Family History of the Children of Elizabeth O'Rourke (nee Cregan)

John William (Jack) O'Rourke

John William (Jack) O'Rourke (pictured opposite) was born in Stephens Road, South Brisbane on 17/12/1890, which was where his parents were living at that time. We have a copy of John's birth certificate. However, he was still a baby when his parents, James and Elizabeth O'Rourke, moved to Sydney. Jack was about 18 when he moved with his family to Murwillumbah in 1909. There, Jack worked in the carting business owned by his father.

Jack O'Rourke married Mary Ann O'Neill at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah on 04/08/1915 (NSW marriage reg. 13007/1915). Mary Ann was a Tweed local, from the nearby farming area of Stott's Creek.

After marrying, Jack and Mary Ann lived in Murwillumbah, Jack continuing to work in his father's carting business. Together they had five children (four boys and one girl):

• Phillip James, born 28/01/1917 (NSW birth reg. 12858/1917)
• John Leo, born 23/11/1918 (NSW birth reg. 51085/1918)
• Patricia Catherine, born 09/02/1921 (NSW birth reg. 12355/1921)
• James Timothy, born 26/07/1929
• (Neil Francis) Noel, born c.1930

All of the children were born in Murwillumbah. We have the birth certificate for John Leo O'Rourke. The fourth child, James Timothy O'Rourke, died at only two days old on 28/07/1929. He was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah.

When James and Elizabeth O'Rourke left Murwillumbah in 1919 for the Queensland Hotel in Coolangatta, they passed the Murwillumbah carting business to their two eldest sons, Jack and Timothy. Jack was well experienced as a carter by that time, having worked for his father for many years. The business was renamed to the "O'Rourke Bros".

Three years later, in 1922, Jack and Timothy opened a produce store in Prospero Street, South Murwillumbah, additional to their carting business. (See advertisement opposite.)

It was soon after this, however, that Jack and Mary Ann O'Rourke moved to the small town of Alstonville, near Lismore. We have little information about what brought on this move. The 1925 Sands Directory and the electoral roll for that year say that during 1924 Jack was a fruiterer in Main Street, Alstonville.

Circumstances changed later in 1924, though, when on August 3 Timothy O'Rourke died at his home in South Murwillumbah. Timothy had been running O'Rourke Bros while Jack was in Alstonville. As a consequence, Jack and Mary Ann returned to South Murwillumbah and took over the business.

Jack and Mary Ann remained in South Murwillumbah from then on. Jack continued his work as a carter, and they lived at 2 Railway Street. This was the original family home that Jack's parents purchased in 1909. In December 1936, Jack bought it from them, along with the house next door at 4 Railway Street, which was also owned by Elizabeth and James O'Rourke then. Five months later, in April 1937, Jack bought from his parents the five adjacent blocks behind these two properties. They were Lots 34-38 Phillip Street. These five lots are now vacant land and Phillip Street itself no longer exists.

Jack O'Rourke died on 01/08/1943 at age 52. He was buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. We have a copy of Jack's death certificate.

Mary Ann O'Rourke lived on for many more years, residing in their 2 Railway Street home. She died on 22/02/1962 at the age of 69. She, too, was buried in the Bray Park Cemetery. Their respective tombstones are shown opposite. The Tweed Daily published a funeral notice and report, and an obituary for Mary Ann. We also have a copy of Mary Ann's death certificate.

Some brief mentions of the children of Jack and Mary Ann O'Rourke follow.

Phillip James O'Rourke joined the RAAF to fight in WWII (Service Number 405497). His service records say that he was married to Dorothy May Ross, though we cannot find any record of their marriage. Phillip was a hairdresser by trade. Prior to the war, in September 1939, he opened a hairdressing saloon in Prospero Street, South Murwillumbah. After the war, Phillip moved with Dorothy to Coolangatta where he was apparently in partnership in the El Grande hairdressing saloon. He bought this business outright in April 1947. Phillip and Dorothy remained in Coolangatta / Tweed Heads until at least 1954, after which time we lose track of him. At some stage, he and Dorothy moved to South Australia. They were living in the southern Adelaide suburb of Glengowrie from 1990 onwards. Philip O'Rourke died on 01/09/1997. He was buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery, Pasadena, SA.

John Leo O'Rourke enlisted in the army for WWII (Service Number NX45361). He was killed in battle in Tarakan, off the coast of Borneo. His body was buried there. Before the war, John had worked for the Tweed Daily newspaper in Murwillumbah.

