Week 2 (Jan 8-14): Origins

Genealogists often get the question, "Where is your family from?" With this week's theme, you could explore an immigrant ancestor, but you could also think about the origin of other aspects of your family. Who was the first person in your family to settle in a particular town? If you have a long line of people with the same occupation, talent, etc, who was the first person you know who did it?

It was a question such as this that really set the ball rolling for genealogical research in my family. A social studies homework question at primary school. 

“How many generations has your family been in New Zealand?”

Well, they didn’t all come at once and they didn’t all come from the same places either. How do you calculate that? Are you meant to count just from the first ancestor BORN in New Zealand (or wherever) or do you count their parents who were the immigrants?

Family	Emigration Year	From Where	Arrival Port
Cooper	1841	Somerset, England	Wellington
Barratt	1842	Surrey, England	Wellington
Bartlett	1842	Somerset, England	Nelson
Laney	1842	Hampshire, England	Nelson
Fuller	1860	Surrey, England	Lyttelton
Davys	1862	Somerset, England	Auckland
Hall	1876	Cavan, Ireland	Auckland
Vose	1879	Kent, England	Lyttelton
Timms	1929	Warwickshire, England	Auckland

So, pretty much England and depending on which line 4-5 generations since the first NZ born ancestor in most families – but only 2 generations in another.

Most branches of my family emigrating to New Zealand came as a family, bringing their children with them. Only one branch was a newly married couple who would start their family in Canterbury and the most recent branch to emigrate brought a single woman travelling alone.

Week 1 (Jan. 1-7): Family Lore

Lore: /lɔː/

noun

a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.

"the jinns of Arabian lore"

Family folklore is the study and use of folklore and traditional culture transmitted within an individual family group. This includes craft goods produced by family members or memorabilia that have been saved as reminders of family events. It includes family photos, photo albums, along with bundles of other pages held for posterity such as certificates, letters, journals, notes, and shopping lists. Family sayings and stories which recount true events are retold as a means of maintaining a common family identity. Family customs are performed, modified, sometimes forgotten, created or resurrected with great frequency. Each time the result is to define and solidify the perception of the family as unique.

The study of family folklore is distinct from genealogy or family history. Instead of focusing on historical dates, locations and verifiable events, this area of study looks at the unique stories, customs, and handicrafts that define the family as a distinct social group.

With thanks to the Oxford Dictionary and Wikipedia for helping to define but not really clarifying the topic for me. The prompt for this week is:

Many of us have heard stories from our grandparents about incredible feats our ancestors did or a famous person we're related to. What's a tale that has been passed down in your family? Did it end up being true or did it turn out to just be a good story? 

So, there have been a few stories passed down, and as in many families some are true, some are fabricated and some are based on a truth but have been embellished over time – although not quite tall tales.

• “Davys is a Welsh name.”
• “Somebody changed their name after the Monmouth rebellion.”
• “One of great grandad’s brothers was the first soft drink manufacturer in Wellington, another brother founded Cooper’s Seeds.”
• “Great great grandfather Laney was the first baker in Nelson.”
• “My mother’s people came from the Black Country.”
• “Timms are ten a penny.”
• “Rosina Buckman the opera singer is a cousin.”
• Great grandma died when the children were young and he needed to find a wet nurse.”
• “My grandad’s mother left and took 2 children to Australia. He always said he was about nine years old. Many years later a man came to visit and said he was a nephew.”
• “Grandad built the Post Office in Levin.”
• “A cousin of Granny Davys was the founder of the company which became AVON.”
• “Five times great grandfather was the Lord of the Manor.”
• Great great grandfather spent time in Ireland carrying out the ordinance survey.”
• “Great uncle Walter was a gold miner in Western Australia.”
• “Grandad’s 2^nd cousin founded the YMCA.”
• “One day, we had been to Ninety Mile Beach and I was in the car – a Ford Beauty – with Grandma and Grandad when we realised my Mum and Dad were not behind us. We had to go back, and they were stuck in the sand.”
• “Grandma had a pet magpie which was a bit vicious and sometimes you would get stuck at the outhouse and have to use the wooden lid as a shield to return to the house.”
• “One night when we were staying at Grandma’s the bed that Mum and my sister were sleeping in collapsed and they landed on the floor.”
• “We played in wide open fields unsupervised, although there was a fenced off area we called “the Keep Out” (because there was a sign). It was in this expanse that we found tiny black rabbit near the railway embankment and took him home to keep.”
• “The bus couldn’t go down the hill so we would get dropped at the top and then throw our school bags ahead of us and slide to the bottom on cabbage tree leaves. Our mothers used to wonder at the state of our clothes.”

