Above: This shipping record raises more questions about our John and Judith Bourke than it answers. Family legend states that they arrived on the ship 'Duchess of Northumberland' in 1841, and we know that John's wife was known as both Judith and Johanna in the 1840s-1850s. So, here we find John Bourke,34 years old, a Roman Catholic labourer from Tipperary who can both read and write. With him is his 23 year old housemaid wife, Johanna Bourke, also from Tipperary. But what's this?!! A seven and a half year old son named William??? Where did he come from? There has never been mention of him in the family stories, and I can't find mention of him in the death indexes for Victoria. For William to have been Judith/Johanna's son, he would have had to be born when she was about 15-16 years old...if he IS the son of John Bourke, I would make a guess that when John married Judith Meehan he was a widower with a young son. I will follow this line of thinking up....just as soon as the Irish parish records come down in price and develop more precise indexes!!No child named William appears on the death certificate of Judith Meehan Bourke, and John died just months before civil registration would have required his children to have been named on his death certificate. A mystery to be solved!
STOP PRESS!!! Today, January 4, 2010, I am delighted to announce that we have found the mysterious William Bourke!!! His parentage is not definitely solved, but I have discovered that he lived until he was 49 years old, farming at Burramine with his step-mother Judith Bourke and half-siblings.He died in the Beechworth Insane Asylum in 1884, having been committed in 1877. His story deserves a better telling, so I will open a new blog entry and devote it to poor William Bourke.
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