CLAIM FOR MILLIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 3 December 1926, Page 7

CLAIM FOR MILLIONS.

VAST CHICAGO ESTATE. ■MISSING MAlllt 1 AGE REGISTER. SYDNEY, Nov. 4. A missing Irish village marriage register, containing evidence of a marliage performed 90 years ago, is said by several New South Wales families to stand between them and the ■'O’Rourke Millions,’ a iortune of £17,009,000, which is stated to be m the hands of the United States Government. The fortune was left by 1 auulick O’Rourke, who made £1 1 ,000,04)0 by dealing in wheat and real estate in Chicago. He willed the estate to a brother’s wife, Mrs. Cornelius O’Rourke, who settled in this State The matter is at present in the hands of Lloyd's Insurance Company, ol London and New York, who, it is asserted, have secured the evidence necessary definitely to establish the right ot local claimants, with the exception ol the marriage certificate of Cornelius O’Rourke and his wife, with whom he eloped The scene of the marriage is mi Known, though it is known definitely that they were married in Northern Ireland. , . . The storv behind the claim is a romantic one. It began 90 years ago in Northern Ireland, when two young Irishmen, sons of a farmer near Antrim, Paudrick and Cornelius O’Rourke, fell in love with the same colleen. The lady preferred the younger, Cornelius, against the wishes of her parents, eloped with, and married him at some church within 40 miles of Antrim. Paudrick, heartbroken, went to America, and there he lost touch with iiis people, but built up bis fortune ot £17,009,00!) by lucky speculations. Never forgetting his old love, he left the money to her children when he died about 58‘years ago. Meanwhile. Cornelius and lus wife and family had migrated to New South Wales, and had pioneered settlement in the Yass district, where their descendants are now well known. It was not until 1900 that the Australian O’Rourkes knew that Paudrick died leaving a fortune, and then an advertisement from a. New York paper was sent to the family. The claim was not prosecuted until after the visit of the \merican "Fleet last year, when aii officer of the fleet, a grandson of Cornelius O’Rourke, one of whose sons had left Australia - for America, got into touch with the Australian family. The latter then decided to force their claims. . ~ , The largest- beneficiary in bydnej would be Mrs. Hatch, a grand-daughter of Cornelius O’Rourke, and wife ot a former police sergeant.. She &s 60 vears of age and the mother ol J Z children. Besides a number of descendants in the Yass district, other .branches of the family live at Newcastle and Warm Ida. A son of Mrs. Hatch is leaving lor Ireland early in the New. Year to prosecute the search lor the missing marriage register.