Have you heard any of these ones before? Do you want to know more? Do you know any others?

I am sure there are many more.

Week 3: Out of Place #Ancestors2023

Does this mean putting something important in a safe place and then losing it because you don’t remember where that safe place was? Or is it more finding something unexpected.

I did have one of those occasions when searching the 1921 census for my great grandmother’s stepmother and her half-sister. This particular half-sister we weren’t even aware of until the 1901 census became available in 2003.

My grandmother told us that both of her grandfathers were married more than once. One twice and the other thrice. She told us the names of the children in the second marriage of her maternal grandfather, when one had died, how the other emigrated with his elder half-brother to the US, who they both had worked for and who they had married. Nana wasn’t aware of a 3^rd child in marriage number 2 who had died in infancy. I also can’t remember now if she knew the name of wife number 3, but I know we were not aware of a child being part of that marriage until we found the census. Nana didn’t meet any of these people though, they had all died or emigrated to the US before she was born – all except the surprise half aunt and the stepmother.

So after discovering her in 1901, we waited patiently for the 1911 census, looked for her on the 1939 register, found her death in 1991 and ordered the certificate. We discovered a photo of her as a child in an album taken to the US by her eldest half-brother. Then this time last year the 1921 census was released.

In 1901 and 1911 she was living with her widowed mother, who was taking in boarders and working as a housekeeper. When her mother died in 1936, they were still living together at the same address where they had lived since at least 1901. By 1939 she was a housekeeper herself. When she died in 1991 she was described as a retired housekeeper and (discovered just this minute) the undertaker was the son of the gentleman she was housekeeping for in 1939, still living at the same address!

But back to the 1921 census. I had expected to find her still living with her mother. But no. She was quite a distance away from home. In a different county. In a hospital. A homeopathic hospital. What type of conditions would they have treated? Could it have been Spanish Flu? Could it have anything to do with having had a child three years earlier? There is form for me to speculate about this – and maybe that would explain why she hadn’t been remembered by later generations.

There is something else going on here as well – a DNA match I can’t resolve. A close one who should be connected through the child of one of my great grandmother’s half siblings…like this lady. The father of our mystery match was born near the end of WW1, named for an uncle who had died 9 months earlier to parents who had been married barely 9 months before his birth. He had no other siblings for seven years. His documented father had fought in WW1, his mother lived down the street from my family. His parents while born in the same geographic location as my family, do not jump out as potential extra marital children – although they could be. But then where are the other matches with their families? The match’s mother was born in a completely different part of the country so doesn’t seem likely either. It has me completely lost.

Maybe there is another surprise that will unlock it. Great-great-grandfather had plenty of opportunity to have fathered other children – perhaps there are others yet to be found.

Maybe one day the DNA match will reply to a message and we will be able to work it out together.

But for now, I just can’t make it fit into place.

Week 2: Favourite Photo #52Ancestors2023

I have been deliberating about photos for two weeks now, trying to pick one.

There aren’t truckloads of photos in our family. Not “old” ones. There are plenty of more recent holidays and adventures as a family as my parents took lots of photos and slides when were kids and to a certain extent that love of photography has been passed on - at least to some. A lot of digital images though, stored in the cloud somewhere or on phones and other devices. Not as easy to pick up and reminisce about.

This one, then, made the cut.

It is taken at Sumner Beach near Christchurch, New Zealand about 1908-1909, I am guessing, based on the ages of the children. Only one person looking at the camera, or at least in the general direction, and the others with faces turned or obscured by hats. Cave Rock and the pier are in the background.

