Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Arachne

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 ... 7
1
Marriage believed to have taken place at Stoke (a suburb these days of Nelson,  NZ. on 1 June 1937. Were Bessie's parents from England? Sometimes family notices were  copied to country/city of origin.

2
Thanks for this, Ray. I appreciate your response, but I feel that the birth date for this Mary is a bit too early. Going by the census records my Mary Ann Hicking's birth date is extrapolated variously as being abt 1845 or abt 1846. In  1874 when listed as a passenger on the immigrant ship 'Cartvale", her age is given as 28yrs which could possibly make it closer to 1846. Birth place in census records for 1851, 1861 & 1871 is recorded invariably as Ripley, Derbyshire, and as her father had a farm at Greenwich, Ripley, that does seems likely.

Cheers,
Anne.

3
Since I last posted here I have pretty much managed to sort out all the members on this side of my family,  but have one birth/baptism date which I have been completely unable to confirm, and wondered if one of the helpful researchers here might be able to help.

The person concerned is Mary Ann Hicking, daughter of George Hicking and his wife Mary nee Watson. I know from census records that Mary Ann was born around 1845 at Ripley, Derbyshire - her father had a farm at Greenwich, Ripley, at that time - but can't find a record which provides details of her birth and/or baptism date/s.

Many thanks,
Anne.

4
Following up mention in a contemporary newspaper of a death in Nelson, NZ, on 10 January 1882, I have reached the end of Thomas Ward's story. The death certificate I obtained confirms that this was indeed "my" Thomas Ward - born at Crediton, Devonshire, and a son of Thomas Ward, gentlemsn, & Elizabeth (nee Huggins). He died aged 67 in Nelson Hospital on 10 Jan 1882, cause of death aortic disease. He was buried the following day at the Wakapuaka Cemetery in Nelson. Death certificate confirms that he was unmarried and gives his occupation at time of death as "farmer" . Seeing that the notice of his death in the "Colonist" newspaper describes him as being from Golden Bay, have to assume that in his later years he moved from Marlborough to Golden Bay and took up farming there, though have found no actual reference confirming that. Anyway - the mystery of what happened to him is now solved  :)

5
Hi Whattinger - Joseph Henry Price - what an interesting Ward connection! And here's me thinking this thread was done and dusted :) Yes the old habit of recycling dead children's names as some sort of memorial causes untold confusion. Ann's sister,  the Mary Ward who came out to NZ, was Mary Mark II- the earlier one was Thomas Ward's twin sister and born in 1815.

I can't help with the Ann Ward & Joseph Henry Price link, I'm afraid, but have discovered a little more about Thomas Ward since I made my last post here.

After selling his "Langridge" sheep run in the Awatere, NZ, to the Monro brothers, Tom W moved to another Marlborough sheep run closer to Blenheim called "Valleyfield". its owners, the Monro brothers, had bought a large number of cattle from Tom Ward when they took over "Langridge" but getting into financial strife, used "Valleyfield" as security for the sale, with Tom Ward as mortgagee. "Valleyfield" was likely his base when he was recorded as a stockowner in the Wairau in 1870. By 1872 Tom Ward had a coach & horse transport service operating between Blenheim & Renwick. The Royal Hotel in Blenheim was the starting point and Tom W took over as the hotel's licensee in 1877. The trail runs cold again here, but maybe Tom developed an unfortunate taste for his own wares, as a Thomas Ward was charged more than once in the Blenheim Court for being drunk and disorderly in the town. It's possible that he moved to Golden Bay, which is close to Nelson/Motueka in the top of NZ's South Island. Have found an 1882  burial for a Thomas Ward in Nelson which I'm about to follow up.


6
Thanks very much for this, ciderdrinker. For some reason much more is known about the Harris side of this family than the Hills, so very useful to get more detail about them.

7
Hi - I'm trying to trace family letters exchanged between Sarah Harris nee Hill, a daughter of the above couple, and other members of her family. William Hill Snr may possibly have had connections with Cornwall but his children are believed to have been born in Plymouth, Devon. The daughters were all educated, so presume their father William was reasonably well-off and enlightened for the times.

Known children of William Hill and his wife

1)William Hill Jnr - dates unknown but thought to be the eldest in the family

2) Elizabeth -dates unknown

2) Emma Jane Hill (1802-1866) unmarried- ran private schools for young ladies in Plymouth and Liskeard, Cornwall

3) Ann Mountjoy Hill (1804-1887). Married Francis William Paddon in Plymouth but moved to London after his death in 1860.

4) Sarah Hill (1806-1879) born Plymouth, married there in 1833 to Edwin Harris, who worked as a draughtsman at his brother-in-law James Meadows Rendel's Plymouth office (Rendel had married Edwin's sister Catherine).  Sarah & Edwin emigrated to New Plymouth, New Zealand, in 1840 on thr barque "William Bryan". They lived for a time in New Plymouth but relocated to Nelson, New Zealand, after the outbreak of hostilities with Taranaki Maori around.1860.

Sarah and Edwin both sent regular letters to their families back home in England, which give significant detail about people and events in the new colony. Some of these letters have been found in the past and copies are now held by the Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth, New Zealand. In recent times a further cache has been discovered in the possession of a Harris family descendant in England and there are faint hopes that others might have been kept by members of the Hill family in England. It's a very long shot, but as we've seen, it is possible :) Any help would be greatly appreciated by those of us in New Zealand researching the Harris-Hill family.

8
Thanks very much, Wendy. It would be the logical step and I have checked out Scotland's People, but there is cost involved for documents, so would have to think on that - I've already spent more than I should on BDM documents here in New Zealand  :) It's one of those things - I'm curious because of the family story ( I suspect there might be something in it because being disinherited would have stung) but it's not the end of the world if I can't get any further. Perhaps it could go on hold for a later date.

9
Fife / Re: Agnes McLeod b. abt.1806, Abdie, Fife, died 1883 Ferry Port on Craig, Fife.
« on: Saturday 16 December 17 23:21 GMT (UK)  »
Thanks - useful to know. That would also account for why I couldn't find Agnes & Walter White and their family before 1851.

Also true that Agnes' parents might not have made the 1841 Census even if  the Abdie records had survived.

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 ... 7