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My wife's great grandfather, John Burke, we believe was baptised in Kinsale on 1 June 1838.  His parents were Denis O'Connor Burke and Ellen Burke (born O'Connor).  The parenst possibly were married on 1 February 1830 in Kinsale

 (http://search.findmypast.com.au/record?id=ire%2fprs%2fmar%2f0249519%2fl).  John Burke may have had the following siblings Mary Burke baptised 25 April 1835, Pat Burke baptised 9 September 1840 and Timothy Burke 23 February 1845 (from Find My Past, I think).

Re Denis Burke:

Possibly baptised 6 April 1808. Father was Denis Burke and mother Cath Sullivan.

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/2343dc0056739

Witnesses were Maurice Ahern and Nancy Finnerly.

(In marriage record of Denis and Ellen, a witness is Chas Burke.  If this is a brother, a Chars Burke was baptised in1796 with the same parents.)

Difficult to be sure about siblings or marriage or baptism of Denis o'Hara Burke.

John Burke was seaman on the Erin-Go-Bragh which arrived in Brisbane,  Australia in 1862 where he jumped ship.  See the following:

John Burke (1842-1919) and John Edward Burke (1871-1947) were shipmasters and ship-owners. John was born in 1842 at Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, son of Denis O'Hara Burke, fisherman, and his wife Ellen, née O'Connor. In his youth he made several Atlantic voyages as a seaman and was in the United States of America at the outbreak of the civil war. Returning to Ireland, he signed on the Erin-Go-Bragh, chartered by a brother of Bishop James Quinn to take Irish emigrants to Queensland. After a six-months voyage with much sickness, passengers and crew were released from quarantine to land in Brisbane on 8 August 1862.

Burke jumped ship, worked briefly as a pilot, then joined the Australasian Steam Navigation Co., sailing as a deck-hand in the Queensland and the Telegraph. On 1 October 1863 he married 20-year-old Elicia Swords who had been a passenger on the Erin-Go-Bragh. After working for a time on river and bay ships, Burke secured a master's licence restricted to sheltered waters, and commanded the Fanny, trading to the Logan and Albert rivers for Honeyman & Sons. In the Logan flood of 22 January 1887, Burke and his crew worked indefatigably to save over fifty lives and earned a public testimonial.

When his employers closed down that year, he bought the Louisa from them and traded first to Ipswich and the Logan and Albert rivers and later into Moreton Bay. The Louisa brought the first relief supplies to Ipswich after the 1893 flood. Burke acquired other small vessels and lighters for his fleet and in the early twentieth century added coal-bunkering plant. About 1910 he sold the lighters and bunkering plant and bought the Porpoise to establish a coastal service. He later added the Gundiah and the paddle-steamer Adonis for the Maryborough-Townsville timber trade. He retired in 1915 but served as a director of John Burke Ltd until his death from pneumonic influenza on 3 June 1919. He was buried in Toowong cemetery with Roman Catholic rites; his estate was sworn for probate at £6776.

Of Burke's twelve children, Peter Patrick (1877-1963) sailed as a master for the company, while William Joseph (1882-1966) worked as a stevedore and supervised a fuel business owned by the company. John Edward was born on 8 January 1871 in Brisbane. Educated at state schools, he began work as a plumber's assistant, then served as a deck-hand on the Fanny and, probably from 1887, shared ownership of John Burke & Son. He married Bridget O'Keefe at St Stephen's Cathedral, Brisbane, on 17 April 1895; they had three children.

When his father retired, John Edward took over management of the company. Services were extended along the Queensland coast and in 1921 to the Gulf of Carpentaria, which was soon described by residents as 'Burke's flaming ocean'. He saw a big future for the company in promoting Gulf settlement and became a provisional director of a proposed Karumba Co-operative Meat and Canning Co. The plan proved abortive but, when eventually in 1934 Shand's Gulf Meatworks were constructed, Burke's supplied the wharf at Karumba where the meatworks continued to operate until World War II.

Difficulties created by waterfront strikes and cost increases in the 1920s and 1930s were compounded by the loss of two ships. The Douglas Mawson, chartered from the Queensland government, disappeared during a Gulf cyclone in March 1923 and twelve crewmen and five passengers perished; the company-owned Dorrigo sank off Double Island Point on 2 April 1926 with a loss of twenty-two lives.

Burke was an alderman of South Brisbane in 1908-23 and mayor in 1912; he was prominent in the municipal acquisition and extension of the area's wharves, served on the Victoria Bridge Board, represented employers on the Board for Masters and Engineers of River and Bay Steamboats and Barges, and in 1915 failed as a Liberal candidate for the South Brisbane parliamentary seat. He followed the turf and, as chairman of the Kedron Amateur Racing Club, negotiated the purchase in 1923 of the interests of John Wren and his partner Ben Nathan in unregistered Brisbane race-courses. He was involved again with Wren over the Cooparoo Turf Club in 1929, as chairman of directors of Brisbane Amusements Ltd. A royal commission in 1930 on racing found both transactions highly dubious.

Burke's contemporaries remembered him as a strong character with a lively sense of humour. An unrepentant enthusiast for private enterprise, he defined Australia as 'an island surrounded by Navigation Acts … and vexatious regulations of all descriptions'. The paintwork of his ships, originally Irish green, was changed to black with green funnels after repeated black bans by striking unions. However, the firm held the respect of its men who argued that 'they fed us well and treated us well'; many employees became shareholders. He would have no truck with women, even in his office, because no lady would stand his language.

Burke died on 8 October 1947 at his home at Kangaroo Point and was buried in Toowong cemetery with Roman Catholic rites. His estate was valued for probate at £48,264. His son John Augustine (1896-1972) managed the company in his turn until it was taken over by the Dillingham Corporation in 1968.

If the siblings above are correct, we have no information on whether they stayed in Ireland or left.

 

Any help would be appreciated on John Burke's parenst and siblings would be appreciated.

John F Ryan

Friday 17th Feb 2017, 03:49AM

Message Board Replies

  • John:

    Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

    Here is a link to the parish register entry for the June 1, 1838 baptism. The mother was shown as Nell Burke and the family lived on Papers Hill although it could be Paupers Hill  and I noticed on Mary's baptismal record Piper Hill.

     http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000634570#page/60/mode/1up

    The Kinsale RC records start in 1815 except for an eighteen month period for 1805 and part of 1806. There would be no record for someone born in 1808 and baptized in Kinsale.

    http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0073

    The 1852 Griffiths Valuation head of household listing for Kinsale shows a Denis Burke in Winters Hill likely your ancestor.

    Finding connections to siblings will be difficult. Have you considered autosomal DNA testing. Possibly you will match a descendant of a sibling.

    Roger McDonnell

    Castlemore Roscommon, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘

    Monday 20th Feb 2017, 05:50PM
  • Thanks Roger.  I am only guessing that my wife's Denis Burke is the Denis Burke baptised on 6 April 1808 in South Cork Parish.

    It may be more likely that he was born and baptised in Kinsale but I could not find any Denis Burke in the Kinsale records.

    I haven't as yet looked for information eg mariage of any of the possible siblings of John Burke as my main interest to date has been in my own ancestors.

    I do have a marriage entry for a Denis and Ellen Burke in 1830 in Kinsale from Find My Past:

     http://search.findmypast.com.au/record?id=ire%2fp
    rs%2fmar%2f0249519%2fl.

    Thanks again.

     

    John

    John F Ryan

    Monday 20th Feb 2017, 09:17PM

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