The gentleman standing is my great grandfather, John Fuller. Every photo we have of this man, he is wearing a hat that shades his face. EVERY one! John was born in Christchurch in 1866, the second son of Julius Fuller and Maria, nee Horskins. He worked for the railways and for most of his employment was based at Middleton Station.

The children are his three eldest. Edith (Edie) the eldest born 1902, at the back looking at her father or toward Cave Rock, Frank (facing the camera) born 1904 and Albert (Bert) my grandfather born 1906, bending over studying the sand perhaps.

Who took the photo? Maybe my great grandmother?

The family lived in Upper Riccarton, in the Wharenui Hamlet. To travel from there to Sumner would have been a relatively long, bumpy, probably cramped tram ride. Possibly requiring a change of tram in central Christchurch to continue on the way.

Its hard to tell which season it is from their attire. No bare feet on the sand for those kids! But there is someone in the water down the beach a bit further.

Climbing Cave Rock was a popular pastime for those who made the journey to Sumner. There had been a Yard and Mast Arm on the rock since 1865 alerting ship’s captains to the conditions when crossing the bar to dock at Ferrymead or sailing around the heads to dock at Lyttelton. I imagine climbing the rock dressed in petticoats and long dresses, carrying a parasol might not have been easy.

The pier in the background is crowded with people strolling along its length, taking in the sea air. Toward the end of the pier you can see the roof of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution, along with a slipway. The building was built in 1898, but there had been life savers and lifeboats stationed there since the 1870s.

There would most likely have been tea rooms serving refreshments, a band rotunda and possibly swings and roundabouts near to the tram stop or in the small seaside village. There were definitely donkey rides. You can read more about them here.  I had never thought about them as being an Edwardian family until reading this, but they were, and I think from now on I will try to remind myself of that.

cropped and enlarged from original photo

Week 1: I'd like to meet #52Ancestors2023

More often to answer this question I would choose a brick wall ancestor, closer in time, but since I am still waiting for that wall to fall, I have looked further afield this time.

Who would I like to meet? This guy.

Thomas Davys, the elder, the younger, the even younger

Thomas Davys the elder of Milverton in the county of Somerset and his son Thomas Davys the younger are parties to an indenture dated “the second day of March in the fifth year of the reign of the Sovereign Lord George…” So when was that? And what is the indenture for or about?

George I ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 August 1714. If he is the Sovereign Lord George named in the indenture, then the fifth year of his reign would have been 1719.

This date ties in with the date of the marriage (about 1719) of Thomas the younger to Jane Helling/Hellings, the daughter of John Helling/Hellings of Raddington which is also referred to in the indenture. The indenture pertains to land, messuages and buildings in four parts making up the lease of the Hagleigh Tenement and to me is being divided as a marriage settlement with Thomas the elder retaining one quarter along with stipulated barley fields and use of the cider wring and mill.

At this time a Thomas Davys also owned the manor of Raddington, in a parish adjacent to Milverton where Hagleigh is. At British History Online digitised copies of “A History of the County of Somerset” and other counties are available to read free. There is a wealth of information about each parish including, geography, church history, local government as well as the history of any manors. For Raddington the history of the manor dates from 891 A.D. In their commentary it states that in 1718 James Waldegrave (later the 1^st Earl Waldegrave) sold the manor to Thomas Davys the younger. The Waldegraves had held the manor, or had interests, in it since the mid-1500s. James Waldegrave seems to have disposed of a number of land holdings around this time. 

Here is where it gets trickier, British History Online (BHO) also states that in 1719 Thomas the younger settled the manor of Raddington on his father – Thomas the elder. That has always seemed a bit out of order to me, why would a son be buying an estate and then gifting it to his father? Surely if he had the financial backing to be entering these sorts of transactions then his father would also have means? BHO cite a source but I can’t work out whether it is the indenture I have “read” and we have partially deciphered or a separate one. I am thinking there may be a separate document that has either been lost to time – or is lost to me at this point. I also think that they could be citing the Hagleigh Indenture and misattributing the intention. 

