February - New Zealand Society of Genealogists

Wellington
Branch
Newsletter - February 2016
Upcoming Meetings:
Wednesday 24 February, 5.30pm - An introduction to genetic genealogy
by Patrick Cordue.
Wednesday 23 March, 5.30pm - Boyd forebears UK 1780-1920 and the impact
of social and technological change by John Boyd
Convenor’s Corner
Hello everyone
This hot weather addles my brain and I can’t
concentrate long enough to do any sensible
genealogy. Do you have the same problem, or
are you one of those people that is energised
by heat? I have, though, taken another group
of members (mainly Hutt Valley Branch)
through Karori Cemetery to visit the gravesites
of family members whom they have previously
not been able to locate. At each site the group
hears about the person interred, which is
always interesting. No more “Rally the Rellies”
are in the pipeline at the moment, but if you
can’t locate a grave just let me know and I’ll
see what I can do.
By the time we meet next week at Connolly
Hall some of us will have been to the “Unlock
the Past” event hosted by Gould Genealogy.
This should be a most interesting day, and it
would be good to hear from members about
their experience of attending the event.
Sadly I’ve been to the funeral of another of our
members recently – Angela England died at
the end of January after a very short illness.
The attendance at her funeral in St Mary’s
Karori reflected both Angela’s involvement in
many activities, and her range of friendships
across the local and wider community. Her
husband Garth is also a member of Wellington
Branch and we have of course extended our
sincere condolences on your behalf. Angela’s
happy presence will be missed at our monthly
meetings, where she was a regular attender.
We have another speaker with a good subject to
talk to us this month, and the following two
months have also been organised and confirmed.
I look forward to seeing you at the meetings.
Barbara
“Marriage:- On the 21st Inst. at Brampton, Mr
George Stevenson to Miss Ann Siddall. In the
short space of one hour the courtship was
begun, ended and consent asked and obtained.
Off went the bridegroom to Brampton to make
the necessary notice, but before he had gotten
halfway, he had forgotten the name of his
betrothed, and was forced to turn back to ask
this piece of necessary information.”
The Derbyshire Courier, 25 July 1829
Noticeboard
Branch Meetings:.
Wednesday 24 February - An introduction to genetic genealogy by
Patrick Cordue.
Wednesday 23 March: Boyd forebears UK 1780-1920 and the impact of social and technological change
Gift of Genealogy Books
The Wellington Branch has received a generous
gift of the genealogy books of the late Brian
Jenkins. The books have been gifted by his
daughter Sarah Jenkins. This month I will bring
the parts of the collection relating to Cornwall,
the Shetlands, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Ireland, and
Maori. If these are of interest please feel free to
take these away with you.
Remember too that if you have finished with any
of the books you took from the library or the
table last month and would like to liberate some
space, we are happy to get them back so that
they can be kept in circulation. It was great to
see people find books of interest and most were
taken. Just to make sure we don't completely run
out can you please limit the number of books you
take each month to 2 - and do try to bring them
back.
Carolyn Adams
Family Tree Maker is Back!
Ancestry, which announced that it would be
retiring the popular software package in
December, revealed in a statement on 2
February, that the brand had now been acquired
by Software MacKiev. The agreement means the
Boston-based company will not only be responsible for providing software updates, but releasing
brand-new PC and Mac versions of Family Tree
Maker in the future.
However, Ancestry has also struck a deal with
rival software giant RootsMagic, enabling users to
connect their RootsMagic packages to the
Ancestry website before the end of 2016.
According to the statement, this new relationship
will give users “access to Ancestry hints,
Ancestry searches, and the ability to save [their
trees] on Ancestry”. . However, the company
said it had made the “tough decision” due to the
“declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to provide new content, product enhancements and support that
our users need”.
