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Topics - Darian Zam

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1
Armed Forces / Edward John (Ted) French
« on: Monday 01 April 24 10:15 BST (UK)  »
 I'm wondering if anyone can further help me with information on Ted French's service.
We have been having quite the discussion about him and some rare tank images found in his collection in New Zealand over at The Great War Forum here

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/252471-the-crew-of-mk-v-tank-9189-at-battle-of-amiens-8th-9th-august-1918/

In particular I am interested in NOK, residential address etc so I can try to work out who his family were.
He apparently served in WWI as Edward John French
Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry, Service No 240680

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173454373/edward-john-french

Not sure where he was born but he gave his birth date as 1894, however I suspect this was not accurate and was more likely 1896-1897. 
He was in Pewsey, west of London when he married in 1923 and the couple also had a daughter there in 1924. At some point around 1925-1927 they permanently migrated to New Zealand to the gold mining town of Waiuta.
I'm still trying to figure out if he actually took the tank photos or was in some way associated with the Port Erin Workshop...or the front the tanks participated in. it is obvious he had some connection to have the images but also, he was a panel-beater and painter by trade so his service spent there would kind of make sense. However he also owned a wet-plate camera and took photos.
Thanks in advance.

2
Australia / Missing Resting Places: Morris Family Mystery
« on: Wednesday 06 September 23 17:24 BST (UK)  »
I have a few family mysteries yet to solve and this is one conundrum.
I cannot find the resting place of my first cousin Nat Morris and wondering if any members here may have some new searching ideas/leads to try.
Nat died in Newtown, Sydney in 1969 according to his death certificate, and after that the trail goes cold.
Some background in brief which may be helpful. This was not his real name. His government name was Larten Slatopolsky known as 'Nuskie' to the family. and he was born in Glasgow into a Jewish migrant family. He took the gentile name Nathan. 
In the 1920s he absconded from Scotland without telling the family and migrated to Australia where he shortened his forename to Nat and took Morris his father's name as his last name becoming 'Nat Morris.' I haven't found any evidence he changed his name officially or ever naturalized.
In 1931 he married Marjorie May Broughton from an old NSW pastoral family. They had one son Frank who died in childhood at five, so there were no descendants. They lived in Camperdown around the back of Newtown for life.
The family did eventually find out where he was but he excommunicated them essentially. He didn't want anything to do with a reunion of any kind. I have no idea what the reason was behind all of this but something serious must have happened now I think about it. Nobody now knows. I get an inkling from a family story he just didn't want anything to do with being Jewish or his old life for reasons known to himself.
I have searched every cemetery and database I can think of. Including all the Jewish cemeteries.  It was very unusual for someone of a Jewish family not to be interred in consecrated Hebrew ground even if they had left the faith. He's not in Rookwood or Springvale. I think it's clear he was an exception to this general rule. yes I have checked all the name variations, government names, variations, misspellings etc.
Here is where it gets even weirder, Marjorie's resting place ALSO cannot be found! So not just one but two people. I'm wondering if it is possible they were cremations and this was somehow unrecorded or, records are perhaps incomplete, but I think this would be unusual. Were pauper burials unrecorded in NSW state? 
Marjorie's mother had several siblings but amazingly I haven't been able to track any descendants from any; except one branch, her aunt Mabel Alice Audet which also fizzles out. I was hoping someone may have more info but that line of inquiry has been unsuccessful.
Marjorie died 1978 and left her estate to Alfred Alexander Audet the lawyer son of her aunt Mabel. So she died with means, probably owning their house in Camperdown, rather than broke.
After that the trail also goes cold.
It's so odd. I haven't had a case I can't eventually crack yet but this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance.