The descriptor for the indenture at The National Archives states that it IS for the settlement of three quarter parts of the Hagleigh Tenement in the parish of Milverton on Thomas Davys the younger and his wife to be Jane Hellings prior to their marriage. The length of the lease was three lives (99 years) determinable from the deaths of Thomas the elder his wife Judith (nee Burchell) and Thomas the younger. A note on the outer wrapping of the indenture claims that the leasehold was granted by Lord Lymington to the first Thomas Davys who came from Wales. Another Thomas? But when? The family seem well settled in Somerset in the mid-1600s, if not before. 

I would really like to talk to Thomas to determine just what the indenture is telling us 300 years later. The thing is, I’m not sure just WHICH Thomas I need to speak with, and I’m not sure if there might be more than one indenture I need to ask about.

Thomas the elder; husband of Judith Burchell and leaseholder of the Hagleigh Tenement since when? Thomas died in 1724, but his wife Judith lived to be 100 and died at Hagleigh Bridge in December 1770.

Thomas the younger; husband of Jane Hellings styled himself as “Lord of the Manor”. Pretty flash we all thought when we discovered him in our tree, then we discovered that when he died in 1783 he left no will and left a debt-ridden estate.

Thomas the grandson. As the eldest son Thomas inherited the manor and its debt from his father. This Thomas had studied at Balliol Oxford and was ordained in the Church of England. He had the Advowson of Raddington from 1749-1784 and two of his younger brothers also lived on the farms that made up the estate. Sadly Thomas died in March 1784 and the debt-ridden estate passed to his brothers James, George and Benjamin.

Here also BHO has conflicting information compared to the Clergy of the Church of England Database, with the order of clergy at Raddington. It would appear the brothers separated the Advowson from the rest of the estate after Thomas' death.

I have got a list of questions for the three Thomas’, and I am sure they would all have extremely interesting stories to tell. Maybe one of them would know about that "first" Thomas Davys from Wales as well.

#52Ancestors, Where There's a Will

I might have mentioned that I have been transcribing a number of wills written in flowery Old English script recently. I came across the will of my two of my 5xgreat grandfathers. Two families that lived in the same parish and through the ensuing years have added multiple connections to the genealogy of their descendants.

John Yeandle and Grace Tarr were contemporaries of Thomas Davys and Jane Hellings. Thomas I have written about before; he had part of the lease of Hagley Farm settled on him by his father when he married Jane. He went on to buy the Manor at Raddington and call himself Lord…and then die intestate and with loads of debt for his sons to manage and repay.

How much of the land in the 1841 tithe apportionment map of last week’s blog was part of the manor, I’m not quite sure yet. Anyway, this generation is where the entanglement of the two families begins. It could be earlier – but this is the most documented so far.

John & Grace had nine children. Most likely all born at Upcott Farm. Thomas and Jane had eight children, possibly born at Moorhouse which was an earlier name for Washer’s Farm, or perhaps at Kingston.

Ready to get confused ?

John Yeandle (the younger) married Janny (Jennie/Jane) Davys

Mary Yeandle married James Davys

These are my 5x great grandparents.

Grace Yeandle married George Davys

Betty Yeandle married James Brewer and secondly John Potter.

Jane Yeandle married John Totterdell

Ann Yeandle married Thomas Palmer

Patience Yeandle married John Palmer

Sarah Yeandle married John Stone

Thomas Yeandle married Mary Brewer

And yes, both the Palmer spouses were brothers and the two Brewer spouses were siblings ! To add to the mix, another of Thomas and Jane’s sons, John Davys, also married into the same Brewer family.

Anyway, back to wills. I have “read” the wills for both John Yeandle (the younger) and James Davys. Each of them naming some of their children and grandchildren amongst the beneficiaries. A site I have been aware of for a number of years which documents some of the Yeandle genealogy mentioned other wills which had been in the possession of a William Davys of Hagley Bridge. Hopefully they are now safely in the custody of repositories such as National Archives if not a local Archive.

I have been looking for the wills of James’ brothers George and Benjamin, to try to ascertain how the land and Manor was redistributed after their father and elder brother’s deaths. It was on National Archives UK where I found another recently, available to download free during the COVID-19 lockdown. This time for Grace Davys (nee Yeandle).

