Wellington
Branch
Newsletter - January 2015
Upcoming Meetings:
Wednesday 28 January, 7.30pm - “The Great War and New Zealand Memory”
by Jock Phillips (Venue: The Loaves & Fishes)
Wednesday 25 February, 7.30pm - To be advised
Convenor’s Corner
Happy New Year everybody.
The summer holidays have had wonderful
weather and I have spent a lot of time out in
my garden, still trying to get it into a state of
order after many years of neglect from rented
occupancy. I come in for a breather and do
some Family History for about half an hour.
If members are interested in early Wellington
history, at Te Papa there is the first play of a
quartet ‘The UnderTOW’ finishing on 28th Jan,
called ‘The Ragged’ and it depicts ‘Britannia’ and
early Wellington in the 1840s. It is not clear
when the second play will be on, but I really
enjoyed this one.
In December I had the excitement of being
contacted by a chap doing a one name study
on SWINDELLS (no, I’m not related to the
rowing twins) and so many emails have gone
back and forth with information to share, both
of us having to wait 12 hours sometimes for a
response. Luckily this family’s research is in
reasonable order. I have sent him some of the
family photos and it made me aware too how
fortunate our family is with the photos we still
have from the late 19th century, and that they
should be stored better than they are at
present.
Looking forward to seeing you all this
Wednesday (at the Loaves and Fishes).
The committee has endeavoured to plan ahead
this year with ideas for each evening meeting.
Already though the planned calendar has had
to be changed, just through people not being
available.
Ruth
"The Ragged" at Te Papa
Te Rākau Theatre’s tale of settlers, Māori, and
the New Zealand Company brings 1840s Wellington to life. The Ragged is the first of four plays in
'The UnderTOW' series, which gives a kaupapa
Māori perspective to Wellington’s past, present,
and future. Only three performances left: 26-28
January at Soundings Theatre, Level 2.
For booking information: visit
www.ticketek.co.nz, door sales when available.
Tickets: Adult $28, Senior Concession $14.
Family History is Cool
Pass it on
Noticeboard
Branch Meetings:.
Wednesday 28 January, 7.30pm - “The Great
War and New Zealand Memory” by Jock Phillips.
How memories of World War 1 have changed
over time. This meeting will be held at the
Loaves & Fishes, Hill Street (next to St Pauls).
Wednesday 25 February, 7.30pm - To be advised
Wellington Group Members Interests List
A spreadsheet of members’ genealogical interests
was started in Nov 2013 with the intention of
compiling an up to date computer based list. This
system replicates similar projects being carried
out by many genealogical groups overseas to
assist the research of their members.
Since starting the list 11 Wellington members
have submitted their interests with a total of 300
names and 43 shipping entries. The initial target
is 1,500 names although the spreadsheet is
capable of 1 million. To date there are no name
matches, but there is one shipping match.
Additional members interests would be
appreciated for this source to be more valuable
for the Wellington group.
Blank forms and completion instructions were
previously sent by e-mail in mid September 2014.
Soft copies of the completed forms are preferred
and you can e-mail these to Doug Miller at
[email protected]. I look forward to
receiving more data.
Doug Miller
The Wellington Branch Library will
be open on Sunday, 1 February,
from 11am - 12.30 pm.
Please note earlier time
Access to Births, Deaths, Marriages
records reviewed
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Peter Dunne,
today (21 January) announced a review of access
to Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) records.
The existing BDM access rules came into force on
25 January 2009 with the requirement they
would be reviewed after five years. Births, Deaths
and Marriage records are used by many New Zealanders, to help establish their identity, to trace
their family history and for many other reasons.
“The Government wants to test whether current
rules on how people access government held
birth, death, marriage, civil union and name
change records are adequate and effective. So
the Department of Internal Affairs is reviewing
the rules and wants to hear what users of the
service think of their usefulness and whether
they are still applicable.
“The review will not look at information sharing
and/or data matching between government
agencies or access to specifically protected information”, says Mr Dunne.
Interested members of the public and
institutional users of the service are encouraged
to have their say and make a submission via the
Department of Internal Affairs website
(www.dia.govt.nz/bdmreview), email or by post.
The final date for lodging submissions for this
review is on 25 February 2015.