Associated surnames: MORRIS SLATOPOLSKY ZLOTOPOLSKI BROUGHTON AUDET MELVILLE GIBBONS MCGUIGAN PRICE SAXON

3
Can anyone help figure this one out?
I'm researching a fairly recently discovered branch of the tree and I am looking at Borlase family interment records in Buller area cemeteries.
I'm coming across some names of people buried in the plots and I have NO idea what their connection is. Marjorie Rose Borlase married a distant cousin of mine Reginald Charles Borlase who was known as Pat. However buried in the plot with her are


001346 WILLIAMS GEORGE HAROLD

001626 BORLASE MARJORIE ROSE

002032 WILLIAMS KATIE MARY ANNIE

004995 PALMER FRANK CHARLES

Katy is Kate Mary Anne nee Burchfield and her husband George Harold Williams. In the 1910s they were in the Wairarapa, but she apparently died in Greymouth, we had various branches with  family members dotted around Greymouth and Reefton. That's the only apparent connection to me.

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/GZRC-RC8/kate-mary-anne-burchfield-1888-1972

Apparently Marjorie Rose Borlase's maiden name was Thomson, and the family were from the Clutha area, she was born in Kaitangata. She may have had a sister Doreen Mearle Thomson who is from BMD records the only possibility (also born in Clutha)  and the family seem to have been in Clinton in the early1920s- mid 1930s for a time where she was made Dux of Clinton School in 1934. To wit I found this article of Clinton school showing a Marjorie and Doreen Thomson attending, looks like they may have also had a brother Raymond. It looks like in the 1930s the family also spent time in Dobson, Greymouth as newspapers mention Doreen Thomson at Dobson School too. None of this is unusual to me in a mining area where everyone moved around constantly following work.

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19301222.2.7?items_per_page=100&phrase=2&query=DOREEN+THOMSON&snippet=true

Further  to this Doreen married a Gavin Henry Murdoch and died in Buller in 2004, where she is buried in the same cemetery as all my relatives, Orowaiti, stating her birth place is the same as Marjorie's, Kaitangata, Clutha.

I have no idea what the relation is between Thomsons and the Burchfield/Williams clan. One connection I found is that at least one of Kate Williams' children, Tom Frederick Williams was born in Millerton/Westport so the family were definitely residing there at some time. Tom and also Kate's brother Henry Burchfield are interred in Orowaiti the same cemetery in Buler as my relatives.

Frank Charles Palmer died as a baby and I also have no idea what connection the Palmer name has to any of this but it must have some significance.

The relations have to be on the Thomson side somehow as they are not from my side of the family which was Barnett/Barton/Borlase of Westport and Reefton.

Did Marjorie have any siblings who married into these other families? Or were they related to her mother Margaret? I can't find out thus far.

The main connection for everything seems to be Westport, Buller.

Any help appreciated as I am stumped.

4
For Sale / Wanted / Events / Coker/Monk Family Blenheim NZ
« on: Thursday 11 August 22 08:02 BST (UK)  »
There's a wedding photo for sale on Trade Me New Zealand. I have identified this as the marriage of Leonard William Coker (Cambridge, England 1893 - New Zealand 1971) and Alice Lilian Monk (Pancras, England Mar 1889 - New Zealand 1972). Their marriage was in Blenheim, South Island, New Zealand in 1917. They had one known son Eric John Leonard Coker (1918 - 2008). It’s possible they had other children later. There don't really seem to be any descendants doing genealogy research online so I have edited it and posted it here, on the chance that in the future somebody may come looking and find this image of their ancestors.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/antiques-collectables/postcards-writing/new-zealand-cities/south-island/listing/3718897416?tm=email&et=41&mt=3B9681F4-EFDD-45D4-BC17-7F5CA3ADC250&bof=eqeasOnK

5
New Zealand Completed Requests / Meadows Family Crest Seal for Sale
« on: Tuesday 05 April 22 09:52 BST (UK)  »
This letter sealing set from the Meadows family has appeared for sale on Trade Me. The seller's cursory research seems to be correct in that descendants of the British  Meadows family arrived to New Zealand in 1874 however carpentry seems like a rather lowly profession for a grand family with their own crested letter seal, but who am I to say.