Grace and George had no children, and he predeceased her. His will (one of those I am looking for) must have bequeathed all of his land, tenement and messuages to his surviving brother or brothers as none of those type of assets are mentioned by Grace in her will.

She instead, was a benevolent aunt, dividing her money and belongings between her many nieces and nephews, some of her siblings and two or three great nieces. A couple of hitherto unknown names were able to be added to the tree thanks to these four pages of flowery writing. It would have been wonderful if she had been a little more consistent with her directions though; some were described simply as the sons and daughters of my brother/sister <insert name here> but others were named and described as my niece (or great niece) <insert name> daughter of my sister <insert name>, or simple as <insert name> the daughter of my niece <insert name>.

Her sister Patience benefitted most, with £400 compared to £20 or so that other siblings were bequeathed. Patience’s daughters, Patience and Sarah inherited half of her clothes each with Patience (the daughter) also inheriting some furniture. The other children of Patience (the sister) were also given £10 more than their cousins.

I wonder if she was always their favourite aunt. Not a maiden aunt, but one who cared for her nieces and nephews in lieu of her own children. How interesting too that in some cases she singled out the daughters of her nieces, or specifically her nieces rather than nephews.

One day I will get it completely transcribed.

#52Ancestors, Land

I have been working on a wee project trying to map and connect all the families in one parish; their movements and their descendant’s movements through time.

It all started because I had thought I would use this particular parish as the focus of one of my assignments. I thought I would map the route the enumerator took and document each family and whether there was a connection to my family. That was until I re-looked at the census and discovered a family with our surname which we appeared to know nothing of.

I have spent some time, reading and transcribing the census for 1841 – the first time there is good information about the residents of the parish – and have done the same with the parish records which are available online. In addition, I have found and studied the Tithe Apportionment book and map for the parish.

I’m still not totally sure where they fit in, but I’m probably around 85%. If I could find another couple of wills maybe I will know for sure. In the process though, I discovered that of the five or so farms mentioned in the book which were solely in the parish, all were either owned by members of my family, or farmed by them as tenant farmers for absentee landowners.

A couple of generations earlier, my ancestor had owned the manor here. Exactly which farms made up the manor is not entirely clear. But in 1841 three were still in the possession of his descendants; four if you count the adjacent farm which for some generations had been owned by another family who were cousins several times over to my family.

Tenant farmers included two uncles and a second cousin – plus the mysterious family who instead of being tenant famers or landowners were recorded as Agricultural Labourers on every document I found. DNA is suggesting a link, I just need to find some further evidence.

This is just one parish – there are several others I want to study too, to give a fuller picture of where they lived and how they lived. Thanks to the COVID-19 #StayAtHome requirements maybe I will get them sorted in the next few weeks too.

#52Ancestors, Lucky

A couple of years ago, whiling away time on Ancestry looking for clues in a yet unsolved DNA puzzle, I came across a tree which included my great grandmother’s half-brother and his wife. I was intrigued, this couple had no children of their own, and I had done a bit of research about them as I built out my tree.

I messaged the tree owner to offer any further information I had to them – and hoped that maybe they knew something I didn’t. They messaged back five months later. They were in the middle of moving interstate and building a new home. Turned out that they were connected to my ½ great uncle by marriage, through his wife’s family.

Lydia (Lily) Barrett’s mother and the 2xgreatgrandmother of my new contact’s husband were sisters. He knew Lily and George as a child they were 1^st cousins twice removed, but she was always called Aunt Lil. But the best part – he had photo albums from his mother – and Lily. They would have a look and send copies.

We corresponded over the next few days and I emailed my 3^rd cousin, Jackie, to let her know what I had stumbled across. Our great grandparents were siblings, and George (Lily’s husband) was their only half-brother. Jackie’s great grandparents had emigrated from England to Seattle in 1907 and George had travelled with them. Time went on, other things became more important, but from time to time I would think “I really should message her again.”