Patricia Catherine O'Rourke was the third of the family to enlist for WWII, joining the AWAS in 1942 (Service Number NF437638). Before the war, Patricia had been a hairdresser, like her brother Phillip. We think she worked for Oliver Richmond Jordan, who ran a hairdressing salon in Commercial Road, Murwillumbah. Soon after the war, on 18/04/1946, Patricia married Kenneth Leslie Pepperell at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah. Patricia and Kenneth then lived in Brisbane: firstly in Paddington for a short time, then in Mitchelton. Patricia died on 03/04/1991 and was buried in the Albany Creek Memorial Park Cemetery.

(Neil Francis) Noel O'Rourke worked in the postal service. After a stint in the Murwillumbah post office in the mid-1950s - and living with his widowed mother, Mary Ann O'Rourke, at 2 Railway Street - Noel's work took him to various parts of New South Wales: Casino (late-1950s), Merewether (early-1960s), Singleton (late-1960s - early-1970s), before he finally settled in Tamworth in about 1973. Noel O'Rourke married Heather Tillett in Sydney on 24/09/1966. Noel died on 06/01/2009.

Timothy Peter O'Rourke

Timothy Peter O'Rourke (pictured opposite) was born on 08/09/1892 in Newtown in Sydney. He was about 16 years old when he and his family moved to Murwillumbah.

Timothy married Beatrice Alice McMahon on 07/02/1916 at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Murwillumbah. Together, Timothy and Beatrice had three children (one boy and two girls):

• Alice Elizabeth, born 08/02/1917 (NSW birth reg. 12877/1917)
• Timothy James, born 08/03/1918 (NSW birth reg. 11815/1918)
• Maureen Beatrice, born 24/08/1919 (NSW birth reg. 35679/1919)

With his older brother, Jack, Timothy took over his father's carting business in 1919, the name being changed then to "O'Rourke Bros". In the early 1920s, Jack moved from Murwillumbah to Alstonville, leaving Timothy to run "O'Rourke Bros" by himself.

Very sad circumstances struck on 03/08/1924, when Timothy's house in Railway Street caught fire and was completely destroyed. Beatrice and the three young children were away in Brisbane at the time, but Timothy was caught inside the house and did not survive the blaze.

We are not sure which house in Railway Street this was. The above linked article says that it was one owned by Elizabeth O'Rourke. At the time, she owned house numbers 2, 10, and 12. It might have been any of those, but more likely 10 or 12.

Timothy himself had previously owned two adjacent lots in Railway Street. These were house numbers 18 and 20, which he bought from Catherine Gill in January 1916, around the time of his marriage. Presumably, he and Beatrice subsequenly lived there. However, he sold them both in January 1919, perhaps to enable his purchase of the carrier business from his father. Timothy and Beatrice must then have moved into one of Elizabeth's Railway Street houses.

There was a coroner's inquiry into the circumstances of Timothy's death, but the coroner could not determine whether the fire was caused by accident or otherwise. Timothy was buried in the Banner Street Cemetery in Murwillumbah.

Beatrice O'Rourke was then widowed with three children. Some years later, she married Robert James Boland, who was a first cousin of Timothy O'Rourke: Robert's mother, Bridget Boland (nee Cregan), was a sister of Elizabeth O'Rourke. We have more details on this phase of the lives of Beatrice and her children in the section for Robert on our Boland family page.

(Margaret) Pearl O'Rourke

Pearl O'Rourke was born on 26/07/1894 in the Sydney suburb of Botany. She lived with her parents, James and Elizabeth O'Rourke, through their Murwillumbah years, 1909 - 1919, and subsequently moved with them to the Queensland Hotel in Coolangatta. According to electoral rolls, Pearl had no official employment during that time, but presumably she worked in the hotel in some capacity.

Pearl married John Peter Evans of Sydney at St Joseph's Church, Tweed Heads, on 10/12/1927.

The Evans family, evidently, were friends of the O'Rourkes from their days living in Mascot in the 1900s decade. The Evanses lived in Dougherty Street, Mascot, at that time. They visited the O'Rourkes in South Murwillumbah in 1917 and perhaps on other occasions too.

Pearl and John Evans had three children (two boys and one girl):

• James Phillip, born 12/12/1928
• John Bernard, born c.1930
• Elizabeth Anne, born c.1933

When Pearl married, she sold to her parents a property she owned at 4 Railway Street, South Murwillumbah. This was next door to her parents' property at Number 2. Pearl had bought it from her aunt Catherine Gill in 1916.

