco shed’ and then ‘saw it going over Cracroft Street crossing’. When the engine driver arrived at his home, he ‘realised the engine had been taken by some unauthorised person and rang the police station.’  After some cat and mouse chasing up Big Jim’s Hill, with the policeman in one car and the two railwaymen in another, the train was returned to the station yards in Waitara. My father ‘saw 4 men in the vicinity of the Loco Shed and gave chase but as they were young men I could not catch’. In another report it states that although my father was unable to catch the offenders, he recognised one as a former employee, and this identification helped the police catch the culprits.

There was even a humorous editorial in the Christchurch Star entitled ‘The Saga of Ab817’. It concluded: “Furtive fathers who run their sons’ model railways can regard such an exploit only with silent envy. Rarely can £20 worth of individual lawbreaking have proved so unorthodox or so satisfying. There can be only one conquest of Big Jim’s Hill with a purring Ab beneath the feet.”

6 July 2019
National Archives Reference [W2476, 20/1538 part 2]
Editorial - Christchurch Star 10(?) March 1962

Passing things on...

This year I have two main things I want to achieve with my family genealogy.

The first is to get a booklet together that 'introduces' the family story to our newer generations. At this stage I'm not yet half-way through what I want to share on the paternal side- words and pictures- but hopefully the booklet will be a Christmas present this year rather than next!

The second thing I want to do is to get going on some proper organisation of all my family photos- both recent and older and even photocopies I have of very old photos. If I can digitise them, hopefully they are more likely to last over time to reach somebody interested in more family research.

Dad, second from right

Yours truly and sister

Of course, I haven't stopped trying to follow up some new leads as well. One thing I really want to do is track down where exactly our Lalor family came from in Co Kilkenny. There is a really useful article in Papers Past that states that my great-grandfather, James Lalor, is a 'full cousin' to the famous Irish orator, Richard Lalor Shiel. I have found a 'pedigree' on the National Library of Ireland site that seems to relate to this exact family in 1855, and hope to get it 'looked up' soon- but it seems like the researchers in Dublin are currently overloaded with business. Maybe I will have to look it up myself on a visit. I suspect 'my' Lalor connection will be turn out to be just over the county border from the Templetuohy area- if I actually can break through this brick wall!

James Lalor- origins?

I have written before on this blog about my maternal great-grandfather, James Lalor. And I also blogged a little info about him that I discovered in the parliamentary journal New Zealand Free Lance in 1901.

More recently I found an obituary for him that gave more facts about his life that I hadn't known before. He had come to Melbourne at quite a young age, and was a butcher there, soon managing Mr Pettie's large butchery shop. He then sailed in the ship Lightning for New Zealand. He followed the early rushes at Addison's Flat but met with little success.

He was appointed a messenger at Parliament, and filled that position for fourteen years, receiving an address and letter from Sir Joseph Ward when he retired. He was a keen follower of the trotting world, and owned a couple of horses.

His obituary states that he came from Kilkenny, and that was 79 years old at his death in 1916. I know only a few other things about his origins. His father was John Lalor, and his mother was "Mary" but I don't know her maiden name. From the Free Lance article I learned that he was a distant cousin of Peter Lalor of Eureka Stockade fame, and a 'full cousin' of the famous orator Richard Lalor Shiel. It seems clear from various newspaper entries that James Lalor was a clever speaker himself, both literate and educated.

The old Lalor homestead at South Beach, Greymouth, on the West Coast.

 

Photo

 taken 1992

Emboldened by recent success in working out where exactly my Riordan ancestors came from in Co Limerick, I feel I should now put some effort into working out where exactly James Lalor came from. However, for Patrick Riordan, I knew the surnames of both his parents, and I had a townland, Curraheen. I also knew whereabouts in Co Limerick some of his cousins hailed from.
I expect that a search for James Lalor's origins will be more difficult, and since he was possibly born around 1837, his birth is likely not included in parish records. His full cousin Richard Lalor Shiel seemed to be more based in Waterford, which would indicate our James' family was perhaps based more in the south of the county of Kilkenny. But then I think that Peter Lalor, his 'distant' cousin was from Abbyleix, just over the northern border of Co Kilkenny in Co Laois. I will spend some time searching, but this might be a 'brick wall'. Will blog again if one day I learn more.