Henry Meadows, aged 25, carpenter, arrived in Hawkes Bay aboard the Bebington in 1874
Mary Meadows, aged 25, arrived in Hawkes Bay aboard the Bebington in 1874
Frederick Meadows, aged 1, arrived in Hawkes Bay aboard the Bebington in 1874.

There's a variety of ways this item could have ended up down under and it didn't necessarily arrive with these particular immigrants.

Anyhow I post this as it would be great to see the item returned to descendants, I have posted a number of items in the past and had success getting items back to relatives.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/antiques-collectables/other/listing/3541600721?tm=email&et=41&mt=3B9681F4-EFDD-45D4-BC17-7F5CA3ADC250&bof=2xPsVz6q

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Midlothian / St Cuthberts Records for Barnett/Burnett
« on: Thursday 24 February 22 13:48 GMT (UK)  »
I am a pretty well versed researcher, I've been working on the family tree for a decade. I'm very aware that my family often changed the spelling of their name and used Barnett, Burnett and sometimes records show Barnet. The Barnett family mostly stuck around the St Cuthberts area for generations. Recently my cousin gave me some old research they'd done on my Scottish Barnett family, years ago saying these were children of my third great grandparents William Barnett and his wife Janet Gray.
I was given the list of names and birth dates below. Well generationally, these would have to be siblings of my fouth great grandfather. He's one of the Williams listed, although what's confusing is he and his wife Janet Gray ALSO had two Williams a year apart in 1818 and 1819. These new names are news to me because I've scoured records and did not find any of this, and still can't.  I am stumped because none of it is coming up in the Scottish government church records, and other databases are turning up nothing. This usually tells me it's wrong and yet, it seems so specific and some of it makes sense...anyone?

Parish register for St. Cuthberts
William Burnett 20.8.1800
James Burnett 16.6.1794
John Burnett 18.9.1795
George Burnett 20.6.1802
William Burnett 16.6.1799
Thomas Burnett 26.10.1797
Joseph Burnett 11.5.1804




7
The Common Room / Portrait of Muriel and John Cameron, Greymouth, New Zealand
« on: Wednesday 20 May 20 11:38 BST (UK)  »
I don’t often post on forums for help these days because I am pretty good at cracking most cases that look impossible. However I am stumped by this one. A portrait noted to be of ‘Muriel and John Cameron’, taken in Greymouth on the West Coast of  New Zealand’s South Island.
The photographer is James Ring (1856-1939). Ring headed to Greymouth soon after arrival in New Zealand and operated his independent studio from about 1879 until 1924; so an incredibly long time and this is not particularly helpful for narrowing down dates.  There are no other clues to go on, besides the photo looks to have been taken maybe between the mid-1900s to mid-1910s, and the girl, who looks under 2 years old is slightly older than the boy who looks about 1 year old; so assuming they are siblings they were born 1-2 years apart. Both of these data points tee with the only potential match.
Cross-checking Camerons who had children with both these names historically, only reveals one couple, John Hendry and Constance Cameron who had a daughter Muriel Mary Cameron in 1907, and a son John Sellars Cameron in 1906.
However I have zero evidence the Camerons were ever in Greymouth/West Coast/Westland or had any reason to be. 
There is a lot of information showing that these Camerons resided in the mid-North Island area over the decades around Wairarapa, Taranaki, Manuatu-Whanganui, and Hawkes Bay. This is where they consistently crop up.  References are regular enough it is difficult to believe they ever had a period in the South Island but, it is certainly not impossible; people moved around a lot in those days depending what line they were in. It just looks unlikely they are the same people and there’s nothing to back it up, especially any electoral records. To me it doesn’t look to me like they ever left that central area of the North Island.
Anyway, I thought I’d post this on the off chance one day someone is looking for Cameron family and they can match it with something. Unfortunately ‘Cameron’ was an incredibly common surname, with thousands of immigrants arriving from Scotland in the C19th and many had a habit of naming their children with the same small roster of names, meaning trying to figure stuff out is a hard ask. That’s another point, there is of course the possibility these Camerons could well have been recent arrivals to New Zealand meaning Muriel and John were not born there at all.


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