Who Do You Think You Are
Branch Member Dies
We are very sorry to hear of the passing of
Angela England who died on 29 January. Angela
was a supportive, helpful member of Wellington
Branch and she will be sadly missed. A service
for Angela was held on 3 February in St Mary’s
Church, Karori. Our thoughts are with Garth and
his family at this sad time.
Wellington Branch on the Web
Wellington Branch is now actively using the
Branches page on the NZSG website. Items
included on the Wellington Branch page are the
upcoming meetings with speaker details, recent
newsletters, the War Memorials Project, and the
Member’s Interests List. See the contacts box at
the end of this newsletter for the link to the
website.
Visit of Richard McGregor from Scotland
The Scottish Interest Group has arranged a visit
by Richard McGregor, Chairman of the Clan
Gregor Society, Scotland, to speak in Wellington
on Thursday 3 March, St Ninian's Outreach
Centre, Main Karori Road, Karori at 2 pm.
Richard will do a presentation on DNA Projects in
Scotland titled So who did you think you were?
Richard has been managing the Clan Gregor DNA
Project, since it started, over 10 years ago.
While the Clan Gregor Society does not have an
official position on the Scottish
independence issue, Richard has advised that he
is willing to answer questions about the
current devolution of powers to Scotland; the
Scottish Parliament; what was promised to the
Scottish voters in 2014 to persuade them to stay
with the Union; and the recent electoral success
by the Scottish Nationalist Party, in the British
General Elections, May 2015.
An invitation is extended to any members of the
public with Scots descent to attend. There is no
charge and afternoon tea will be provided.
Please RSVP to [email protected]
February 2016 — Page Two
Finding Helen Hood
‘Rally the Rellies’ tracked her down in
Karori Cemetery, October 2015
By Jenny Robertson
Continued from last month
William later competed in America (where in July
1884 in Denver Colorado, someone unknown entered
his hotel room and slashed his baggage and clothing).
He returned to England and Australia for further
races before moving to coach other competitors. A
report in April 1890 has him running the Curlew Hotel
at Fitzroy, Melbourne with Scott, a previous
competitor.
There is an 1891 report of him running a pub in Essex
and planning to return to NZ, as well as one of his
death in 1896 in Melbourne.5 I have yet to track the
reality down. This is proving a challenge as the world
has had so many ‘William Edwards’ over the years.
(Apart from when he married and again when the
death of their second son was registered in 1877, he
does not seem to have used his middle name
‘Jepson’, which would have helped my search!)
I have had more luck with Helen. I still don’t know
how she supported herself6 over the years and where
she lived once she parted from William. She gave
birth in 1893 to one further child, a daughter in
Auckland she named Leah7 Hamilton Edwards – the
record shows a simple gap in the column for the
father’s name. This child too perished at a few weeks
with ‘general marasmus’. Did Helen experience
rhesus negative blood or have an underlying TB
condition as did other family members, or was there
some other explanation for the deaths of her three
children?
Knowing she had inherited about $45k in today’s
money in 1919 from her older sister, Margaret, I
looked for other information such as on electoral
rolls. Helen (sometimes spelled Hellen and as Ellen on
marriage) did not seem to relish the opportunity to
register to vote, to have her name regularly listed in
street directories, or to engage in public correspondence through letters to the editor (as her older
brother, William did). I moved to look at Wellington
deaths of those named Helen Edwards. There were
several (one with a bootmaker husband but they
were buried in Bolton St, and another with a dressmaker sister in Ghuznee St. Neither fitted). One did
look possible – in December 1923 at Wellington Hospital from 147 Abel Smith St, past an address adjoining a walkway between the Terrace and Aro Park that
I had walked along twice a day for many years!
Clearly a boarding house in the 1920s, the mystery
was why Helen had left no confirming probate. I can
only imagine she had given sums away in the 4 years
she had had money. Dying of stomach cancer with a
failing heart, her death record is blank in the columns
for the names of her parents. Perhaps those who provided the information simply did not know these details. I had to work more at this.
