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Research in Other Countries => New Zealand => New Zealand Completed Requests => Topic started by: diana2646 on Saturday 18 October 14 11:25 BST (UK)
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Hi, Could anyone please give me names of the best newspaper(s) in which I could have a photograph published of my father, along with the man he worked for on a farm, in the Wellington area. My father was there from 1926 to 1929. I know this is a long shot, but I thought perhaps someone may recognise the local man, as being a grandfather possibly. I would like to trace this family, to find out more about where my dad was working.
I had recent success with a photo published in The Times of Malta, of my father, who was in the Seige of Malta from 1942 to 44. He is pictures with a Maltese family and an 8 month old baby sitting on his knee. As a result of this photo being published, a 71 year old man contacted me and said he was the baby sitting on my dad's knee! We have since met, as I travelled from England, to meet this lovely family.
Any help appreciated. I am attaching the photo of my dad, with the man he worked for. I don't have any names, but my father was Victor Whitney, born November 1908 in Neath, Wales, U.K.
Regards Diana
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Dominion Post is the major newspaper for the lower North Island.
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This may be Victor arriving in NZ
First name(s) VICTOR
Last name WHITNEY
Gender Male
Age 18
Birth year 1909
Occupation BUTCHER
Departure year 1927
Departure day 17
Departure month 6
Departure port SOUTHAMPTON
Destination port WELLINGTON
Destination WELLINGTON
Country NEW ZEALAND
Destination country NEW ZEALAND
Ship name TAMAROA
Ship official number 144805
His last address was given as 125 Fifth Ave,Queens Park,W10
Cheers Janette
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Thanks Janette and Whenu. I have his details for his voyages (sorry I should have said). I have a couple of photos of him milking cows etc., I would love to find out whereabouts in New Zealand he was, so I will send a letter to the Dominion Post and see if they will print the photo for me. It would be wonderful to make contact with the family.
Regards Diana
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Hello Diana, found a couple of old newspaper clips on Papers Past, from the Wellington Evening Post!
Link is below for them.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19200401.2.2.4&srpos=2&e=-------10--1----2%22Victor+Whitney%22--
cheers
Jeanne
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Sorry, posted twice in error,
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Hello Jeanne, Thanks very much for posting the newspaper articles, but sadly I don't think this Victor is my dad. He didn't go to N.Z. until 1926 and came home to England in Dec 1929. His mother was Margaret Whitney and she lived in London. It is a strange coincidence though, as there can't be too many Victor Whitney's in the world!
I have emailed the Dominion Post, asking them if they will print the enclosed picture, but haven't heard anything yet, so am keeping my fingers crossed!
Regards, Diana
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Oops... Not a very good researcher, I didn't look at the dates properly did I? Sorry if I raised your hopes. Good luck with your Dominion Post Photos. Do let us know when it's going to be in if you can! And if you get any responses. I live in Wellington and will be interesting to know where He lived. might be able to build you up a picture of the area and find some old photos, and maybe get
some new ones! Hope you get a huge response from your Dom Post Article!
Cheers
Jeanne
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That's very kind of you Jeanne to take such an interest. It would be lovely to see where my father worked for the three years he was there. I have one or two more photos of him while he was there. He told me that he would have stayed, if it hadn't been for the telegram received from his sister, saying that his mother was very ill.
My father also told me that while he was there, he got engaged to a girl, but one day they went down to the beach and she told him that she had seen someone else. My father then broke of the engagement and he said, she took her ring off and threw it in the sand! He said that he didn't pick it up and left it where it was! But that is all I know - he didn't mention any names at all.
Thanks for all your help.
Kind regards, Diana
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Hello there.
Travelling to NZ [the other side of the world from home] on his own, at such a youthful age it is quite probable that he travelled to contacts in New Zealand. Our Papers Past site is a great search tool if you have some time to spare, and familiarise yourself with the refine search tools.