Clyde Quay School is celebrating 125 years
Family and Friends of Clyde Quay School are
invited to a weekend of celebration in honour of
Clyde Quay School’s 125th Birthday on Friday 6 Sunday 8 March 2015. Reminisce on the past,
see how the School has changed, and create new
memories with old friends. They would love to
celebrate with you! For details and to register go
to: www.clydequayschoolreunion.com/
January 2015 — Page Two
News from NZSG
The District Keys for NZ Births and Deaths on miccrofiche are now available on the NZSG Website.
Go to www.genealogy.org.nz and login as a
member, Hover over “Members Area” on main
menu. Click Records Collection on the dropdown
menu, then District Keys on the submenu. If you
are not sure how to use a District Key, please ask
a member at the next branch meeting.
The latest version of the Kiwi Index will be
available early this year on a USB stick and will
contain 9.5 million records. If you are not a
member of the Society, now might be a good time
to join and take advantage of accessing these
records.
Single membership of the Society is $85 per year,
with the addition of a one off $15 joining fee. The
current Findmypast discount available to Society
members alone nearly recoups that sum. There
are of course many other benefits to defray the
annual cost - two in particular that spring to mind:
• Copies of certificates deposited by other
members in the Certificates Collection, for the
cost of just the postage
• Free downloads from the National Archives
Discovery.
I heard of a member further north who cancelled
her NZSG membership and was startled to find an
article with previously unknown family information in the latest NZSG magazine that she picked
up in the Heritage Room to browse. So keep
your membership of the society by paying the
subscription and keep looking - that gem you
need to unlock further research may turn up.
Peter Gibson, NZSG Councillor, Porirua Br Newsletter
“Look what I’ve
got here”!
Ruth Ward,
worthy winner
of our Christmas
Raffle. Well
done, Ruth.
This curious illustration of an epitaph published
in 1796 shows how the punctuation of simple
English sentences can make them appear to be in
Latin. Ignoring the full stops, capital letters and
division of words, the sentence in fact reads:
“Beneath this stone reposeth CLAUD COSTER,
tripe seller of Impington, as doth his consort
Jane.”
Some quirky and bizarre collective names for
groups of animals amused many during our
Christmas meeting in November:
Sheep:
Drove, Flock, Down, Hurtle,
Fold, Pack, Trip
Whale:
Pod, Gam, Herd, School, Mod
Cat:
Clowder, Clutter, Pounce, Dout,
Nuisance, Glorying, Glare
Ape:
Shrewdness
Sandpiper : Fling
Wombat: Wisdom
Rhinoceros: Crash
Tiger:
Ambush/ streak
Gnu:
Implausibility
Crow:
Murder
Cockroach: Intrusion
Crocodile: Bask, Float
Mice:
Mischief
Vulture:
Venue, Kettle
Peacock:
Muster, Ostentation, Pride
January 2015 — Page Three
The First Scottish Colony for
New Zealand (Wellington) by John Wilson
Part Three
Reverend John Macfarlane a Church of Scotland
minister. Formerly the first minister of Martyr's
Memorial, Paisley, he arrived on the Bengal
Merchant in February 1840 and was the only
resident minister in Wellington until Rev
Churton of the Church of England arrived on the
Bolton in April. He returned to Scotland in 1844
because of ill-health.
Thomas Urquhart McKenzie born Ross-shire 6
July 1820 arrived in the Oriental in 1840. On 20
June 1842 Rev Macfarlane married him to
Margaret Fraser who came with her parents,
Duncan a blacksmith and Marjorie, 4 sons and 4
other daughters in the Blenheim. A son David
recalled that there was no wharf. Thomas
carried ashore a young lady, was chaffed by his
mates so said he was going to marry the girl and
did! They later went farming in the Rangitikei.
Margaret was born at Corran Ferry, Argyllshire
26th September 1826 and died 9th April 1909.
Thomas died 16th May 1904. According to their
eldest child Eliza “at home the daily service was
read in Gaelic, and the children knew three
languages: Gaelic, English and Maori. So many
Gaels lived in the district that the Rev Mr Ross
came to minister to their needs, for many knew
no English.”
Alexander Majoribanks of Majoribanks arrived
in the Bengal Merchant. He found on first
landing that his size was an object of attraction
amongst the natives; “Had I been twenty stone
instead of fifteen, I actually believe they would
have worshipped me as a deity”. He remarks
“some of our Highland chieftains, with whom
these New Zealand chieftains are sometimes
compared, would perhaps be surprised at
finding their distinguished allies working in a
saw-pit”. Later he “the Scotch village of
Kaiwarawara” with 300 inhabitants, a mile from
Wellington. He left because of the delays in
allocating land.
