Roche Family Tree Website

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Extending the Tree Back

The Roche Family Tree, as documented on this website, begins with John Roche, born 1810. Thanks to Hugo Roche, who now lives in California and attended the Roche reunion in 1999, we have gained more information on the immediate of family of this John Roche.

John Roche's brothers and sisters were: Edmund
James
Timothy
Joanna
Katherine
Peggy

John Roche's father was also called John.

James emigrated to Australia and married Joannie Riordan.

Timothy was born in 1818 and died in 1868. [Timothy is the great grandfather of the aforementioned Hugo Roche.]

Joanna married a man named David Barry and her sister Katherine married Jeremiah Hinchion from Caum, near Macroom. Their other sister, Peggy, married O'Leary.

The Rediscovery of the Australian Roches

I was born in 1937 and grew up with three brothers and one sister on the family farm at Curraghanearla, in the parish of Aghinagh (pronounced Aheena), County Cork. Translated from the Irish language, Curraghanearla means the plain of the earl.

My father, John Roche (1894-1962) was not a man for keeping elaborate records. (In his time Irish farmers paid no income tax.) He stuck paid invoices on a piece of strong wire which was hung from a wardrobe or kitchen dresser where they gathered dust but nobody noticed that very much until we got electricity in 1953. Fortunately, a few documents survived from the time of his father Michael (1858- ) and his grandfather John (1800-1891) in an old trunk. Among them were:-

A 1908 Certificate of the Marriage of John Roche and Hanora Harrington in Macroom Church on 13th February 1844. (This was obtained by Hanora Roche to support her claim for the newly introduced Old Age Pension in 1908. She was awarded a pension of 5 shillings per week - a useful sum at the time.)

The Last Will and Testament of John Roche dated 14th July 1887. (He died in 1891)

Assignment on Marriage dated 13th February 1893 whereby John Roche's widow, Hanora, and the Executor of his Will, Michael Kelleher (son-in-law), assigned the farm at Curraghanearla to Michael Roche prior to his marriage to Hanna Cotter.

Two rather tattered Account Books which spanned the time that both John Roche and Michael Roche ran the farm. In these books was recorded the hiring of servants, male and female, the sale of farm produce and when cows, sows and mares were due to give birth. On one page John Roche recorded the date of his marriage and the dates of birth of his nine children. The entry for his seventh child, Timothy, showed that he was born on 17th June 1856. His own death was duly recorded in one of the Account Books:-
'John Roche of Curraghanearla died on 28th October 1891'

However, the most interesting documents in the old trunk were letters from Australia written by his son, Timothy Roche. He had gone there in 1881, arriving at Melbourne on 29th June. He wrote two letters to his father and mother from Melbourne, the first on his day of arrival detailing the mileage for the various stages of the journey starting from London (he had sailed from Plymouth) and a later undated letter promising that he would write as soon as he got 'settled in some part of the colonies'. Two considerably later letters dated November 1896 and November 1897 from Broad Arrow in Western Australia to his mother gave interesting details of life and work in the gold-fields there. [A copy of one of these letters can be seen in the 'Photos' section of this website under the title 'Letter Home from Australia']. He described it as 'a barren desert with very little gold'.

In the 1896 letter he mentioned his wife and five children (two boys and three girls) in Sydney. Over the years we occasionally wondered about his descendants in Australia and whether there were any. In April 1998 retired Bishop Pat Murphy from Sydney was visiting his cousins in the Macroom area, next parish to Aghinagh. He told Anne Murphy, wife of his cousin Denis, that when he was leaving Sydney he had been asked by his Roche cousins to enquire about Roches in the Macroom area. Anne is, by chance, a cousin on my mother's side and, 'of course, she knew Roches at Curraghanearla!' When Bishop Pat visited his Dublin cousin, Aileen Murphy, a week later I gave him some material, including copies of the 1896 and 1897 letters to bring back to Australia to our mutual cousins. Bishop Pat and the Australian Roches are second cousins because his grandfather Edward Murphy (from Coolalta House, about a mile from Curraghanearla) and Timothy Roche married two Barry sisters from Maglin Farm, Ballincollig, about five miles on the western side of Cork city. (Timothy Roche married Nellie Teresa Barry in St Augustine's Church, Balmain, New South Wales on 5th April 1883). During his visit Bishop Pat met, for the first time, another second cousin, John O'Mahony, who was married to my sister Nora. (John, sadly, died the following 21st August). When he returned to Australia it intrigued his Roche cousins that, unknown to them, two of their second cousins in Ireland were married to one another.

After the return of Bishop Pat to Australia, Jim Roche and his brother John, both working in the medical world, proved to be good letter writers and interesting details emerged. Members of the family had visited Europe and Ireland, they reckoned, on average once per decade since World War 1 and while they regularly visited Maglin Farm from where their grandmother had emigrated, their enquiries in the Macroom area didn't prove fruitful until Bishop Pat asked the right person. During a visit around 1994 John Roche asked the Parish Priest in Macroom if there were any Roches in the parish. He told him that there were none. This was true - we were in Aghinagh parish, next door. After this, they tended to conclude that their grandfather was an only child or that his siblings had died without leaving family.