Unfortunately the surname WHITNEY was world wide newsworthy in your search time frame, so there are a lot of hits, but not a lot when refined to the greater Wellington area. Historic BDM will allow you to check out death registrations in the 1920's [over 80 years] and if he intended staying in NZ he may, depending upon his status, even just be on an electoral roll. So I would suggest you have a play with our very good search sites, using family names of interest and any other known links between his home area and NZ.
Happy hunting.
Alan.
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Hi Alan, thanks for your input. From what I remember my dad saying, he didn't go to any family in New Zealand. I have researched my family history quite extensively and can find no relatives that went to N. Z. at all. Thank you for telling me about the Our Papers Past site, I will have a good look at it and see what I can find.
I haven't heard anything back from Dominion Post as yet. I don't know if they will let me know or not, whether they are going to print my photo and letter, but will give it a few days and see. As I said in my previous post, I had amazing luck in finding my dad's good friends family in Malta, so you never know!
Kind regards, Diana
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Hello again.
Thanks for the reply. Out of interest I did a little digging this morning, but as you indicate, there appears to be not much information available, especially so as I don't know of your family.
Voting in New Zealand started in 1852 with males over the age of 21 who owned, leased or rented property, of a certain value. In 1893 the vote was extended to WOMEN, and in 1969 the age threshold was lowered to 20 years and then lowered again to 18 years in 1974.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/milestones
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/election-day/general-elections
In relation to wages of the times, passage to and from NZ and the UK was very expensive, so Victor must have had access to some resources.
By the November 1928 election, Victor would not have reached majority, and had left NZ before the September 1931 election, when a Coalition Government was formed in the troubled times.
The Great Depression started for New Zealand with the collapse of the UK market for NZ produce. The wool market for NZ wools showed a 60% decline, and it has been said that in 1930/31 the New Zealand farmer did not break even. Many succumbed to their cash flow crisis.
RE: www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
Young men were often mentioned [by surname] in local sport and gala day reporting, so if the surname you are researching has a very high hit rate, pair it up with cricket; football; tennis; shooting; golf; bowling etc, as your search criteria. Unfortunately for you the words VICTOR and WHITNEY were in very common usage. I see there was even a window referred to as a “WHITNEY Window” so often crops up as an advert search hit.
Though there are several hits for this Major J Whitney and his family in the Wellington press, they were an Auckland domiciled family.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19281119.2.145.13&srpos=15&e=--1926---1930--100-EP-1----0Whitney--
[Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 19 November 1928, Page 12]
So unfortunately my general advise is of little help for you, but may be of more interest to other researches, of that time in our history.
Alan.
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Hi Alan, thank you for all the interesting sites you have sent me. I will gradually work my way through them, although I did have a good look at the Papers Past, but couldn't find anything about my dad there.
You mentioned that my dad must have had access to some resources. Well, 3 months before he went to N.Z., his dad died, age 40. He was a Sergeant in the Metropolitan Police in London and his wife, my grandmother, was a tailoress, so I don't think they did too badly moneywise. Also I think my grandmother got a good payout from the Met as my granddad died of injuries received in the course of his duty.
my dad said that his mother never thought he would settle in N.Z. and half expected him back 3 months later. My dad always felt that the telegram he received saying his mother was ill, was a ruse to get him home. As you will know, the journey to England would have been around 5 weeks by ship, so plenty of time for a 'so called' recovery!!
I haven't had any response from the Dom Post regarding my email to them, so I have written a letter and enclosed a photo of my father and the farmer concerned, asking if they will print it and offering to pay any expenses involved, so I hope to get a favourable response. If I do, I will post a message on here.
Thank you for all your interest.
Kind regards, Diana
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Hello again.
I note that Victor's occupation, listed above, was a butcher. Keep in mind when researching, that at that time communities and boroughs were relatively small, and it was quite common for the local butcher to also lease or own farm land, so he had more control of his supply of meat for his business. Auctions of local prime cattle would not be as often as he would need to be slaughtering. Some were only monthly etc., and if bought at a large weekly sale, could involve a considerable drove to their new owner's business property. All work for a farm hand / butcher. The Wellington Province being pockets of arable land, hemmed in by some serious hilly and mountainous terrain
Happy hunting,
Alan.
