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Research in Other Countries => New Zealand => New Zealand Completed Requests => Topic started by: Fresh Fields on Wednesday 08 April 15 23:10 BST (UK)
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Service numbers: 16/847 - NZ 411160 - 70664
Hello.
Seeking family of the above.
With the Anzac centenary fast approaching I’ve been approached by someone from Hukanui Marae, asking if in my research into the big Waikato Estates, their contractor’s and personal, I had come across the name Paritawa Tewai, which is on the WWI Cenotaph. Unfortunately I have not. He is unknown to today’s locals, and RSA.
This Tokomaru Bay born man’s military records, show that he went on to serve after WWII with the Auckland Provincial Air Training Corps, and was awarded a BEM [Military] in 1955 for his service, and work with Secondary School ATC’s but died February 18th 1959 aged only 63.
Members of the Marae are keen to host members of this man’s family, and honour him.
Members of the Hukanui Marae, and the Gordonton Churches who organize the community Anzac service, are keen to learn more about the names on the Gordonton Obelisk / Cenotaph, which has an interesting unfinished engraving, under the East facing, roll of names.
The Obelisk honouring all who served, was proudly built on the grass common land by the local highway, in front of the original community hall and horse paddock. This highway now being the very busy State Highway 1B, with the present day hall being the third to occupy the site.
The reason for the unfinished engraving becoming clearer, when viewing the Waikato Times of October 17th 1918, where the official unveiling on October 16th 1918 is fully reported upon, three weeks before the Armistice signing.
Alan.
References to my research:-
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WT19181017.2.5&srpos=125&e=-------100--101-byDA---0P+Tewai--
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Search/Search.aspx?Path=%2fqueryEntry.m%3ftype%3dmarriages#SearchResults
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/search?n=16%2f847
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C56832?rs=%2fwar-memorial%2fonline-cenotaph%2fsearch%3fn%3d16%252f847&ck=99d9a6a72a9e4c7a94de48198962d32f&ordinal=0
H, BDM’s have [3] 1925 marriage listings for a Pua Ngareta MULLIGAN & Paretawa Te WAI which could possibly be him.
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Hi, just a very probable long shot, how about if you give (*) from TVNZ a try! Mulligan not a hugely common name, and I did hear once that he had Maori blood! And he's up the right end of the island!
Regardless if he is family or not, he may also be willing & able to give the occasion some publicity. Wouldn't that be good!! Good luck anyway with finding the families.
Cheers
Jeanne 😄
(*) Edit by Moderator: Name of living person removed to protect their privacy.
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Hello again.
Thanks for the MULLIGAN suggestion, it has been actioned
Thanks also to Errol MARTYN who supplied, by email, service records from his “For Your Tomorrow” [trillogy] and Colin HANSON’S “By Such Deeds”
From this info we now know that Sgt Tewai signed on #1 WWI, while in the employ of Tom Dawson [Gordonton] and #2 WWII, Waipiro Trading Co., Poverty Bay. Further research shows Mr Dawson to be a pioneer Waikato farmer from Dawson Road, Komakorau, who supplied the creamery, and with children attending the Komakorau Primary School there.
- Alan.
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That's cool Alan, no worries! I hope that will prove fruitful for you, and that the info keeps coming in!
The obelisk looks lovely, very smart!
Good luck with it all!
Cheers
Jeanne 😄
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Still searching, but an interesting photograph has come to my attention. Pity it was not dated or inscribed with details. For now, I'm assuming it was taken at the unveiling.
- Alan.
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Hello again.
Re the P. Te WAI and Pua Ngareta MULLIGAN union of 1925 and possibly later with a CLARKE, I see (*) of Australia, has made extensive NZ enquiries. Unfortunately his published email address is no longer active, and I don't have membership of most of the forums he has been active on. If any one has a contact for him, or can bring this thread to his attention, we would appreciate it. He may have collected info that would help our research.
- Alan.
(*) Edit by Moderator: Name of living person removed to protect their privacy.
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Think I might have found your man on facebook! Cross fingers!
I have sent him a message, not posted to his page, but privately through facebook, sorta like PM's on here!
Asked that if he is connected to Te Wai and & Pua, and is the (*) that had previously been on Rootschat, that there was something really good waiting for him on the ROOTSCHAT NZ Forum!
Hope he's the right guy and you get a reply from him!!
(*)
Cheers
Jeanne 😄
(*) Edit by Moderator: Name of living person removed to protect their privacy. Please use the PM system for communicating such information.