Timothy Roche died in Sydney on Christmas Eve 1919 aged 63. Of his five children only his two sons had married. Only one of them, Vincent John Roche (1896-1967) had family. They are Jim, John and their sister Joan Wilkinson. If the Australian branch weren't very prolific in the past, they are going to catch up as Jim, John and Joan have sixteen children between them and now numerous grandchildren.

Around April 1999 the discovery of Australian Roche cousins prompted my brothers Ted and Michael to think that it would be a nice pre-millennium project to have a gathering at Curraghanearla of the descendants of brothers Timothy and John Roche who farmed adjoining holdings there from around the 1840's. Despite the relatively short notice, (a committee of local Roche cousins may have slowed down decision-making!), there was a tremendous response from Australian, American and Irish Roches to the invitation to the Roche Gathering which took place on Sunday 25th July 1999. (I will leave it to another scribe to describe that day).

All three grandchildren of Timothy Roche came from Australia. With them came John's wife, Kathleen. (Jim's wife, Mary, and three of their children had been to Ireland early in 1998 i.e. before the tracing of their Irish Roche cousins. Joan's husband, Jeffrey, had died in 1996). I met Jim, John, Joan and Kathleen at Dublin airport on Wednesday 14th July and after a few days in Dublin they visited other parts of the country before arriving in Macroom on Saturday 24th July. It was a special occasion that evening when they visited the house and farm at Curraghanearla, now owned by my brother Ted and his wife Gretta, from which their grandfather had emigrated in 1881. Gretta and sister-in-law Eileen (married to my brother Jim) excelled themselves in providing refreshments, including hot whiskies, a good preparation for the memorable day which followed.

Last Will and Testament, dated 14th day of July 1887 of John Roche, Curraghanearla

I, John Roche of Curraghanearla, farmer, in the County of Cork, being now in my perfect mind, memory and understanding and revoking all wills or any that may appear as heretofore made by me, I will now devise and bequeathe as follows:-

That my wife Hanorah Roche shall be entitled to my farm of Curraghanearla aforesaid and to all stock and chattels and property after my death and also to take the rent of my house in Main Street, Macroom, the Macroom house at my wife’s option and I also will devise and bequeathe then in four years after my decease my said wife, Hanorah Roche shall give up to my son Michael Roche in consideration of two hundred pounds to be paid to her, the said farm and stock of mine to be on or about 13 cows and 2 horses and I now will, devise and bequeathe also further that £10, ten pounds a year sterling, together with her maintenance and support equal to her son’s, shall be paid to my said wife Hanorah Roche as an annuity by this my will for her while she lives and such to be paid to her half yearly on every 25th March and 29th September in each year during her life by two half yearly payments of five pounds each to her up to the time of her death to be paid to her by my said son Michael Roche and my wife shall also have the use of the parlour which is at the south end of the dwelling of my house and she shall also have the use of the horse and car of the farm and driver of same whenever she may require same and when reasonably requested and ordered by her and in case of disagreement she shall by this my will get a twenty pounds annuity to be paid half yearly on the stated days aforesaid exclusive of support and maintenance and she to get, my said wife, a ton of coal in the year and my daughter Hanorah Roche, unmarried, shall get the sum of one hundred and seventy pounds in the National Bank, Macroom and also £80 i.e. eighty pounds additional to make my intention of £250 for her carried out, such eighty pounds are to be paid out of the sum of what Michael Roche shall pay out of the consideration money – whatever it is he may get – he must give it out of £200 he will have on getting possession of the farm and stock and I also will and devise that a grandson of mine being with me in my residence, son of my son Edmond Roche of Kilabbey, Dripsey, of which boy, my grandson, I feel a fondness, I will now that that child shall get £50, fifty pounds, which may be paid to him from the proceeds and interest of the farm from my son the said Michael Roche out of the said £200 and this fifty pounds is to be given in trust for that child, John Roche, into my wife Hanorah Roche’s care until such boy will be of an age for his education and maintenance, left to her my said wife to exercise her own prudence regarding same as she may think proper or in the manner she may think well of it as said child will be growing up and now having with me residing my said wife in my house and premises and my said son and my said daughter and my said grandson, all the rest of my family being already provided for, I now am satisfied with it, appointing as my executor Mr. Michael Kelleher my son-in-law of Glounanarrig.

Signed sealed published and declared by the said Testator in our presence, we having in his presence at his request and in the presence of each other subscribed our names as Witnesses:
John Roche Jr., Killabbey
Timothy Desmond, Macroom

In witness whereof I the said Testator have hereunto put my hand and affixed my seal this fourteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one Thousand eight hundred and Eighty seven.

John X Roche
(His Mark)