Then along came COVID-19. At almost the same time as I was tidying up my messages on Ancestry, Jackie was tidying up her emails and we both came across the messages again. Jackie emailed to see if I had ever heard any more. I hadn’t, so added this task to my COVID-19 lockdown to do list.

A few nights later I sent off a quick message – checking in that they were okay and #stayingsafe and then enquiring about the photo albums. Once more we messaged back and forth but then instead of just on Ancestry an email arrived.

With photos from just one album.

Some were unlabelled – one was incorrectly labelled. We have a photo of George as a toddler with his two full siblings, found in an album which belonged to Jackie’s great grandmother. Jackie also had one from a wedding of one of her great grandmother’s sister where George had been best man.

But here were several of George and Lily’s wedding, some of George as a young man and Lily as a child and as a young woman. There are some that neither Doug nor we can identify (yet), there is one of Lily on the wharf at Southampton next to the Mauretania before it sailed back to New York in 1920. George and Lily had returned to England after the war to visit with her parents, her only brother had been killed in France – the passenger lists for their travel in both directions and George’s passport application can be found on Ancestry. They stayed for 5 months and missed the 1920 US Census, so I no longer need to keep searching for them there !

The photo which had been labelled incorrectly was of Jackie’s great grandparents and her grandfather as a child. One she had never seen. It seems that her great grandmother was Matron of Honour at George and Lily’s marriage and a photo of the bridal party includes all three of them again. In that photo there is a glimpse into the character of the young boy who would be Jackie’s grandfather – looking for his opportunity to run away and play with his cousins. Another group photo was taken with all the guests on the front steps of a house. There was a further photo taken before the wedding meal, inside the house, of George and Lily. Jackie and I (separately) wondered if it was her great grandparent’s home. Lily had given their address as her destination on her immigration forms a few months earlier.

It was ! You can imagine our happy dances ! Luck was certainly favouring us:

Stumbling across the tree connection in the first place,

Getting a reply to my message,

Discovering such a tenuous connection to our tree,

Learning there were photos,

Catching a glimpse of the inside of Albert & Sarah’s home,

The power of technology to bring us the photos, and zoom to confirm our hope.

On the right-hand wall of the room where George and Lily stood by the table, set for their wedding meal, hangs a photograph we had seen before. It was also in the photo album Jackie has from her great grandmother. Several other photos hung on the walls and arranged on the architraves above the doors look familiar too. But, that framed one on the right-hand wall was the clearest when enlarged.

Henry James – Jackie and my 4 x great grandfather. Albert’s maternal grandfather. No DNA relation to George. Henry and his unmarried daughter Elizabeth/Lizzie/Bessie had taken in our great grandparents as children when their mother died in 1879 and cared for them at least until their father remarried in 1886.

How lucky did we both feel !! We are still buzzing around, smiling like idiots (on opposite sides of the Pacific) now – four days later.

#52Ancestors, Fire

An open fire on a cold winter night invokes thoughts of cosiness, comfort food, a book to read snuggled under a blanket. An outdoor campfire brings back memories of fun times at camp or at the beach with friends.

But fire, was much more of a necessity to our ancestors than it is to us today with electricity or gas connected right to our homes. There have been several instances of fire wreaking havoc on the lives of my own ancestors.

I mentioned one in a previous post which I had only recently learned of. A fire in Kaikoura in 1935 which destroyed three cottages in the night. Something left on a cooker ? An ember that landed on some fabric or a wooden floor ? A bird’s nest in or on top of the chimney ? No-one appeared to have been harmed in that fire, but two people lost not only their cottage but also their belongings.[1]

In Wellington on 22 August 1869 my 3 x great grandmother Elizabeth Cooper (nee Hill) died aged 70. The cause of death is given as “Accidentally burnt”.[2] Was she cooking a meal ? Did her shawl drop into the flame ? Did her skirt brush lightly across the fireplace ? Did a sudden gust of wind or breeze force the flames without warning in a different direction to where she was expecting ?