William Scott Milne born Glamis Dundee arrived
on the Lady Nugent aged 16 in 1841. He farmed
in Taita on the River Hutt with a partner
Alexander Yule who later moved to the
Wairarapa. On New Year's Eve or Hogmanay
1847 William married Alexander's 16 year old
daughter, Grace. Alexander came out on the
Bengal Merchant with Grace, her step-mother
Elizabeth, brother Robert 7 and step-sister Mary
Anne 1. Grace, born in Larnark had six daughters
and two sons and died in 1916. William died 1913.
Robert Park, Assistant surveyor to NZ Company
1839, Town surveyor 1842, arrived in Cuba 1840.
George Rose from Banff was living in Sydney when
he heard of the colonization project, and considered it was his duty “to do justice to himself by
relieving the first settlers of every sixpence he
could legitimately appropriate to his own use” He
was “store-keeper, publican, auctioneer, boatbuilder, hotel-keeper, commission-agent ... and
butcher”, and was six feet six in height.
Majoribanks who stayed there said he “had neither
a table nor a chair in his hotel; but as he kept a
store, we converted an old tea-chest into a table,
and an old soap-box into a chair; and one knife and
fork served us both, as we used them alternately,
or time about, as they say in Scotland.”
Charles William Schultz was born in Edinburgh in
1813, his wife was a Ramsay. At 24 he went to
Sydney then Otago for the Weller brothers,
merchants. Schultz and Harwood took over their
Otago whaling station, then he came to Wellington
to supervise their trading ship Shepherdess. In 1845
he leased land in Kaiwarra, and built a water-driven
flour mill there in 1846. He was on the Provincial
Council, and died in 1879.
Robert Roger Strang Esq a solicitor from Glasgow
on the Bengal Merchant “used to drill the passengers, to be ready for battle, in case of being attacked by the New Zealanders.” He came with his
wife Susan and daughter. He was solicitor to the NZ
Company, later Clerk of the Supreme Court and an
elder and first Lay Representive of the Church of
Scotland. He died in 1874 aged 79, his wife Susan
died in 1851 aged 51. His daughter Susan married
(Sir) Donald McLean in the Scotch Kirk Wellington
on 28 September 1851 and died soon after childbirth on 7 November 1852 aged 23.
Robert Waitt born Jedburgh 1816, arrived in the
Lapwing from Sydney January 1841. He had a store
in Manners Street and a private wharf, and was a
Wellington Provincial Councillor from 1853-54. He
moved to Canterbury in 1854 and died in 1866.
Mrs Elizabeth Wilkie a widow from Perth arrived in
1841 with her daughter and two sons and their
families, 19 plus one born on the ship. She came
Continued next page
January 2015 — Page Four
Continued from previous page
in the Lady Nugent with John and Mary
Watterson. George and Anne Wilkie came on the
Olympus, and James and Cecelia Wilkie on the
Katherine Stewart Forbes.
Sir Donald McLean and Sir Robert Stout, both
from Scotland, were not Wellingtonians although
Stout represented Wellington City 1894-98.
James Muir printer for Revans on NZ Gazette,
trained with Ballantyne, Edinburgh, retired from
industry 1864. Arrived Bluff on American whaler
1839.
Robert Park was Principal Surveyor to Wellington
Settlement (ie NZ Co) 1849-50, previously senior
assistant to his predecessor Mein Smith.
Surveyed proposed Wanganui town with
Jerningham Wakefield, Charles Heaphy and
Robert Stokes. Had done land surveying in
Scotland, urban civil engineering, railway surveying. An irascible Scot with a propensity for drinking, swearing and wenching, but established
rapport with William Fox who in 1848 replaced
William Wakefield as NZ Co Principal Agent in
Wellington! Also surveyed in Otago.
John Telford from Stirling Scotland. His father
William was a partner in the Stirling Bank, known
as the "Corner Bank". As manager he entered
some speculative ventures and was replaced, but
it failed in the 1826 British financial crisis. He
sailed to Wellington in the Bengal Merchant in
1839 and opened a store in Petone. His wife Jane
stayed in Scotland, but several sons came to NZ.
Websites
www.childrenshomes.org.uk/
An excellent website providing information on all
the institutions that became homes for thousands
of British children. Includes many maps and
hundreds of historic images.
www.scottishchurches.org.uk
A national record for educational use by local
communities, schools, congregations, local
societies, family historians and researchers, in
fact anyone with an interest in Scotland.
www.wairarapa100.co.nz
For anyone with an interest in the Wairarapa’s
World War 1 this website is well worth a look.
