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ISSN 2253-4040
Quote: “You know you are getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there” -George Burns
Contents
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DNA Testing for Family History
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More Famous New Zealanders You have Probably Never Heard Of
Princess Laura Lubecki nee Duffus (1814-1901)
From our Libraries and
Museums
Ancestry.com Now Lets You Automatically Colorize Historical Photos
Recovered census will help unravel life in pre-Famine Ireland
10 Facts about Land Ownership in Ireland
Domestic abuse and the 'rule of thumb'
Virtual Record Treasury of
Ireland launches
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Editorial
Hello fellow hermits.
Greetings and welcome to another issue of the FamNet newsletter.
Well it’s wintertime and I am becoming more computer bound. Although I have temporarily lost the thirst for genealogy research, I can feel it coming back. The next few months could be exciting. I have found the Irish BDM websites has many more birth, death and marriage details and more parish records have appeared. The website with the virtual Irish Record Office material has just opened up. I hope to explore that website and all the records they have managed to recover from that disastrous incident in which the office was destroyed. Hopefully I will get some reports on that next month.
And next month I will enjoy my annual “fickling experience”. I have cleared my diary and am organising to collect the few outstanding coffee debts owing to me. I intend to converse a lot and try my annual performance in which I attempt to dazzle everybody with my knowledge, my advice and general good looks (even for an ancient fellow). Start planning to gather there.
Anyway, back to reality. Once again, we have an interesting newsletter. The articles are varied. The jokes are funny although they are not the main reason for reading the newsletter.
I hope this month’s issue occupies some of your time and you find something valuable.
Peter Nash
Do you want to receive this newsletter every month?
This newsletter is free. There are not many free newsletters of this length in New Zealand. I am biased but it should be an interesting read.
To subscribe is easy too. Go on - don't misspell it as I have, twice already. https://www.famnet.org.nz/
The front page is lovely, but click on [Newsletters]. A page opens showing you a list of all the past newsletters, you can click the link to read one that you’re interested in.
Like the front page, the newsletters page has a place where you can log on or register. It’s in the top right-hand corner. Put your email here and click [Continue]. If you aren’t already on our mailing list, there will be a message “Email not in database” and a button [New User] appears. Click this and follow the dialog to register. It’s free and easy. You should receive a copy every month until you unsubscribe.
Robert has assured me that he will not send begging letters to your email - apparently, he has enough money at the moment. You will not have to put in your credit card number. You will not be charged a subscription.
Tell other genealogists so they can enjoy the newsletters too.
Regards
Regular Contributors
The Nash Rambler
What
is a genealogist?
Lately I have been thinking about what is
a genealogist. I seem to have come to a halt in all genealogical research and I
have so much research results on my computer as a result of work I have done
for people and, due to “ethics”, I cannot give it to them. I have researched
for many people and none of them are identical in their research ambitions. Let
me explain.
The definition of a genealogist is a person who studies or traces the descent of persons or families. They build a family tree based on vital records which can be as accurate as they desire as demonstrated by the various degrees of accuracy seen in Ancestry.com family trees. Incidentally a family historian is altogether another beast which is defined as a person who investigates how their ancestors lived and what they achieved. They are, therefore, not the same and their requirements are totally different. I have always said that a family historian is an expert in a tiny sliver of history.
Thus, when genealogists and family historians get together their conversations can get quite confused because their aims, ambitions and “raison d’etre” (aren’t you impressed by my use of foreign language) can be totally different. Let me give examples:
The true genealogist
This researcher is only interested in their direct line back (to Adam in some cases). The problem is that they work at their own pace and cannot be rushed. Other information about their life, deeds and/or misdeeds and the other random information picked up in old newspapers, old letters, police gazettes etc are of no interest. They are driven by the drawing of their ancestral tree. I have a friend who has just started his research. I have found his grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather and all their children (multiple marriages) and all in Ireland. I can’t give that information to him because a) he hasn’t asked for it and b) he wants to find it.