Spotting that her funeral notice was advertised by E
Morris Junior and locating their records in the
Turnbull Library, it was there I grasped at the confirmation. Her funeral costs had been paid by the husband, (Oliver Bertram Knapp) of her younger brother’s
(James Hood, sculptor’s) first daughter, Cora Lillian
Hood. With a family of his own by this time, I reasoned newspaper compositor, ‘Uncle Tiny’ as this
snappy dresser was known to the wider family, would
not have been able or keen to fund funerals for random Helen Edwards’s and that this was highly likely to
be the 2x great aunt I was seeking. O B Knapp ducked
in to pay the bill on 31 December 1923 just in time to
qualify for the small discount, and as many people do
not have spare money at this time of year, it seemed
quite possible that Helen had already given him what
was required to settle her last debt.
Finding her grave in the Public 2 part of Karori cemetery was the final challenge. The council staff told me
to look in the row with Lodder’s grave at one end and
Kershaw’s at the other but I could turn up nothing
there. While both her older sisters are interred in well
-marked graves in Dunedin’s northern cemetery, (one
of them with handsome monumental masonry the
work of their brother, James Hood, sculptor), exactly
where in the undulations of Gum Gully was Helen’s
final resting place? Having judged her resources well,
and knowing she had no children, it seemed highly
possible that her grave had never been marked. Rally
the rellies presented the ideal opportunity to find
knowledgeable and patient help in running her to
ground, which we did one sunny Sunday afternoon in
the company of others on a similar mission. What a
good time we had.
Now graced by aging
vegetation and in a
shady, gum-leaflittered spot, Helen’s
grave in 2015 is
marked only by a
large tree. Not a big
footprint in her final
resting place, in
death as in life, she
takes up little space.
February 2016 — Page three
continued next page
Twelve months ago I knew only that Helen was in
Karori cemetery somewhere in the area known as
PUBLIC2, plot no 456 I, but I could not locate the
exact spot.8 Finding more has been a real thrill
and, of course, it remains a work in progress as
there are still many gaps about her life. Getting
free of that sportsman was just a start.
If any reader has information about either Helen
Edwards, nee Hood, or William Edwards (said to
have been born Islington, London, 1851) it would
be good to hear from you. I have lots more to
share [email protected]
Helen’s dressmaking premises in upper Willis
Postscript
Street, as it is today.
The Find my past free access over Wellington
____________
anniversary weekend revealed two further
5 Phil Essam, a Canberra ultra-marathon sports historian has
written about the career of William Edwards on his website
developments. The first, from the Victoria Police
http://ultralegends.com/wp/index.php/2015/05/22/williamGazette in June 1890, sought William Edwards on a
edwards-champion-pedestrian-and-a-shifty-conman/
fresh wife desertion warrant giving an address for
The 24 July 1891 ODT reported in a London letter that
Edwards,
the Christchurch pedestrian is said to be keeping a
Helen Edwards at 183 Grattan St, Carlton
public house in Essex but intends to return to NZ very shortly.
(Melbourne) and describing William as lately
(Did he move back to England in 1890 and subsequently die
keeping the Horseshoe Hotel, Lygon St, Carlton.
there?)
The
7 Nov 1896 issue of Sporting Life reported that Edwards
The map shows these addresses are close by. He
died of heart disease on 22 Sept 1896 in Melbourne.
had taken this hotel on in June1886. This was
6 One clue may be a street directory entry in 1896/97 for Mrs H
evident from the second extract (page 748) from
Edwards, dressmaker, at 147 Willis St, Wellington. There are
other entries in 1902 and 1910 for Mrs Helen Edwards in
the 1888 publication by Alexander Sutherland
Garrett St, Wellington and another in 1911 in Parnell for a Mrs
Victoria and its metropolis: past and present with a
Edwards, dressmaker (her brother William Hood, factory inshort bio on Edwards describing him as ‘practically
spector, was living in at ‘Stowford’ Maunsell Rd, Parnell at this
time), so possibly she moved between cities and siblings?