In Nelson in the early hours of 7 August 1866 there was a great fire.[3] Twenty buildings were burned at the four corners of Bridge and Collingwood Streets. The fire was discovered at the Nelson Hotel, one of three hotels on or near that intersection to be burnt. Ironically the Temperance Hall was also burnt and the YMCA rooms as well as some dwelling houses and shops. It was later established to have started in a bedroom of the Nelson Hotel.[4]

One of the shops destroyed was the bakery of Edward Laney, my 3 x great grandfather, which was adjacent to the Royal Hotel. He had been in business for twenty four years with premises in Richmond, on Nile Street East and on Bridge Street throughout that time.[5] On the night of the fire there was a strong south westerly wind which caused the flames to take hold on all corners of the intersection. This was the first great fire to occur in Nelson since the arrival of the first English settlers in 1842.[6] No lives were lost, but many lost all their belongings. Later in the day an inquest was held to determine the cause of the fire.[7] A meeting was held in the evening of the same day to raise subscriptions or pledges from the townsfolk to assist those who had suffered in the fire.[8]

The fire, which by sheer luck was the first of its size since settlement began was also the impetus for organising a Volunteer Fire Brigade.[9] The Nelson Evening Mail ran a series of editorials in the days after the fire lobbying for action and responsibility to be taken. This had been attempted once before, and the town even had two fire engines available.[10] But the disorganisation, delay and lack of available men on the night of the fire, meant that it was at least 20 minutes after the alarm had been raised that the smaller engine had been pulled to the scene of the fire.[11] Time which may have saved some of the premises which were lost.

1866 had been quite a year for the Laney family. William, the eldest child, who like Edward was also a baker, had died in April of Bilious Fever aged 24, leaving a widow and two young children.[12] In June, Edward’s wife Mary passed away.[13] Around this time it is possible that, Ann, Edward’s step-daughter returned to live with the family. Ann was a widow with three young children; in early June she was living in Hope Street when she placed an advertisement advertising a business premise in Trafalgar Street to let.[14] Before her marriage Ann had also worked in the bakery, running her own business since the age of 15 at the premises in Bridge Street.[15] After the fire Ann placed a thank you notice in the Nelson Evening Mail, thanking the “Ladies and the Public generally” for the kindness shown by them by supplying clothes for herself and her sisters since the fire.[16] Those sisters were Edward’s youngest children Sarah and Mary, whether his younger son Edwin was also there is unknown.

Edward’s premises were insured and by October 1866 he had rebuilt on the same site – in a slightly more expansive manner.[17] Just a few short years later he closed up shop and removed to the Wairau Valley.[18]

---

[1] ‘Three Houses Burnt’, The Press, 28 June 1935, p.18.

[2] ‘An Old Woman Burnt to Death’, Taranaki Herald, 4 September 1869, p.3.

[3] ‘Serious Fire Eighteen Houses Destroyed’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 7 August 1866, p.2.

[4] ‘Inquiry into the Cause of the Fire’, Nelson Evening Mail, 8 August 1866, p.3.

[5] ‘Old Established Bakery’, Nelson Evening Mail, 17 October 1866, p.4.

[6] ‘Serious Fire Eighteen Houses Destroyed, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, p.2.

[7] ‘Inquiry into the Cause of the Fire’, Nelson Evening Mail, p.3.

[8] ‘A Public Meeting’, Nelson Evening Mail. 7 August 1866, p.3.

[9] ‘Meeting of Committee Appointed to Organize Fire Brigade”, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 16 August 1866, p.3.

[10] John Wilson, Thematic Historical Overview of Nelson City for the Nelson City Council as part of the Nelson Heritage Inventory Project – Final Draft, October 2011, J Wilson, Christchurch, pp. 40-41. http://www.nelsoncitycouncil.co.nz/assets/About-nelson/downloads/1176312-thematic-historical-overview-of-nelson-city-OCT2011.pdf

[11] ‘Disastrous Fire’, Nelson Evening Mail, 7 August 1866, p.2.

[12] ‘Deaths’, Colonist, 17 April 1866, p.2.

[13] ‘Died’, Nelson Evening Mail, 1 June 1866, p.2.

[14] ‘Desirable Business Premises’, Nelson Evening Mail, 4 June 1866, p.1.

[15] ‘Established Eighteen Years’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 23 February 1861, p.4.