The true genealogist and family historian
This researcher wants both the family tree and what they did, how they lived, where they lived etc. They work at their own pace but get side-tracked quite easily. My coffee mate is an example of this “beast”. It hasn’t helped that I destroyed years of his research by (with his help) proving the lady he had become attached to as his great grandmother couldn’t possibly be so. Now I have to sit and watch as he is thoroughly enjoying the search for the real great grandmother. I don’t want to interfere because of the guilt I feel for destroying the “love affair” he had for the lady he adopted as his great grandmother. But I do wish he would hurry up and get to the stage he wants help.
The partial genealogist.
This researcher is only interested in their New Zealand ancestry. They are not interested in their UK, Irish or European ancestry at all. Robert is an example. If you read his article last month you would have seen that, together with his daughter, he found a couple of generations of ancestors back in England. He found a coat of arms that wasn’t acquired by the ancestor he thought and his daughter has become interested in genealogy/family history. I did a little digging (without his permission) and sent him two items I found - one being the legal history of one ancestor and the other an apprenticeship document for the QC’s father. This was quite naughty because he didn’t ask for it but he got excited about what I had found. I’m doing no more even though there is quite a lot on the internet. It’s his daughter’s ambition to do the research and I’m not going to interfere.
The single item researcher
I have a lady who asked me a question in my U3A Genealogy Group about how she could find where her grandfather is buried. Well the Wilson Collection answered that and the headstone was found on the internet. She then said that he was an English soldier brought out to NZ to help form the NZ army. Well before you could say “family historian” I found his NZ army record, a few juicy newspaper accounts of his misdeeds, and his English Army records. Once again I was very naughty because she hadn’t asked for any of that and she was very pleased. I even impressed the whole Genealogy Group and had to apologise all round because I had acted unethically.
Another example was a lady in the local garden club who had an old photograph of her mother’s family (about 1912) and she wanted to know what the names were of her mother’s siblings. Well that was easy. I found them all and they fitted into the family stories she had been told. Unfortunately, her great great grandfather had an unusual set of Christian names and I found him in prison for poaching. When I told her she got very upset – another example of bad ethics.
Name collectors
Their aim is to have the largest number of people in their tree. Some even grab a person with a similar name to their target person and add them and their tree to increase the numbers “collected”.
Other researchers
These include indexers, techies who are mainly interested in the hardware and software used to store data, one namers, local area historians, etc.
Lately I have done research for others in almost every category. They are all different but I can find one similarity – that being too slow for me in their research or they ask me the wrong question. Maybe I should be an unethical genealogist and spill all the beans I have. MMMMM!!!!
From the Developer
Ethics
is a County in England
By Peter’s
classification, I am a “Partial genealogist,” with an especially heavy dose of
“Techie”. Peter’s wrong to think that
I’m not interested in pre-New Zealand ancestry, I’m interested in all our
ancestors for as far back as we can trace them. Note “Our”: I get as
excited discovering things about Mary’s ancestors as my own; in fact, the
ancestors that Peter discovered were hers, not mine. She has all the best
ancestors – in her tree there is an admiral, an explorer, several people
knighted, the ancestor
that Peter refers to was a QC and Judge, and her
father played rugby for England and was a career soldier awarded an MC and
Bar in the 1st World War. All this helps us to find out stuff
about them.
That’s her father’s side. In contrast, her mother’s family were cotton mill workers from Blackburn, Lancashire, who came to New Zealand for a better life in the early 20th century, and we know very little about them before New Zealand.
My ancestry is similarly humble: both Dad’s parents were descended from Wakefield immigrants who arrived in NZ in 1841 (father’s family) and 1843 (mother’s). Their traceable ancestry peters out in Kent and Cornwall, we know they weren’t educated well enough to read, we guess that they must have been farm labourers or similar to find the idea of emigration attractive. Like Mary’s mother, it’s difficult to find out much about them prior to their New Zealand arrival, but my parents were keen genealogists who researched their ancestry as far as possible in the days when one posted a letter to a parish clerk and waited weeks for a reply, and they recorded the family stories. For example, FamNet records stories about Dad’s grandfather from their conversations: he had arrived on the Gertrude in 1841. I’m lucky that Mum and Dad wrote down all these stories, so I have rich detail about my NZ ancestry. It’s all on FamNet.