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Hello, I have been advised to post a photo which I have of my father Victor Whitney and a girl, who I believe belonged to the family of the people my dad worked for in New Zealand. It isn't a good photo and there is some marking on the girl's face, but you can faintly see her face through it. Perhaps someone who sees it may recognise her.
Diana
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Hello Diana.
First thanks for the low resolution proof like photos emailed to my dial up address. Unfortunately even with a higher resolution copy of the milk supply cans, I doubt we will be able to find a supplier number, or indicator to the factory that they were being transported to; mores the pity. In my private reply to you, unfortunately there was not a lot I could discern from them, like land marks etc. Aside from the milk cans, the house, garden and the people therein would appear to be your best bet, that some one may recognise the property.
Re the garden photo above; I suggest you post a link to this thread on the photo restore forum, asking what they would need to try for a touch up. They can do great things if supplied an image in the 400 to the max allowed 500 Kbs range. They may advise you to get the original photo rescanned at a high resolution, and then crop the photo to just a portrate size of the upper body so as to keep within the file size limit. Then post on their forum, so members can then try their magic. I never cease to be amazed at what they can do, and all for the cost of a BIG THANK YOU.
All the best.
- Alan.
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Hello Alan, I will do as you say and try putting the cropped photo on RC restoration page. I will see what they say regards re-scanning.
Thanks for all your help.
Regards Diana
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HI, just thought I would post to say I sent my letter to the Dominion Post around 10-11 days ago now, so I think that it should have arrived. I'm not sure how long air mail takes from England to NZ. I enclosed my photograph and a letter, giving all my details, including email address, but I haven't heard anything as yet. I wondered if anyone knew whether it is policy to email you, if they are going to publish what you have sent. Otherwise, I will have no way of knowing whether they have published it, except of course, if I get a response from someone who has seen the photo.
I will give it another week or so and then perhaps look at contacting other newspapers or the N.Z. Memories Magazine, to ask if they will help me.
Best wishes, Diana
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New Zealand Memories might be a good bet.
Physical Address:
11 Saran Place
Auckland
New Zealand 1042
Postal Address:
PO Box 17288
Greenlane
Auckland 1546
Ph: 09 625 7051
Freephone 0800 696 366
email admin[at]memories.co.nz
Moderator Comment: e-mail edited, to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please replace [-- at --] with @
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Thanks for the contact details for New Zealand Memories. I will give them a try.
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Hello everyone, just to let all the people who helped me know, that New Zealand Memories have been in touch with me, after my emailing them. They have said that they will print my photo and letter, but they are full until mid year 2015, so it will be a bit of a wait, but worth it in the end I hope.
So that is brilliant news for me.
Many thanks to everyone who helped and I hope I will have good news to post later on next year.
Kind regards,
Diana
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That's great! Hope they can come up with someone who knows about him!
Jeanne :)
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Hello to everyone who helped me last year with my post.
After sending a letter to the Dominion Post early in last November and not hearing anything, I mentioned that I had contacted New Zealand Memories magazine. Well, last night I had an email from the Dominion Post, and the reporter says that my letter has just been passed to her. She says that they would like to help me try and trace the family who my dad stayed with and worked for when he was in N.Z. I am not sure which edition of the Dom Post it will be in, but I have asked her if she could email me a copy of the article.
I am keeping my fingers X'sd that someone will put a name to the face in the photo.
Best wishes to everyone!
Diana
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That's wonderful news for you! Finger crossed you get a good response. If they do advise you in advance of the publishing date, put it on here, I'm in the Dom Post circulating area, be great to see what they do with it!
Best of luck
Jeanne
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I certainly will Jeanne. Thanks for all your good wishes.
Best wishes,
Diana