After their marriage, John and Pearl lived in Mascot in Sydney, although they did move houses twice within that suburb. Pearl was already familiar with Mascot, having lived there until the age of about 14 with her family. Initially, she and John lived at 30 Cleland Street, a house John had purchased in August 1927 - a few months before the wedding. John was working as a carpenter, a trade he continued throughout his working life.

According to electoral rolls, in 1935 John and Pearl moved from Cleland Street to 49 Dougherty Street, which was opposite the home of John's mother, Jane Evans. However, they did not sell their Cleland Street house until 1939. Finally, in about 1938, John and Pearl bought and moved into another house in Mascot, this one at 85 Coward Street. They lived the rest of their lives in this home.

John Evans died on 13/05/1969, aged 70. He was buried at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville. Pearl Evans (nee O'Rourke) died on 01/11/1971, aged 77, at the Calvary Hospital, Kogarah. She was buried alongside her husband, John. We have a copy of Pearl's death certificate.

We follow with brief mentions of the three Evans children.

James Phillip (Jim) Evans became a rugby league player of some note. In the Sydney competition, he played first grade for South Sydney initially and later for Newtown. He was captain of the Newtown side that lost to South Sydney in the 1954 grand final. The Newtown Football Team web site has a team photo showing Jim as captain. Jim Evans married Audrey Preston Bray on 25/09/1953 in the Redfern district. He joined the NSW police force and that job took him to various parts of the state through his career: Newtown, Bowraville, Catherine Hill Bay, Jindabyne, Wagga Wagga, and Young. He and Audrey eventually settled in Kiama. Jim died on 13/08/2013, aged 84. Jim and Audrey had six children. There are more details on Jim's life on his Wikipedia page.

John Bernard Evans married Elizabeth Joyce Keenan in the Marrickville district on 05/07/1958. John, like his father, became a carpenter. He and Elizabeth lived at 17 George Street, Mascot, close to his parents' home. John died on 14/05/2018, aged 87. He and Elizabeth had three children.

Elizabeth Anne Evans married Denis John McGrath in the Sydney district on 21/05/1960. Elizabeth and Denis, for the first several years, lived at the Coward Street home of Elizabeth's parents. They then moved to their own house around the corner at 37a Napoleon Street. They had four children together. Denis died on 16/06/1996 and was buried at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park. We do not know if Elizabeth is still living. She was last thought to be living in Johnson Street, Mascot, in 2009.

James O'Rourke Jnr

James O'Rourke Jnr was born on 06/06/1896 in Botany, Sydney. James Jnr was about 13 years old when his family moved to Murwillumbah from Sydney. So, for a number of years in Murwillumbah he was still attending school. However, he would have finished school several years before the O'Rourkes moved to Coolangatta. According to his obituary many years later, James Jnr spent that time working in his father's carting business.

James Jnr moved with his parents and his two sisters to the Queensland Hotel, Coolangatta, in 1919. He worked there as a barman while ever his father had the hotel licence. Electoral rolls suggest that, in fact, he was a barman there also in the years 1926 - 1935, when other hoteliers ran the business.

After the death of his father in March 1937, James Jnr with his mother, Elizabeth, moved from Brefney Flats in Coolangatta to a house at or near 20 Boundary Street, Tweed Heads. This was a property that James Jnr purchased in December 1932. They both moved again in 1940 to 42 Frances Street, Tweed Heads, which also belonged to James Jnr. In these years, James Jnr was working as a labourer.

James O'Rourke Jnr died in the Tweed District Hospital, Murwillumbah, on 29/01/1944. He was buried alongside his father, James Snr, in the Tweed Heads Old General Cemetery.

Elizabeth Ann (Cissy) O'Rourke

Cissy O'Rourke was born on 14/04/1898 in Botany, Sydney. She was, in effect, the youngest of the O'Rourke children, because the two sisters who followed, Annie and Mary, each died as infants. At age 14, Cissy was one of the chief bridesmaids at the wedding of Henrietta Gill and Arthur Anderson in November 1912.

Electoral rolls indicate that Cissy did not have official employment when she and her family were running the Queensland Hotel from 1919 onwards, but, as with her sister, Pearl, we think that she would have provided a useful extra set of hands in the running of that business.

On 10/11/1923, Cissy O'Rourke married Patrick Joseph Maguire at St Joseph's Church, Tweed Heads. After marrying, Cissy and Patrick lived in Wilson Street, Paddington, in Brisbane, near where Patrick's parents lived. Wilson Street has since been renamed to Plunkett Street.

Cissy O'Rourke died on 04/04/1925 at the young age of 26 in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in South Brisbane. She was buried in the Tweed Heads Old General Cemetery. Cissy and Patrick did not have any children. We have Cissy's death certificate.