With all of
our ancestors it is interesting to create a tree with names and dates, but the
real gold that makes the tree come alive is the detail in the records and
family histories. A family tree without pictures and stories is like a
wardrobe with empty coat hangers. I am interested to discover more family
connections, but what gets me excited is the kind of information that Peter
found for me that tells me what kind of people they were. I was really delighted;
it turned Mary’s great grandfather from just a name on a photo into a person. I
think Peter should be less concerned about the ethics of telling people what
he’s found. I agree with Diane, we should
freely share everything we can, it helps us all.
We’re all primarily interested in our direct lines, and interest wanes as we get into more and more obscure side branches. But for others these are more relevant, and because my records link to Mirk Smith’s superb records of the OLD family, I know a huge amount about my grandmother’s family, with absolutely no effort at all required from me. It’s fun to discover information about them, like the unusual way this uncle of Hannah OLD died, even though I wouldn’t have spent the time myself to research them.
Telling your story: Index
1. Writing your story as notes, or with Word.
2. Embedding pictures in Word documents.
3. Saving Documents for Web Publication.
5. Sharing your Story: Managing your Family Group
6. On Line Editing: More Facts, Family, GDB Links
7. Comparing and Synchronising Records
9. Merging Trees. Part 1: Why Bother?
10. Merging Trees. Part 2: Adding Records On-Line
11. Merging Trees. Part3. Combining Existing Trees
12. Finding Your Way Around FamNet (Getting Help)
13. FamNet – a Resource for your Grandchildren
14. FamNet’s General Resource Databases
15. Updating
General Resource Databases
16. Privacy
18. Linking trees
20. Uploading Objects to your Database
21. Bulk-uploading Objects. FamNet resource: Useful Databases
22. Publishing Living Family on Family
Web Sites
23. Have YOU written your family story yet?
24. Editing and Re-arranging your Family Tree On-line.
25. It’s the Stories that Matter
26. Using QR Codes for your Family History
27. What happens to our Family History when we’re gone?
DNA Testing for Family History
From the editor: Gail has written quite a series on DNA Testing. You will see them all on the FAMNET website and they are a must-read, particularly if you are considering or have had a test done. They are easy to read and not too technical. Click Index so far to see these articles
Transfer
your Autosomal DNA from your testing firm to GEDmatch.
If you have been reading my articles on
DNA for a while, you will know there are three types of DNA.
Autosomal DNA which you inherit from both your parents. All the main companies offer this test. (NB Autosomal DNA includes the X chromosome but not all companies test for this).
YDNA which only men inherit from their father.
Mitochondrial DNA which only mothers can pass to their children. Men receive it but cannot pass it on.
Let’s say you have your Autosomal results from one of the main testing companies.
FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA)
Gedmatch
Living DNA
MyHeritage DNA
Note that GEDmatch does not accept any results except for Autosomal DNA!
Have you considered transferring your results to GEDmatch? Such a transfer will enable you to compare your results to those from all the other companies assuming people from those other companies have also made a transfer. Note that I refer to transferring your results as opposed to transferring your sample.
To do this, you have to first download those results from the testing company to your own computer in order to be able to upload to another company. Please see my previous 3 articles for instructions for companies other than FTDNA.
Here are the steps to follow for downloading your FTDNA autosomal results file.
Log into your FTDNA account
In the ‘Family Ancestry Autosomal DNA Results & Tools’, click on ‘See More’.
Click on ‘Data Download’.
Read the information that appears on the new page.
There are 3 files from which you need to choose one. GEDmatch requires
Build 37 Concatenated
Raw Data
(GZIP, CSV)
Click on it – it will be stored in your ‘Downloads’ folder if that is where you usually store items from the Internet.
Note that you should not upload more than one set of autosomal results to GEDmatch.
If you are new to GEDmatch you will need to Register 
Complete the form that comes into view and click on Register at the bottom of the page.