Incl. ‘Wairarapa at war’ stories, finding soldiers,
and information on the Featherston Military
Training Camp. Also contains a list of
Administration Forms used in WW1 Service
Records.
www.forces-war-records.co.uk
An e-book, "Trench Traumas and Medical
Miracles", is available to read for free, or
download if registered, and accompanies the
release of “Military Hospitals Admissions and
Discharge Registers WW1.” The e-book adds
further detail to the collection and paints a
picture of every day life on the front line.
www.archhistory.co.uk/taca/home.html
Chronicling British Army children’s history, this
website was set up to record, preserve and raise
awareness of the unique aspects of growing up as
a child of a serving soldier of the British Army
whether that growing up was done during the
17th to 21st centuries.
Various Branch Newsletters
What’s on at your local branches?
Kilbirnie Branch - 10.00am, Wednesday 4
February - My Ancestor with Seven Surnames by
Ruth Ward.
The Bengal Merchant 1840
A m orsel of genuine history is a thing
so rare as to be alw ays valuable.
Thom as Jefferson
Hutt Valley Branch - 7.30pm, Thursday 12
February - What Lies Beneath - looking at
Wellington’s archaeology by Mary O’Keeffe.
Kapiti Branch - 7.30pm, Tuesday 24 February
Benefits to being a member of NZSG by Gill Knox.
Porirua Branch - 7.25pm, Wednesday 11 February
- Ups and Downs of Summer searching
January 2015 — Page Five
BookCase
Maori Boy : A Memoir of Childhood
By Witi Ihimaera
This is the first volume of Witi Ihimaera's enthralling memoir, packed with
stories from the formative years of this much-loved writer.
Witi Ihimaera is a consummate storyteller — one critic calling him one of
our ‘finest and most memorable'. Some of his best stories, however, are
about his own life. This honest, stirring work tells of the family and
community into which Ihimaera was born, of his early life in rural New
Zealand, of family secrets, of facing anguish and challenges, and of laughter
and love. As Ihimaera recounts the myths that formed his early imagination,
he also reveals the experiences from real life that wriggled into his fiction.
Alive with an inventive, stimulating narrative and vividly portrayed relatives,
this memoir is engrossing, entertaining and moving, but, more than this, it
is also a vital record of what it means to grow up Maori.
This Month in History - 3 January 1840 - New Zealand Company surveyors arrive in Port Nicholson
Surveyors arrived in Port Nicholson to lay out the proposed New Zealand Company settlement of
Britannia at Pito-one (Petone). When this site proved unsuitable, the town was relocated across the
harbour. It would be called Wellington in honour of the victor in the Battle of Waterloo.
The survey party, led by Captain William Mein Smith, arrived on the Cuba. A map for the new
settlement had been prepared in England by Samuel Cobham. It was designed primarily to convince
investors to support the venture. The orderly grid pattern contained familiar names to remind settlers
of England – though Covent Garden, Soames Square and Billingsgate Fish Market did not materialise in
the final settlement.
The New Zealand Company and its model of systematic colonisation was the brainchild of Edward
Gibbon Wakefield. Central to his plans was a package of land consisting of a town acre (0.4 ha) and an
accompanying 100 country acres (40 ha). There were 1100 one-acre town sections in the plan for Port
Nicholson, but Mein Smith struggled to reproduce this on the ground.
Time was also against Mein Smith. The Company was desperate to move before the British
government intervened in New Zealand. As a result an impossible timeframe was set for the Company
surveyors. When the first settler ship arrived on 22 January, there was no sign on the ground of the
carefully laid out plan.
New Zealand History Online
Committee
Branch Library
Convenor: Ruth Ward 477 3829
Kilbirnie Church House (formerly St Giles)
Secretary: Vivienne McIsaac 238 4123
Cnr. Kilbirnie Crescent and
Treasurer: Prue Theobald 232 0241
Vallance Street, Kilbirnie
Membership: Allison Diem 476 9567
Open 1st Sunday in the month
Speakers’ Programme: Ann Ball 479 6718
2-4pm February—November
Outside Committee
Library Liaison: Barbara Mulligan 475 3295
Evening Meetings
Newsletter Editor: Heather Conland 971 4071
7.30pm, 4th Wednesday, Connolly Hall,
Postal Address
Guildford Terrace, Thorndon
PO Box 2223, Wellington, 6140
Committee Contact:
[email protected]
January 2015 — Page Six