retired’ from pedestrian racing, the ‘holder of the
7 Leah is a well-used Hood family name down through the
championship for long distance pedestrianism, his
generations.
challenge in the Sportsman not having been taken 8 The grave of Helen Hood turned out to be on the right side of
the Public 2 row with Bray and Morgan at its entrance (walking
up’. Perhaps Edwards had moved earlier in 1890
down from the main gate towards the outer boundary of the
to the Curlew Hotel in Fitzroy with fellow
cemetery) and on the right side of the row with Ah Pat to the
pedestrian Joe Scott after he left the Horseshoe?
left of Helen’s grave when facing it and a grave marked Bateman to the right. That of Ngan Hong is also close by.
So possibly Helen had returned to live with her
husband after the 1883 desertion action in
Findmypast to Offer Unlimited Free Access
Australia; either the relationship was salvaged or
to the 1939 Register
she was seeking further maintenance in 1890? I
From Tuesday 16 February, Findmypast
am still seeking a death record for William. More
subscribers will be able to access the 1939
information, but as ever, more questions!
Register for no extra cost. Findmypast users,
including subscribers, currently have to pay an
147 Abel
extra fee to 'unlock' each household record in the
Smith
1939 Register.
Street Findmypast has announced that the record set
Helen’s
will be included as part of Britain and World
house as
subscriptions from 16 February. Findmypast has
it is today.
promised that it is not only freezing subscription
rates for existing members when they next
renew, but they will also receive a 10 per cent
loyalty discount.
February 2016 — Page Four
Websites
www.dutchgenealogy.nl/online-cemeteries/
A Dutch alternative to find a grave. A great site
for finding graves in the Netherlands.
www.themaphouse.com/
Antique Maps at the Map House of London - A
wide range of old maps of UK especially, but also
of the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Australasia, Australia, New Zealand, Polar regions etc,
along with galleries of travel posters and other
curios. The maps can be downloaded in higher
resolution. This is free to use, but use it now before it gets to be commercialised like most of the
other good sites.
www.peterboroughww1.co.uk/browse-archive/
A visitors book in a tearoom in Peterborough
filled in by soldiers in transit who were travelling
to and from the front from all over the UK.
Browse the guest book or search for soldiers
who signed the visitors book when visiting the
tearooms.
www.oldscottish.com/records.html
Old Scottish Genealogy & Family History are
adding hundreds of thousands of extracted
historical records to their website - including rolls
of male heads of families, baptismal and
marriage registers, Kirk Session records and Poor
Law records. Not all Parish records online yet but
are being added daily. Well worth a look if you
have Scottish ancestors.
www.victoria.ac.nz/law/nzlostcases/
default.aspx
Early New Zealand court cases
www.ancestralfindings.com
For those with American ancestors this is a great
website to start your research, with free lookups
for Birth, Census, Death and Marriage records,
also Military , Passenger and Immigration
records, and land and State Record lookups
www.digitalnz.org
Search across more than 29 million digital items
of New Zealand such as aerial photos, posters
and memorabilia, newspaper clippings, artworks,
and publications contributed from nearly 200
partners.
From various Branch Newsletters
This Month in History - 10 February 1967
End of free school milk
Free milk was given
to New Zealand
schoolchildren from
1937. The Labour
government wanted
to improve the
health of young New
Zealanders (and
Linton schoolboys delivering
make use of surplus
the school milk, about 1941
milk).
The scheme was a world first. Each day, milk
monitors supplied a half-pint (284 ml) of milk to
each pupil. By 1940, the milk was available to over
80% of schoolchildren. For a few years during the
Second World War, pupils also received an apple a
day. The scheme lasted until 1967, when the government dropped it because of the cost — and
because some people were starting to question
the health benefits of milk. In the 30 years of the
scheme’s existence, thousands of Kiwi kids gulped
down their daily ration of milk. In the 1950s school
milk bottles had cardboard tops with a small hole
for the straw. Not everyone enjoyed it. In the days
before fridges and chillers, the smell and taste of
warm milk nauseated many.