You will receive an email that will contain a code. Add the code to the GEDmatch site to complete your registration but DO NOT CLOSE the page until the process is completed..
When the process finishes, you will be directed to a File Upload section.
Do NOT un-zip the raw DNA file before uploading. I recommend you use the FTDNA file you downloaded using the instructions above, but you can use one of the others if you prefer.
The following information comes from Diahan Southard who has given what I consider to be the best of the various offered instructions for uploading to GEDmatch.
Once you have uploaded your autosomal DNA file (please wait until it is completed) to GEDmatch, take note of your new GEDmatch number.
Then log back into GEDmatch and choose between the ‘Classic’ form or the ‘New’. You may also wish to watch “How to Use GEDmatch. It is well worthwhile. (Personally, I use only the ‘Classic’ as I find it suits my requirements better). You also have an option as to whether you agree to enabling Law Enforcement access. I have agreed!
Check out the DNA Applications including ‘Admixture
(heritage)’. You have the ability to select from which database your
results are compared with. Maybe European? Maybe Asian? But do give
them all a try, even if you do not understand the descriptions of the data base
you are using. If nothing else, it will show you why each testing company
gives you a different ethnicity estimate.
Did you note that? All such ethnicity results are ESTIMATES.
More Famous New Zealanders You have Probably Never Heard Of
Princess Laura Lubecki
nee Duffus (1814-1901)
Laura DUFFUS was born in Sydenham, Lewisham,
Kent in 1814, the daughter of Thomas and Susannah Gordon DUFFUS nee BERRYMAN.
Thomas was a planter in the Island of Jamaica. Thomas and Susannah had married
there in 1802.
In 1836 Laura married Konstantin Alois Drucki Xaize DE LUBECKI (also recorded as Konstantin Alois Kaize LUBECKI DE DRUCKI) at St James, Clerkenwell – the officiating minister was the Rev. John DUFFUS, her brother. On the same day, Laura’s sister Charlotte Price DUFFUS married Lucien Stanislaus Comte DE BROEL PLATER.
Alois LUBECKI was born in Warsaw and was descended from Lithuanian and Polish nobility. He took part in the Polish-Russian war of 1830-31 as an officer in the Polish National Army. Lucien PLATER was born in Pomusz, Vilno, Poland and was also of Polish nobility. His great uncle was Tadeusz KOSCIUSZKO, a Lithuanian-Polish national hero who fought in the Russian war as well as for the US in the American Revolutionary War. Mount Kosciuszko, the tallest mountain in Australia, is named for him.
In 1838, Laura and Alois, and Rev. John and his wife Maria Henrietta DUFFUS nee PAUL sailed for New South Wales on board the Eden arriving at Port Jackson, Sydney on the 17 October 1838. They were soon followed by Charlotte and Lucien, and another sister Susanna who married William GRIFFITH in Sydney. The extended family settled at Parramatta. Alois is noted as the first known Polish settler in New South Wales.
Here Laura and Susanna opened a school for young ladies, and Alois who had been unable to find work helped with administration. Around 1858 the family moved to Heidelberg near Melbourne, and Alois worked as a confectioner while Laura taught. In 1862 Alois joined the telegraph office of the Victorian Civil Service. He resigned this in 1864 and moved to Dunedin following his wife and family. Alois, noted as Prince de Lubecki died on the 07 October 1864, and is buried in the Dunedin Southern Cemetery.
OTAGO DAILY TIMES, ISSUE 481, 6 JULY 1863, PAGE 3
Laura and her daughter Susan ran a ladies’ school in George Street, before moving to Nelson in 1894. Here she died on the 23 January 1901. Newspapers recorded her as “Princess Lubecki, known in in the colonies as Madame Lubecki…widow of the late Prince Alois Konstantin Lubecki”. [1] She is buried at the Wakapuaka Cemetery, Nelson.
1. COLONIST, VOLUME XLIV, ISSUE 10014, 24 JANUARY 1901, PAGE 2
Diane Wilson
Wilson
Collection
It has been a very interesting month with the new marriage data going live on the Wilson Collection and the immediate spike in the visits as more folk become aware of its existence and value. And it has been great to have folk acknowledge their appreciation of all the work done over the years.