Martin Burke

Recently we had an afternoon tea- a meeting of the third cousins- Burke-Burton style. I realised then that I had never summarised what I knew about Martin Burke, my grt-grt-grandfather. I have since done that, and this post shares a few bits from the summary. Feel free to contact me if you think you might be another third cousin!

The first reference I found for Martin Burke was in the 1861 Scottish census, when he was living with his family in Perth, at 134 High Street. Martin was described as married, aged 19, a ploughman. There were also five other family members listed at the address- his parents Michael (52) and Bridget(49); his brothers Thomas (19), a ploughman, and John (16), a cabinet maker apprentice; and his sister Mary (9). (Mary was not listed as attending school.)

Martin Burke married Ann Philp in February 1861, at St John’s Catholic Church, Perth (Scotland). Thomas Burke was a witness. Her parents were Thomas Philp, ploughman, and Isabella Philp, whose maiden name was Nicholson.

Martin and Ann’s first child, Mary Burke, was born in August 1862 in the Parish of Inchture.

Martin, Ann and Mary emigrated to New Zealand in 1864. On the passenger list for the Mermaid which arrived 16 February 1864,  from London, Martin Burke was listed as a ploughman, with wife and one child, from Fifeshire. I was once 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.

Martin and Ann’s second child, Ann (Annie) Burke, was born in 1864 at Addington. Their third child,Thomas Burke, was born in 1866.

John Burke, the brother of Martin Burke, died in January 1895 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 (ie arrival c1883.) He was unmarried, and was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near his niece Mary (Riordan, nee Burke) who had predeceased him.

Ann Burke, the wife of Martin Burke, died in March 1895 at Burnham. She was buried in the Darfield Catholic Cemetery near her daughter Mary Riordan and brother-in-law John Burke.

Ann Philp, Martin Burke, and child

Martin Burke died in November 1918. On his death registration it said that he was born in Co Mayo, Ireland. He was buried in the Sydenham Cemetery, but there is at present no headstone on his grave. There are currently cousin-plans afoot to erect a small headstone.

Fr John Francis O'Donnell

Recently I was in Queenstown, and visited the Catholic Church there. Fr John Francis O'Donnell, born in Glenroe, Co.Limerick, was parish priest there from October 1896 until his death in May 1917. He was first cousin to my great-grandfather, Patrick Riordan, and his brother (Dean) James Joseph O'Donnell was priest in Ashburton for many years.

Fr John was responsible for the building of the beautiful stone church that sits on a hill above the lake in Queenstown.

There is a wonderful piece in the Tablet in 1897 that describes how the stone was all carted by local people and stacked ready to build the church.
At the opening of the church Fr O'Donnell thanked all those who had helped to build it and furnish it. He himself donated a statue of the Virgin and Child that is still in the church.

Fr O'Donnell is buried in Queenstown Cemetery, in the Catholic section, Block 1, Plot 8, not far off Brecon Rd. 

There is much written about him over the years in the Tablet, and he was clearly a very beloved pastor, who loved and served his people dearly. When he celebrated his silver jubilee of ordination, the address given to him spoke very warmly of his attributes:

“You have proved and brought into prominence, by the many arduous tasks you have fulfilled, the self-sacrifices you have made, the various improvements and buildings you have effected, and especially the model church we all feel so proud of, that you are a priest of singular administrative ability. In all this work you have been sustained by a buoyancy of spirit, a zeal for souls, a feeling for your fellow man, and a trust in God that has endeared you to all. Sustained by such sentiments, you have continued, in spite of failing health, to discharge duties under difficulties to which stronger men would have succumbed. You have won your way into our hearts, not by the glow of brilliant exterior accomplishments of one craving for popularity and applause, but by your sterling qualities and true priestly virtues. We have always looked up to you as a true Christian gentleman and model priest. Again, as a churchman and citizen, your singleness of purpose, broad-mindedness and genial Irish spirit, endeared you not only to your own flock, but to those outside the Church, many of whom have joined us here to-night to offer you their congratulations.” 

Fr John showed a great love for the mountains he loved under in his adopted land. In his reply at his jubilee he stated that:

“His mission had a singular fascination for him. The gigantic mountains with their snowcapped peaks, piercing the very clouds of heaven, proclaimed in their own way the infinite power and eternity of God. This always gave him a buoyancy of spirit which was indescribable. 

I have compiled a much longer account about Fr John Francis O'Donnell. It can be found at this Google Drive link.