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Thanks, much appreciated. - Alan.
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Kia ora Allan
Im responding to your message you left on the Ngati Porou website. Ive posted your message on a number of Facebook pages that could help with your query. I Will let you know when I receive any feed back. There is a special service this Anzac in Waima, Tokomaru Bay as this is the place soldiers left for world War 1. I myself am from Tokomaru Bay and am related to the Mulligans through the Rylands.
Trudy
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Kia ora TRUDY
Humble greetings from the Waikato. Afraid I rather saturated your community with my request to any email address I could find on line, including the schools, and am awaiting the Sextants return to the Gisborne District Council, [few days leave] hoping that she might have been of help, with an Undertaker or NOK address for service details, that a message could have been conveyed to.
My equipment is very old and slow on dial-up, so it was a mission, and so frustrating as I was unable to find many clues in the usual places, I'm familiar with researching.
The lady who reminded me that we have been looking for answers for seven years now, will be very pleased. She is keen to meet descendants, and if any are handy to us, and unable to make the Tokomaru Bay Service, due to shift work etc, we would love to host them as our guest, at our service which is held in the morning.
Another email came in with yours. It was from Errol giving me the abbreviations used on the very detailed service records he so kindly supplied previously. It is a docx file which I will have to convert on a daughter's computer, at first opportunity, then I will have a tidy two page service bio that I can supply any email address forwarded by private messaging me. The bio includes our photos, and if the Airforce Museum come up with some service photos of P. TEWAI they can be supplied later. I assume they are swamped with requests at this 100 year anniversary time.
Many thanks for your interest.
- Alan.
PS Trudy, I've just re-read your post and see that you have just signed on to RC and that was your first post. Unfortunately to [recieve OR] send me a private message on this forum, you will have to post a couple of times more. However I believe it should be possible for you to private message PM the forum moderator "spades" just click on where ever you see his handle, and see if you get a PM prompt. Spades will then be able to contact me. Or contact the primary schools and ask for my direct email.
Regards - Alan.
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Hi Allan,
A message from my Aunty Maggie Ryland. she responded to my post of the Ryland Whanau Facebook page:
Pua Ngareta was the daughter of Joe Mulligan and his first wife Raiha Pokiha [Fox] ref, born on 22/09/1902 I am not sure but I think she later married Waka Clarke
Will keep you posted of any other comments
Trudy
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Greetings again.
We are on a roll, and I can not keep up. Yes I found a Pua Ngareta MULLIGAN marriage to Paretawa Te Wai in 1925. I found a child, Tumarae Te Wai death at Rakauroa 25-6-1933. then Pua Ngareta CLARKE on Maori Land court records and a death at Auckland in 1989, but have no proof that they are connected.
- Alan.
PS I see our moderator has been doing their duty as I / we have been a bit remiss giving out names of the living, without their express permission. I've corrected my latest slip up, you might like to rephrase your post. We only get a limited time to "modify" our posts thereafter only a moderator has access to make changes. Regards - Alan.
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....And wait, THERE IS MORE, Hatea-A-Rangi Primary School, Tokomaru Bay, have now contacted me, and I have replied with a copy of the file containing the info mentioned in the previous thread. Perhaps I should see if any of our local kids, would like to share ANZAC stories with the Hatea-Arangi kids. - Alan.
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Hello - Good morning.
Two emails have arrived while I was trying to have a quick breakfast. Busy day ahead.
#1. From a relative who is a Gisborne Genealogy Society Member, [Edited]
Hi Alan
Don’t think you’re going to be able to get any descendants there – a) because of the time frame b) because I haven’t been able to find who they are. It appears he was not married/or had no kids.
Death notice : (have photocopy to send)
ROLL OF HONOUR Te WAI - Suddenly on Feb 18 at Gisborne, Paretawa (Beau) loved uncle of Novis, Lynnette and Dick, in his 65th year. Returned serviceman no 16/847 First World War and servicing flight sergeant RNZAF. A service will be held in Tokomaru Bay at 1.30 p.m tomorrow (Friday) prior to internment in the Ongaruru Cemetery. *
* Tokomaru Bay (public) Cemetery (on Waiotu Road) entry : No.155 Section H, Plot 100. Burial Register : B. TeWai January 1959, Tokomaru Bay, Anglican. [No headstone] [B could be a transcribing error] This is Gis Dist Cncl controlled. [Headstone now so presumably added at a later date, as is custom. Alan.]