One of the very heart-warming things is the generosity of fellow genealogists (or should we be called family historians?). I am almost overwhelmed with some of offers to help. One non-New Zealand resident has already purchased some certificates to assist us with a difficult entry and is prepared to purchase more to solve any problems we strike. What a wonderful gesture!
Many of you have sent copies of marriage certificates. While I do appreciate this, the information will be even more appreciated over the years. I only use the names and place of marriage, so any other data is safe. A big plea to help with these records if you have even one entry that is not currently in the collection. Each scan adds to the whole for later researchers.
I must mention the Christansen Index. Tony has worked tirelessly for many years to document the very early settlers Into New Zealand, spending a lot of time in various museums and libraries all over New Zealand. He has generously shared his index with the Wilson Collection. I am amazed at how much detail he has on families in the 1840’s in New Zealand. I do wish the NZSG had taken up his offer of the collection, but I guess we all have different priorities.
I well remember the very early days in genealogy where we were excited to share our discoveries free of charge and we would be happy to assist anyone to complete their family tree, even if it did mean looking at rolls and rolls of microfilm or those beastly fiche readers. I had to use the fiche reader this week for some files, and it only reinforced my dislike of that task. I do remember a very delightful little girl whose mother was a passionate researcher and she, at age about 8, was more proficient with fiche searchers than most.
I was glad to see Christine Clement was able to incorporate the Māori names printed last month in FamNet into her much bigger list of names. Sharing and helping one another is so important when researching family history.
With this experience in mind my thought for this month of Matariki is to focus on a new beginning of sharing and generosity. May the stars be kind to us and may you all manage to break down the brick walls.
Guest Contributors
Ken Morris
Is 2022 our 1984?
With Thanks to George Orwell
I first read this classic in 1958 and again in 1984 and with the current and increasing political and bureaucratic controls I decided it was time for a re-read
This is not a review of the book, it’s possibly one of the most reviewed and dissected books, and in some cases has been banned as well.
Published in 1949, in simple terms it sets out how Winston Smith (6079 Smith W) a diligent worker (changing records in the ‘Ministry of Truth’) forms a relationship with another worker, Julia and enjoys some of the past pleasures and memories of the time before the totalitarian powers came into play. Winston’s and Julia’s transgressions are uncovered by the Thought Police and the subterfuge of O’Brien (Winston’s superior) and thru interrogation, torture, and re-education they accept the love of ‘Big Brother’. There are a number of supporting characters in Winston’s life to round out his place in the society of Airstrip One (formerly Great Britain) a part of Oceania’, one of the three superstates that rule the world and are in a constant state of war.
There are many versions of this map. Surprising the layout of 1984
groupings as those set out by Orwell in 1949 mimic to a large degree those of
2022,
1984 has been adapted and features in radio, TV, film, and stage shows. Wiki says 1984 has been translated into 65 languages, more than any other novel. In the 1984 film version Smith is played by John Hurt, Julia by Suzanna Hamilton & O’Brien by Richard Burton, ‘1984’ was his last film performance and he died later in 1984.
So where are we (residents of Australia & New Zealand) now in 2022 in relation to Winston Smith’s life in 1984? In a much better situation but the Covid Pandemic of the last two years has brought in many restrictions, and for want of a description ‘Big Brother’ does know a lot more of our comings and goings than before.
I’m writing this from the perspective of living in Brisbane, Queensland, it being a state in the Federation of Australia. This is a major difference to those living in New Zealand, here the States and Territories have many powers and rights that the Federal/Commonwealth government has little control over. A revised state/federal government forum gave the State Premiers a great platform to lambast the Prime Minister and relevant federal ministers for their shortcoming and to screw more money from the federal budget, the PM and his ministers did give some serves back!
Regardless of political hue the State Premiers & their ministers lorded it over their citizens and either used or ignored their Chief Health Officers and bureaucrats to suit the occasion and there was little or no coordination of crossing state borders as the Premiers tried to outdo each other in being in control. At the Queensland border with NSW which runs up the centre of streets in the Gold Coast/Tweed Heads area, residents were unable to cross over for work, students for school and businesses unable to make deliveries because a common-sense temporary border arrangement could not be agreed on.
