Part of the Rorke research site tells us that three Rorke brothers, Michael, James, and Thomas were listed as passengers on the vessel 'Chatham' arriving in Cape Town, South Africa in 1823.
Very little information is known about James, other than that he married in South Africa and one son has been identified. When James died in June 1859, his brother Michael Rorke signed the death certificate, stating that the parents of James were a James and Julia Rorke of Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland.
The son he left behind in South Africa was James Alfred Rorke, born in 1827.
We know from the Rorke site, and from the research carried out by Agnes in South Africa, that James Alfred Rorke married Sara Johanna Strydom, and that he was the "Jim" that founded Rorkes Drift on the Buffalo river between Natal and Zululand in 1858. We also know from the same two sources that James and Sara had two children, James Michael Rorke, and Louisa Matilda Natalian Rorke.
And James Michael Rorke was the man named at the top of our handwritten sheet of paper.
The names and dates matched.
We told you earlier that James Michael married Louise Carter, and that there were no children from this marriage. We also told you that it is quite probable that Louise died shortly after her marriage, because the first child from James's second marriage was born in 1878, and James was still only 26 years old.
James's second marriage was across the coloured line.
He "married" an unknown Basutho woman and they had two children, George Michael and James Alfred.
These are the first two children listed on our handwritten document.
