This is a history started as that of the O'Rorke family, then it widened to encompass my mother's family, the Dunbars and the Cornish Killigrew family and it has grown from there!

The name O'Rorke (an Anglicised version of the normal O'Rourke), signified that my branch of the family had accepted English dominion and converted from the old faith to the Church of Ireland. My great grandfather Hugh Hyacinth O'Rorke converted back to Catholicism in order to marry Maria Mcloughlin.

The Dunbars came from Scotland to Ireland during the notorious "Plantation of Ulster" to take up land in Co. Fermanagh, and were chronicled as having brutally suppressed the locals who objected (quite understandably!) to the loss of their land. The O'Rourkes are mentioned as fighting fiercly but eventually losing that war. Four hundred years later, a descendant from each family (O'Rorke and Dunbar) met in Australia and married - these were my parents.

The Killigrew family were old Cornish gentry from Falmouth. They were variously adventurers, the Captains of Pendennis Castle, soldiers, and one, Lady Jane Killigrew was charged with piracy, but as her husband Sir John was the Commissioner for Piracy in Cornwall, she was released. Her co-conspiritors (they were also her retainers) were later hanged and one cursed "That old jezebel Killigrew and all her line". That branch of the family died out within several gererations with no male line remainig. Was the curse effective ?

The ancestory of the Killigrews can be traced (as recorded in the official "Visitations of the Heralds to Cornwall") back to King John (you know, the one who, whith the Sheriff of Notingham, tried to do away with Robin Hood!

It is an interesting trip into history.