Citizens were subjected to daily press conferences, dubious statistics from local, national, and worldwide sources and all the medical and university experts telling as what we should all be doing, a lot of us just switched off.
We were not subjected to real lockdowns like some other cities and states and the checking in with QR codes to allow contact tracing was disjointed, so perhaps was a kick in the shins for what might have been an over-the-top Big Brother approach, rather than a more common sense one.
It was over two years into the pandemic before I knew a person who had died – a former colleague died of Covid but with other complications – and it’s only been in 2022 that people I know and some relatives have caught the virus, with varying degrees of severity. As for queuing on foot or in cars to get a test to see if you have the symptoms: by & large a wasted effort, but people were brained washed to do it. Getting the jabs was a no brainer and now countries have adopted a more balanced approach to entry I’m going to test it out with a trip home to NZ in July.
In the statistics stakes Australia and NZ have done well, both being well placed in the Low Cases, Low deaths matrix, but remembering the global statistic sources could be dubious, or is that me being an old cynic?
It’s not only governments that want to know more about our coming and goings. Just recently several big retailers have been caught out with face recognition software on their store CCTV systems. It’s not illegal as long as they advise shoppers by posting notices at entry to the store, the trouble was that these notices were small and not obvious. At least one has said they have stopped the face recognition, so I guess we have to trust them.
In relation to Winston’s job of ‘rectifying’ historical records so that they appear to always be stating the truth i.e., the current pronouncements of Big Brother and the Party, we have a modern-day equivalent – The Chinese Communist Party.
In a new book by John Fitzgerald “Cadre Country – How China became the Chinese Communist Party”, China has gained another title, that of ‘People’s Republic of Amnesia’ thru their closing the archives to historians, to the outlawing of publications on all but the most mundane topics and thirdly to legislate against voices critical to the party.
It’s also closer to home where governments are reluctant for citizens to know too much by having all sorts of reasons why the request for information cannot be complied with. This week the Queensland Government have agreed to an inquiry recommendation to release Cabinet papers within 30 days and not 30 years. We will see.
So ‘1984’ is alive & well and we need to keep pushing back. Not cynical, just been around a long time
Robina Trenbath
Think – Genealogy is a Jigsaw
With this mindset, visualise the framework (those straight-edged pieces) as names and dates. The infill bits which build up the bigger picture come from our initiatives to spend time exploring diverse ways (source documents) to deliver outcomes which (through trial and error) fit correctly to form the whole.
Sometimes help is at hand and it will often appear from the most unlikely quarter. So, here is another story about someone, working on the fringes of genealogy, who stepped out of the shadows to assist in facilitating completion of our family history puzzle.
The backstory: no-one in our family (including mother) knew anything about our maternal ancestors. Indeed, mother was a young woman before she discovered that the man she had assumed was her father, was not. The best anyone knew was that nana had five children to her husband, divorced him in 1923 and moved on. Any reference to him was “C” and that he was a remittance man – well, that was a start.
The history: Getting in the usual BDM docs. I now had some key “players”. “C” stood for the surname, CRAMPTON. Grandfather had arrived in Auckland on Union Steam Ship Company, S.S. Mokoia on 10 February 1905, having worked his passage from England via Sydney, as a 1st Class Steward.
On to England Census’: Great Grandfather, William CRAMPTON (born 1842), at the age of 17, enlisted for 10 years continuous service in the Royal Navy (Ref. The National Archives: ADM 139/423 No. 2245A/ Artificiers & Engineers.) He served on HMS Clio (1861 Guayamas Harbour, Mexico). He then joined the Merchant Navy (Ref. CLIP/ Crew List Index Project Database.)
N.B. His older brother, Edward, also R.N. served on HMS Icarus (1858-1875.)