OBIT – Flt-Sgt P TE WAI. The Royal NZ Air Force lost one of its best-known members on the death of Flight-Sergeant Pare Te Wai B.E.M at Gisborne yesterday. He was 63 years of age. Flight Sergeant Te Wai was born at Tokomaru Bay and served with the Maori Battalion in the First World War from 1915 to 1918. He enlisted in the RNZAF in February 1941 and served in NZ on instructional duties throughout the war years. After the war he was remustered to instructor Air Training Corps.
At a private ceremony in Gisborne recently Flight Sergeant Te Wai received the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal for … years of service in the RNZAF. At the time he received the medal Flight Sergeant Te Wai was confined to his bed at a private home in Gisborne and the presentation was made by Flight-Lieutenant J.W MOYNAHAN, MBE. In 1956 the deceased received the British Empire Medal for meritorious service in the RNZAF.
Couldn’t find a birth – Maori or European lists. Couldn’t find a Novis/Lynnette or Dick Te WAI in electoral rolls around 1959, so guess must be children of a sister.
The Maori Battalion book shows him in the 2nd Maori Contingent Pioneer Corps. 1914-18. Next of Kin given as Paratawa Tewi (father) Tokomaru Bay.
Couldn’t find father on Euro/Maori electoral rolls for late 1890s-1910.
Schools : ....... I am not familiar with Hikuwai Native School though. ....... [making further enquiries - Alan]
Funeral Director : still same company, but different proprietors now. Will take a trip over there tomorrow to see if they can through some light on the niece and nephews’ names.
That’s all I can give you at present. I’m off to bed. Hope this helps.
Marg.
#2 My co-researcher at Gordonton advises that she managed to get the WAIKATO TIMES to run with an article which is in to days paper, which is not delivered to me until about midday. It is possible it can be seem on line on www.stuff.co.nz
- Alan
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Hi yet again.
The Waikato Times 17-4-2015 page 2 "War veteran mystery unravelling." www.stuff.co.nz
proved to be great copy about our quest, but as time is fast running out for ANZAC day, I've opened a membership on an RNZAF ATC forum. I'm hoping it's specialist knowledge members may be able to supply reference to photos, and published reports, on the man, while he served with the ATC, as their Regional Instructor for 13 years, before his early death.
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/22767/tewai-time-anzac
- Alan.
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Hello again.
Today I received a surprise email containing candid photos from Wellington with apologies that they could not supply supporting info, as the Instructors therein have now passed on.
If any one can recognise their Father / Uncle etc in the photos, and therefore date them, tell of their locality / units we would be grateful. I note on the above RNZAF proboards forum [Wings over NZ] that Commandant Nicholls [a Gisborne local] was the First Commandant charged with getting a unit up and running similar to the UK one in the early 1940's.
EUREKA we now have some photos to display at our local ANZAC service.
- Alan.
PS. As some of the youngest of ATC Instructor Tewai's Cadets, may not yet have taken their final flight, PLEASE use the private messaging service, and not publish names in the open forum. Or contact Errol MARTYN who knows how to get hold of me. He can give you an email address.
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Another for you, the thought just occured to me since I live near Whenuapai
Whenuapai ATC Camp: Flight Sergeant P Te Wai
http://www.digitalnz.org/records/22675272?search[page]=2&search[tab]=Images&search[text]=%22Te+Wai%22&search[view]=gallery
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Hello.
A big thank you for the link. The people who supplied the above photos also tried contacting No 3 ATC Squadron at Auckland, only to be told their archives did not go back that far, so we will contact them again, with this link, for their records.
Like wise we now have P. Te Wai identified from two differing places so that is great. In the private album only the photo above, with the photo caption, actually named Tewai.
Surprised that my on line searches did not come up with your link, but then again "Tewai" only has limited hits, where as Te Wai can be a reference to a family name, OR a place name like Te Wai point so you can have a very large hit rate, and then have to reduce that down. Perhaps I was too heavy handed.
Regards,
- Alan.
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You might like to put something onto the RNZAF section of the Wings Over New Zealand Forum
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/ for the pictures. If you dont want to do that I can put them on if you email me :)
Dee :)
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Hello.
Thanks for the offer. I've got so much on the go at the moment, [burning the midnight oil] and with ANZAC just days away, have taken the easiest way for myself, by linking back to Rootschat which allows me to directly upload photos. My equipment is so old that sites like, Wings over NZ time out, or get get dropped out, because of electrical interference on my country phone line. They are data rich sites, when down loading etc. I don't have social media nor cloud storage memberships.
