Dan Burke - the last of the line

Dan Burke was baptised on November 28th 1885, the last of the Burke children. According to family stories he never met his oldest brother, Pat, who emigrated before he was born. Pat gives his date of emigration in the various US census returns as a number of years between 1885 and 1890 so this story is likely to be true. 


Dan farmed the original Burke farm down the road from the Kilmacow farm at a place called the Four Gates, Dullas. Dan's uncle Patrick Burke, who lived there, had two daughters. One of them, Jane married a man called Martin Liston. However, Jane died at a young age and Martin then sold the farm to Dan, returning himself to his brother's farm (having bought it from his brother's widow). 

Dan married Bridget Reidy and they had no children. Dan died on December 28th 1952. I have a letter in my possession which his brother Tom (living in Chicago) wrote in February 1952 to his daughter Eileen. In the letter, he tells her that Dan has died and describes him as "the baby of the family". He says he is "slow in writing to Dan's wife - I should have done it already". This is not surprising as he had never met Bridget and hadn't met his brother Dan in almost 50 years. 

Bridget eventually sold the farm and it passed out of the Burke family permanently. I have no photo of Dan. In fact, I have no photo of any of the Burke siblings that remained in Ireland - Mary Ann, Annie, Michael & Dan.