Last year, I shared memories about my Mum and both of my
grandmothers. Great grandmothers then - there are four, and all DNA confirmed.
This could be a long post.
Sarah Hall
was born
2 June 1862 in Boagh townland in the parish of Drumgoon, County Cavan Ireland.
The closest market town was Cootehill. Boagh is located close to the county
border with Monaghan and not far from the border that now separates the Emerald
Isle into two countries. With more English sounding surnames it could be
supposed that her forebears may have been among the English who settled and
took up land overtime, and became known as Anglo-Irish.
As if Irish records weren’t difficult enough to find and
unravel, especially from afar, her mother’s maiden name was also Hall. She had nine
brothers and sisters and six of them accompanied her and their parents when
they emigrated to New Zealand in 1876. They left Gravesend on 27 November 1876
on the Oxford and arrived in Auckland on 1 March 1877. The family lived for a
time in Papakura. William and Anne, her parents later moved to Hamilton near to
where she and her husband were living. One of her mother’s sisters also
emigrated to New Zealand in the 1880’s.
Sarah married my great grandfather Francis Davys in
Papakura on 15 December 1885. They began their married life near Dargaville,
perhaps farming, but by the time their 2nd child was born they were
again living in Papakura. By 1898 they had relocated to Taupiri where Francis
was operating a sawmill with some of his brothers. At the end of 1907 they
moved again, to Tamahere, where they lived until the end of 1913. In March 1914
Francis died in Hamilton. By now a grandmother, Sarah lived on to see her
younger children marry and welcome more grandchildren. She died on 26 February
1938.
I don’t know too much else about her. Did she have an Irish
accent ? or had that disappeared as so often happens with child immigrants.
Emma Louisa Bartlett
was
born in the Waitohi Valley, near Koromiko or Picton, Marlborough, New Zealand
on 12 September 1875. She was a 2nd generation New Zealander, both
her parents had been born in the colony to settlers or the children of
settlers. She was the 3rd daughter in a family of eleven. About 1883
her parents moved their young family of five to North Island, initially in
Foxton, then Otaki and Manakau.
She and her siblings were amongst the first pupils at
Manakau School when it opened in 1888 soon after moving from Otaki. Emma did
not start with her 2 younger sisters, joining them a few months later. Her
elder sisters did not return to school in Manakau, likely their mother needed
their help at home with younger brothers and sisters. However, Emma didn’t spend
long at school, it is unclear exactly when she left but the note “Home”
suggests her assistance was again required at home. Her two elder sisters were
married by 1891 and she herself married William Cooper on 24 January 1894 in
Manakau.
Their first three children were born there before they
moved to Levin in 1899 where William was employed as a builder. In around 1910
they moved to the Waikato, where Emma’s parents had moved earlier. They farmed
at Elstow near Te Aroha until about 1918 when they moved further north to
Auckland, before moving to Hamilton in 1921. They spent most of the 1930’s
farming again near Katikati, then returned briefly to Hamilton where William had
built houses. He also built a home in Mission Bay Auckland and they lived there
for a couple of years, returning to live in Hamilton in 1943. Their children
were all grown and married by this time with their own children and even
grandchildren. Emma and William celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary in
1944. She died on 7 January 1945.
I don’t know too much else, except my Dad says she was “just
lovely”, that my daughter calls her “pretty Emma” and that she called eggs “haighs”
– where does that come from ?
Laura Ellen Kelsey
was
born on 17 July 1878 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. Her mother died when she
was ten months old. Her father worked for the Great Western Railway, so she and
her brother went to live with their grandfather in Dudley until their father
remarried.
I imagine her early life was a little unsettled, but she
had some strong figures in her life; her grandfather and her aunt. Her stepmother
died, leaving her father with three more young children in 1890. I imagine
Laura may have been expected to help with them at home until he remarried for
the 3rd time. She was a housemaid before she married in 1901 and had
moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire by then. Whether this was her first
position I do not know, and when she moved is unknown as well. Her father died
in 1898, perhaps stepmother #2 had no time for extra children and that was the
catalyst to move away. More than likely though, she would have been in service
and away from home before this anyway.
Laura married George Timms on 1 July 1901 in Old
Milverton where George was employed as a coachman at Cranford House. Their
first two of their four children were born there before they moved back into
Leamington. Life threw Laura a few curve balls resulting in her becoming an
absent parent and spending twenty years in an asylum. She died on 20 September 1935.
Edith Lilian Vose
was
born on 9 February 1881 in Templeton, near Christchurch, Canterbury. She was
the fifth child in her family, but she was the first to be born in New Zealand.
Her parents and elder siblings had immigrated in April 1879 from England. They
were market gardeners. In England her father had been a labourer and stoker with
the Royal Arsenal. Her grandfather had been in the Royal Engineers. Her mother
came from rural Wiltshire but had worked at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London
before marrying.
After some years in Templeton her parents moved to Prebbleton
and to Christchurch itself, before returning to Prebbleton later in life. Edith’s
elder brother Samuel owned some land in the Wharenui settlement later known as
Upper Riccarton, Christchurch. He too, was a market gardener and built a small
cottage there. Edith lived with him and kept house. Samuel died in 1900 aged 28
and left the property to Edith who was then aged just 19.
Nine months after Samuel’s death Edith married John
William Fuller on 8 May 1901. John lived in the same street and had been living
with his married brother. He worked for the railways and would walk past Samuel’s
property each day. He was a lot older than Edith and six years older than
Samuel. My Nana would say that he thought he was on to a good thing, marrying
the young “heiress”. I like to think it was less calculated. Maybe John was
friends with Samuel and wanted to take care of his young sister for him, maybe she
was a friend of his niece Elsie, maybe they just fell in love.
They lived their entire married life on the property which
had been Samuel’s and raised a family of five. They grew raspberries and fruit
and had their own milk cow for many years. John died in 1942 but Edith remained
in the little cottage with her youngest daughter, growing raspberries,
gardening and enjoying her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She died on
10 April 1963.
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