Sunday 18 February 2024

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 Cemetery, 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. 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 Storey 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.



Saturday 17 February 2024

Annie Riordan- Sr Majella

 The youngest child of Patrick Riordan and Mary Burke was Annie Riordan, who was just a baby when her mother Mary died of consumption. Sadly, Annie acquired it from her mother, though she lived to be 19 before she went quickly downhill with it.

Annie was reputedly very musical, and in Papers Past there are numerous references to her when at high school for passing music exams (piano and harp) and for singing in concerts. At high school in 1974 I had the lead female solo in a musical, and afterwards some nuns were telling me how much my voice reminded them of this nun who was my relative. It was only when I began doing genealogy quite some time later that I found out the nun in question was my great-aunt Annie Riordan, and that she had died in 1911. The nuns who told me the story about her singing voice could never have heard it, they must have just heard the tradition amongst the congregation about her voice.

I am presently in Christchurch for a Burke family gathering, and took the opportunity to go to Linwood Cemetery to update my photos of Annie's grave, in the plot ( Block 40, Plot 99C) of the Mission Sisters, RNDM (Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions.) Her name in the convent was Sr Majella. The plot used to have a tall cross on it, atop a base with the sister's names on it. These names were solely their names in religion, and just the date of death was recorded. Now the cross lays flat over the plots, and there are plaques that carry the names and birth and death dates of each nun. Their family names are included along with their religious names.

Here are a few photos from how the plot looks now.







Friday 9 February 2024

Voyage of the Mermaid

In a week's time, on the 16th February, it will be 160 years since the clipper Mermaid sailed into Lyttelton Harbour. My Burke family were amongst the passengers- Martin Burke who was born in Co Mayo, Ireland; Ann Burke née Philp from Fifeshire in Scotland; and their toddler daughter, Mary Burke, who was born in the Parish of Inchture in Scotland.

My third cousin Maggie Gaffney, a fellow Burke descendant, has been  developing a website about the voyage of the Mermaid out to New Zealand. She's been following the diaries kept by two passengers, and releasing excerpts as the days of the voyage have gone on. On 12 November 1863, the ship was put under tug, and began its voyage down the Thames from London.  By 15 November, all aboard had left Dover, and could see the lights on the coast of France.

Three months later, on 8 February 1864, the ship lay south of Tasmania, and the sailors were well occupied cleaning the ship, including its hull, getting ready for its arrival in New Zealand.

In just a week's time now, the Mermaid will put into Lyttelton Harbour, and a group of descendants are having a Burke Family Gathering to mark the occasion.

Saturday 23 December 2023

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 Martins 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.

Saturday 9 December 2023

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 24th 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 31st 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 .

 

Monday 20 November 2023

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/