I had thought about asking Errol MARTYN if he might arrange something for me, but now having had contact with RNZAF ATC units, the photo archivist at the RNZAF Museum etc, I feel that I would/should wait until we can make a comprehensive offer of material found, to the Wings web pages and to the RNZAF Museum. Also I'm not the owner/executor of the album material being found, so first have to have permission to publicly use the material, forwarded for my research.
No doubt some of the photos found would only be duplication, but other material may be considered unique to existing holdings, and help with time lines or identification.
To date both Errol, and the RNZAF Museum, have assisted me greatly with my RNZAF research of those who served, but failed to return. There are still many stories out there, in old letters, diaries, and pilot logs, that are only now being found/rediscovered by the second or third generation. Not once in 55 years, do I remember my Mother talking about the 27 WWII letters she had salted away.
Thanks for the offer, I Will get back when I can see a way forward, because I'm all for having an understanding of our heritage, and honouring the hard work, and sacrifice, of those who have gone before us.
Lest we forget.
- Alan.
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Hi
Errol Martyn is a great person to speak to about your airman. He is on the Wings Over New Zealand forum too :)
Dee
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Hello Allan,
Here is a photo of P.Tewai (front row) Returned servicemans football team. Ive resized photo as this programme wont accept large files.
Trudy
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Thanks Trudy.
What a great picture. I will add it to the 20 odd pages of info found, that will be on display tomorrow. I initially sent a 10 leaf clear-file with 22 pages of copy to the Administrator and Principal of the Tokomaru Bay local school, Hatea-A-Rangi, and have since updated that with further finds, over this past week.
A week ago, I doubted we would have found photos in time, so the support we have received is appreciated. A good thing came with me attending my local Church and discovering [surprise surprise] a neighbour's Father, was a colleague of TEWAI. Prayers answered in the least expected ways.
I attached some info to the Cenotaph yesterday, and on my way home this afternoon see the first tributes laid upon the steps, so assume the Gordondon Primary School, held a service there today.
If any Ngati Porou in Hamilton, this weekend, would like to attend our 10 am service [& cuppa after]they would be most welcome.
Make themselves known to any organizer, and they will point in my direction or that of Amo PENE's Gt niece. We will be happy to host, and we are only 15 minutes away from the city. Allow a little time for parking though, as it could be at a premium. There is seating for 150 in the Community hall and usually another 50 or more seats are brought across from the Church and or the College.
Lest we forget.
- Alan.
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An eight year old wish full filled. 200 seated and I counted over 150 standing in the hall. The most I've seen attend in recent years. More tonight re some interesting issues arising. - Alan.
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Inside display.
Inside the hall a display table was set up underneath the permanently displayed Rolls of Honour plus the Komakorau one, on loan from that community hall, which now resides in the grounds of the Gordonton Primary School. Being shifted after the Komakorau Primary School was amalgamated with Gordonton.
On the opposing side I set up a display table, and two display boards as part of our Adopt an ANZAC project. 20 pages about the RIDDELL Brothers and H. C. WELCH, and 17 pages for this years Adoptee, Paritawa [sic] TEWAI. Good interest was shown, and I now have next years adoptee in mind, as I was told about brothers, not all of whom returned, and of the existence of a diary, that made it back.
Several people approached me about what they believed were errors with the names so recorded, or inconsistencies between the inside rolls, and those names, as inscribed, on the Obelisk. Some were quite assertive that changes should be made to the Obelisk/Cenotaph before we celebrate its 100th anniversary October 16, 2018.
Herein lies a dilemma for the Gordonton Community Committee, an advisory committee under the patronage of the Waikato District Council. Glad I’m not on it.
You see, today’s deemed ‘best practise’ with inscriptions on graves and monuments is a minimalistic one, of doing as little as possible to alter them. Render them safe, but don’t water-blast them with gusto, and thereby hasten natural erosion, especially on the likes of concrete and sand stone. Go very softly softly with physical and chemical removal of vegetation. And where it is seen fit to draw attention to inscription errors [that can be proven beyond doubt] do so by adding supplementary engraved stone or plate etc, noting errata’s.
Aside from human engraving errors, there are numerous other reasons why what is in print is not quite how you, or your family would expect it to be. Dad registered the kids name, and did not spell it the way mum expected, it was going to be done. Family used one way, public records showed another.
