The Melbourne story

It did take a while to get to meet a few of the Roche families in Australia. and what I found was a little bit of knowledge about the Maria and Edward Roche's son James Tweedie. after the trip from Sydney with the two sons Maria had an affair and also married again in 1853 which was a short marriage with the death of Mr Cole. I was beginning to think of the Black widow movie and gasp!!! who or what's next on her agenda. but i found that James Tweedie moved out into country Victoria in a small place called Tinamba. just a few hundred people. He worked as a farm manager and had several children, which I will list in the next couple of weeks. To me it looks like there may have been a split in the family around 1875/6 with the other brother John Bourke moving to Greymouth on the west coast south island New Zealand. and indeed Maria Theresa moved there not long after. John Bourke married Emma Louisa Gibbs from Hall Green near Birmingham England. a place made famous by the lord of the rings author Tolkin. we have been told that she was from the family that owned the Birmingham small arms factory which later became BSA. her grandmother or someone close was said to have been a lady in waiting but I have yet to find anything in that.as in the case of James Tweedie, John Bourke married a catholic and the irony of the matter is that and to my horror both Ladies were buried in the Roman catholic part of the cemetery not with their husbands, and both head stones were gone. I do have pics of James tweedies grave stone but there is no relevant info to be seen on it. as was the case with John Bourke both had daughters and cpl sons. John Bourke's son Ireton died unmarried but was invited to the bicentenary of the Melbourne first one hundred years, unfortunately he was ill and died short time later in Dunedin NZ.
John Bourke's wife left most of her legacy in money terms to the Catholic church in Wanganui as a sort of punishment for John Bourke not allowing her to go to church. revenge is always sweet they say!