Alice BUTLER 1920s and 1930s

[spades]

Thanks Beg.

Spades

[Drosybont]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.  I have found the FamilySearch image of the probate.  Since she had only £3 cash and £4 - 10 - 0 accrued invalidity pension when she died, it would be interesting to know whether it was the public authorities or a Roman Catholic organisation which arranged her funeral.  I will try asking the cemetery, unlikely to have been a death notice I think.

Drosybont

[Drosybont]

I've had a reply from Karori Cemetery, so quick and efficient, but very little additional information unfortunately, C Greer was the undertaker and Father Fletcher the clergyman. 

Can anyone suggest any further avenues I should explore, please?  Is there any way of finding out about Roman Catholic organisations in New Zealand which supported immigrants in the 1920s and 1930s?  Alice was only 16 when she went there and the family think she had support of some kind from the church.

Drosybont

[Lucy2]

Hello

Mmm ... disappointing that the Cemetery had so little information.
I wonder if they might be able to offer further details of the plot (date purchased, by whom, ??)

C. GREER (undertaker) seems to have been "Chas. (Charles) GREER"  who operated from premises in Taranaki Street.  Unknown if any records of this firm, survive.

The clergyman, I suspect was Father J. FLETCHER, of St Josephs (RC) Church, which was located in Buckle Street, Wellington.

   ~  Lu

[Lucy2]

From what I've found so far, it looks as though she sailed to Auckland on the Rimutaka in 1923 - though the passenger list shows the surname as "Butter" the other details look correct. I've also found a death which I think is hers, on 26 February 1939 at West Hospital, Wellington - TB was the cause of death. It looks as though that death goes with a 1938 Electoral Roll entry at the Ewart Hospital, Coromandel Street for Alice Butler, spinster.

Hi

Can you advise where you found the details of the death (and cause of death), please ?

In addition to the details for "Alice BUTTER" sailing on the "Rimutaka" 1923, there is also a New Zealand Passenger List Immigration entry > surname "BUTTER" > ... which actually gives less information.  [Source:  NZ Immigration Passenger Lists at familysearch. ]

Haven't been able to find any further electoral roll listings for Alice.

   ~   Lu

[Janette]

FindMyPast has
Miss,Butter,Alice,18 Hartley St,Sunderland,travelling 3rd class bound for Auckland.No occupation aged 16,born  England country of intended permanent residence NZ

Cheers Janette

[Drosybont]

Hi

Thanks again for continuing to puzzle over this with me.  I've got the death certificate, ordered it from the wonderfully efficient Department of Internal Affairs.  Cause of death "Pulmonary tuberculosis 1 year".  Death was at "Ewart Hospital Wellington" and until I looked at it again now, I had forgotten that after that it says "from 31 Hopper Street Wellington".  Does that address help at all, was it a private house or a lodging house?

Drosybont

[Lucy2]

Hi Drosybont

I'll follow up on the Hopper Street address - but it does seem at various times that it may have been a rental property (described as a 3-roomed unfurnished flat).

You don't say whether the names of Alice's parents (or her birthplace) are recorded on the death certificate ??

I take it that Alice BUTLER was the daughter of Thomas (John Thomas) BUTLER and Isabella Jane (WANDLESS / WANDLASS ) ... and that parents possibly died 1918 (father) and 1921 (mother)
[Info quickly gleaned from online resources.]

*  Were the younger BUTLER children perhaps in the care of a Catholic orphanage following the death of their mother ??

*  Any idea what the address > "18 Hartley Street, Sunderland" > pertains to ??

    ~   Lu

[Drosybont]

Hi Lu

I didn't give the details of the family because I'm much more familiar with research in the UK and I've got quite a lot of information about them already.  The elderly relative is particularly keen to find out what happened to Alice in New Zealand. 

The Alice Butler death certificate just gives the parents' surnames, Butler and Butler. The address on the passenger record, 18 Hartley Street, Sunderland, is thought to be an aunt and uncle - when I can get to the Local Studies Centre I'll check the Electoral Register.

It was a sad situation, the father, John Thomas Butler, was accidentally injured while on war service, became paraplegic and died in 1918, and the mother, Isabella Jane Wandless, died in 1921.  There were 8 children at that point, the oldest in his early 20s, married a couple of years before, and the youngest only 8. 

In Sunderland at the time for the boys there were jobs in the shipyards but fewer opportunities for girls.  Alice's sister went into service down south.  Relatives will have rallied round as far as they could but nobody working class in Sunderland would have had much to spare in the 1920s.  There were articles in north east England newspapers at the time about opportunities for young women in New Zealand, though if that death is the right one, it didn't work out well for Alice.

Drosybont