One family in this community found themselves being told it would be easier to deed poll change the spelling of their name, than it would be to change the incorrect spelling of their family name, that got past the final reading on an act of the NZ Parliament, assigning them a new parcel of land, as compensation for a crown title, in dispute with other parties.
Underage brothers were known to have gone to WWI using their older brother’s birth certificate, leaving no end of trouble for their officially ‘dead’ brother back in NZ. In some cases past the day they naturally died affecting probate and life insurance issues. Trying to “correct” especially Commonwealth War Graves inscriptions can be a very big mission, and some Mothers died before the next generation succeeded in getting a change made.
In the Gordonton Cenotaph’s case the Obelisk, as the erecting committee referred to it, was unveiled before wars end, and the detailed report in the Waikato Times noted that, “other men have left the district and their names will be added as soon as possible.” It also notes that, “a parchment was laid in the foundation stone with details of the subscribers and the committee.”
In light of the fact that there are still residents in their 90’s who delight in recalling that some families were despised because they chose not to have any thing to do with the project, ‘in case the country was over run by the enemy’ the above suggests to me that family consent was first obtained before names were engraved, and as it appears that a few inscribed names were not included in that Waikato Times article, opportunity presumably was there for families ‘of that time’ to have sought redress.
Therefore to my mind arises the question of “who are we to be making changes now, nearly 100 years later.?”
Much food for thought for the Gordonton Community.
- Alan.
PS EDIT: Afraid I'm a skip reader so spelling, and proof reading my own copy, is not my strong point. However after futher research today, I believe the two brother's named as WALSH on the Cenotaph, should have been named as WELCH. That is how their family name appears on the Primary school roll, their Army records, and the Waikato Times reporting upon the unveiling. Though why it was not changed when more WWI names were added, a little time later, I do not know. - Alan.
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Hello all.
Thanks Rootschat, and members, for making this search possible.
If any person is gifted at doing wild card searches, on genealogy recording sites, using only the christian names of the children named in Tewai's funeral notice, that would be appreciated.
Novis, Lynette and Dick.
We have yet to make contact with family associated with these named nieces and nephews.
Otherwise our objectives have been achieved for ANZAC, namely finding about the man, where he was born, how he served, and where he was buried. Plus get some photos, and open a dialogue between his home patch Tokomaru Bay, and a district some considerable distance away, that saw fit to acknowledge him in 1918.
Yesterday I took a compas with me as I knew I would be passing the Obelisk, and to my surprise North was further around than I expected. My thinking was some 20 degrees out, to add to my previous confusion, where at various times I have referred to the various faces either how I thought they were facing, and on other occasions how I was facing. For the record the main face FOR HUMANITY, honouring the fallen, and facing the road, is facing due South. The TEWAI inscription facing EAST, faces Hukanui Park. The face with the incomplete date faces due North and the hall, and we now know that the inscriptions facing West towards the shops, were added after the unveiling, as the engravings thereon, were not named in the full Waikato Times unveiling report, though it acknowledged that there were more names to be added, to account for those who had only recently left for overseas.
SPADES you can park up this post when ready. Search engines will still find in with a name search if more info is to turn up.
Regards all, THANKS.
- Alan.
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Hello there. Here is a thread update.
1. We now have details of a WELCOME HOME evening having been held at Gordonton in June 1918 for Private Tewai.
2. Yesterday a clipping arrived in surface mail, from a Gisborne Genealogy Society Member from an article re our search, in the Gisborne Herald dated April 24.
I’ve been advised today by the Editor, that next week the reporter will run copy updating the research. Tonight Mr Google finally found me a link for the not so common name of Novis. On it’s own it gives details of the British Lyons football match at Gisborne in July 1930. Then Archway court records gave me the name of Novis Bryan McKEE (dec.,) and low and behold there is a McKEE Genealogy family page, and it has family links to Tokomaru Bay and Mulligan families, so I’ve posted on their thread, and wait in hope of a reply.
Alan.
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Update:- Now have direct contact with a Canadian branch of the families we were enquiring about. Their info confirms our assumptions re the given names we were researching, as they tie back to the Tokomaru Bay Store. A great store I see, full of character, and service to the community through the years.
Thanks to all who have helped put the puzzle together. Because we are getting into the realm of the living, some of the replies have had to be off line.
- Alan.
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Hello again. I have now opened an Irish forum thread, to help with my research, and that of extended living family, who are keen to know more.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=720259.new#new
- Alan.