[16] ‘The Undersigned’, Nelson Evening Mail, 21 August 1866, p.3.

[17] ‘Local Improvements’, Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 14 December 1866, p.4.; ‘Old Established Bakery’, Nelson Evening Mail, p.4.

[18] ‘News has been received in Nelson’, Nelson Evening Mail, 21 August 1882, p.2.

#52Ancestors, Water

Water is such a useful element. For some of us it has therapeutic properties – nothing like walking alongside a babbling brook, or watching the waves crash on the rocks or beach to clear your mind. For others it is something to avoid like the plague – an irrational fear; is it really irrational though if you can’t swim or you get seasick just looking at a boat ?

It sustains us, it helps plants grow, and crops and feeds farm animals. It falls from the sky (if we are lucky) and nourishes life. It is used for recreation; swimming, sailing, rowing, kayaking, surfing, even ice skating and skiing if it gets cold enough.

Water is a renewable resource (as long as there is enough rain) it is a clean, sustainable energy source.

My grandfather was a fitter and turner. He completed his apprenticeship with P & D Duncan Ltd Christchurch between 1922-1927 and stayed on until at least the middle of 1928. By 1929 he was employed by what was to become State Hydro Department and was working at Lake Coleridge the first large power station which had been built by the state between 1911-1914, From there a life long association with hydroelectricity began.

Those early stations in South Island were each constructed on separate rivers. The first state owned station in North Island was Mangahao commissioned in 1924. During WW1 the government investigated large schemes in North Island and planning for what became the foundation of the country’s 20^th century integrated electricity system began. The Waikato River scheme built multiple stations on one river, using the same water over and over again to generate electricity and power the nation beginning with Arapuni commissioned in 1929.

As a child my mother moved from station to station following her father’s employment. She and her siblings were born in Kurow, while her father was at Waitaki. He had moved there shortly before his marriage and his new bride followed a little later once cottages were built for married men allowing them to be joined by their families. From Waitaki they moved to Highbank on the Rakaia near Methven, and then to North Island: first to System Control at Hamilton and then to Mangahao, Maraetai as Assistant Station Superintendent and lastly Whakamaru where he was Station Superintendent when it was commissioned in 1956.

In 1924 my grandfather’s elder brother Frank aged 20 told his parents he and a mate were off to Auckland for a holiday…but went to Sydney instead. Construction for the harbour bridge had only just begun, but Sydney wasn’t were Uncle Frank ended up. He went south and found employment in the Latrobe Valley where the State of Victoria was beginning what would be a 70 year programme of power development based on brown coal deposits. Yallourn was a thermal, coal fired station, still using water (from the Latrobe River) but in a different way, to generate electricity for the masses.

In 1947 my Dad joined the State Hydro-electric Department as a draughting cadet. After two years he progressed to become an engineering cadet and went on to study at the School of Engineering at Ardmore. He met my mother while working at Whakamaru and Maraetai. In Hamilton he worked with the District Power Station operation and maintenance often spending days visiting stations on the Waikato. I remember a couple of times he drove the pilot vehicle ahead of the wide or long load trucks transporting massive pieces of machinery. Sometimes if we were at Nana and Grandad’s we would go up to the top of the section where you could spot a piece of the road between the trees to watch them.

In 1972 we moved to Wellington, Head Office where Dad took up a position as Design Engineer, working on the design of stations in the Upper Waitaki Scheme specifically Ohau A, B & C.

As kids we knew those power station names like the back of our hands along the Waikato; Aratiatia, Ohakuri, Atiamuri, Whakamaru, Maraetai, Waipapa, Arapuni, Karapiro. Along with others we had visited on family holidays, sometimes staying in the village hostel, Tuai and Piripaua at Waikaremoana, Benmore, Aviemore and Waitaki.

Lots of things stick in my memory from those holidays; my brother locking himself in the toilet at the hostel at Waitaki, learning about the salmon ladder at Aviemore, the force of water spilling down the dams, the immense size of the earthmoving equipment.

We knew all about headraces and tailraces, pipelines and penstocks, turbines and generators – and water was what made it all happen.