NZ History Online
What’s on at your local branches?
Kilbirnie Branch - 10.00am, Wed 3 March Tracing Heirs for the Public Trust – by Jan
Bonnett Venue: The Park Bowling Club.
Hutt Valley Branch - 7.30pm, Thursday 10
March - Which Genealogy Program for me? A
participation evening, to talk about and
demonstrate the features (good and bad) of what
are used. Venue: Petone Community Centre, 7-11
Britannia Street, Petone.
Kapiti Branch - 7.30pm, Tuesday 22 March - Finding living people. Ancestors are all very well, but
what about currently living people? By Jan
Bonnett. Venue: Kapiti Community Centre.
Porirua Branch - 7.25pm, Wed 9 March - Research
Evening at Porirua Public Library with Librarian,
Sylvia Carlyle
Family Search has added a new collection of
United Kingdom, World War I Women's Army
Auxiliary Corps Records containing records of
7,000 women who joined between 1917 and 1920.
February 2016 — Page Five
BookCase
Surrounded by Hops
The Story of the Knight Family of Farnham
by Cathie Fitzgerald
The Knights were an important and influential family of hop growers, brewers,
farmers, property owners, and bankers in Farnham, Surrey, England. They were
part of the Vernon-Coldham-Knight family line that had lived in Farnham from
the early 17th century to the mid 20th century.
This book shows the fortunes of the family from the early 18th century to the
mid 20th century and the relationship of the family’s wealth to the ups and
downs of the hop industry. In the mid 19th century the hop industry started its
slump after a very poor harvest and the importation of cheap foreign hops, and
at this time the family fortunes also waned. One member of the extended
family, a John Henry Knight, made Britain’s first petrol powered motor car, in
1895. In that year, soon after driving the car through Farnham, he was fined 2s 6d and 10s costs after
being charged with “allowing a locomotive to be driven without a traction engine licence”. Also in 1895
he helped found the Self-propelled Traffic Association, the earliest ever motoring association. He
invented and made other mechanical devices, including a grenade launcher proposed for use in WWI.
This book is very interesting, with many photographs, and is a good description of the family’s life and
business interests in Farnham. The appendices contain comprehensive family tree information for the
Knight and associated families, and short descriptions of each of the individual families.
Book reviewed by Doug Miller (a descendant of the Knight family).
******************************************************
The reviewer has the following books on Farnham and Surrey and he is happy to answer any research
enquiries relating to the Knight family and Farnham. Please send an e-mail to [email protected]
Surrounded by Hops: The Story of the Knight Family of Farnham by Cathie Fitzgerald
This book is one of very few copies in New Zealand and it is not held by any NZ public library.
Farnham Buildings and People by Nigel Temple
This book is also one of a few copies in New Zealand. The only copy in a NZ public library is held by the
National Library.
Portrait of Surrey by Basil E Cracknell
The only copy in a NZ public library is held by the National Library.
The Kings England - Surrey Edited by Arthur Mee.
Committee
Postal Address
Convenor: Barbara Mulligan 475 3295
Secretary: Vivienne McIsaac 238 4123
Treasurer: Carolyn Adams 479 2524
Membership: Allison Diem 476 9567
PO Box 2223, Wellington, 6140
Evening Meetings
5.30pm, 4th Wednesday, Connolly Hall,
Guildford Terrace, Thorndon
Speakers’ Programme: Ann Ball 479 6718
Committee Contact:
[email protected]
Doug Miller 232 7724
Outside Committee
Branch Website:
Newsletter Editor: Heather Conland 971 4071
www.genealogy.org.nz/Wellington_153.aspx
February 2016 - Page Six