William, a widower in 1871, married Harriet STREET in 1874. They had five children – 2 girls died in infancy and three boys survived. He came ashore to become a publican and they eked out a poverty-stricken existence. William appeared in the 1881 Census (Chief Steward) and on 3 January 1882 he signed the death certificate for his daughter. But without any evidence of a U.K. Death Registration/ including deaths at sea, from the 1891 Census and until her death in 1928, Harriet stated that she was a widow. From 1882 to 1891 Harriet’s movements are easily tracked through school admission registers, her mother’s death and eventually workhouse registers.
N.B. in 1888 Harriet was a charlady living uncomfortably close to the haunts of Jack the Ripper. March 28, 1888: Ada Wilson/Tradigan, attacked at 19 Maidman Street, Mile End: “…around midnight I opened my door to a man who demanded money and threatened me with a knife. I refused and he stabbed me twice in the throat.” (Ref. jtrforums.com) Harriet CRAMPTON was living at number 27 Maidman Street.
1890: Harriet’s eldest lad, William John CRAMPTON, aged 12, was taken on by The Metropolitan Asylums Board: Mile End District Union as a trainee sailor on the Training Ship Exmouth. (Ref. Census 1891.)
1891 Census: Harriet’s two younger lads were residential pupils of Mile End Old Town School, Poor Law Institution, on Bancroft Road, London.
And then ‘things’ begin to fall apart. Missing pieces, incoming data seemed incorrect, nothing fell into place – what an absolute mess!!!
2008 - The puzzle and the puzzle solver: A kind gent named ‘Patrick’ was Secretary & Archivist of the T.S. Exmouth Asscn. What had caught his attention, apart from my interest in the vessel, as the fact that his very own Watchbill number (310) – was the same Division (301-350) as William CRAMPTON, No. 333. So, began the emails:
“Hi Robina: I managed to make the trip to London today and was able to see William’s Record Sheet. His Ship’s Book Number, which is his definitive ID reference is 4172. The first boy on the Exmouth in 1876 was No. 1, so there were 4171 boys before William. He joined ‘Exmouth’ on 26/2/1890 and was discharged to a very small vessel (500 tons) the ‘Annie McDonald’ loading for Fremantle (1892). There are 4 letters attached to the Record Sheet but unfortunately they had a system on the ‘Exmouth’ whereby these were pasted (edge) on to the facing page, which means that they can’t always be read in their entirety. The writing is very faded and scrawly and difficult to read, so I decided to leave them until I can go again and take my voice recorder and large page magnifier – that will take a couple of hours or so. I hope to be able to go next week. I will also take my camera as they now allow digital photography. Another complication is that when letters were received on the ship, the replies were often written on the reverse and sent back. Kind regards, Patrick.”
“Hello Robina: I was able to get good images. I will make a CD to send to you backed up with typed copies. Names: Captain E.D. CRAMPTON is William’s paternal uncle and the chief steward who is to ‘look after him’ is also a relative. The Master of the vessel ‘Annie McDonald’ (BOLT) is his maternal uncle. I’ll try to get the disc in the post tomorrow on my way to Kent. Addresses are interesting as are William’s highly commendable proficiency reports – an excellent all-round musician, too boot. Regards Patrick”
Completing the puzzle: From Harriet CRAMPTON’s letters asking the M.A.B. to consider (1) her son William’s desire to leave Exmouth and join the Army and then (2) to be permitted to train as a steward on board the Annie McDonald filled many gaps.
1.His father was alive and well. He was the Chief Steward on the Annie McDonald.
2.His paternal uncle Captain Ed. CRAMPTON wrote a favourable letter to the M.A.B. and this facilitated William’s move from a R.N. training ship to a merchant marine vessel.
3.His maternal uncle Master of the Annie McDonald was Captain Edward BOLT (married to his mother’s younger sister, Hannah STREET)
N.B. William CRAMPTON Snr. died in 1900. William CRAMPTON Jnr. Became Chief Steward and Musical Director on P.O. Luxury Liners. William’s two younger brothers (including our maternal) grandfather both served in H.M.R.N. Our grandfather was never a ‘remittance man.’
Remittance man: An unwanted or underachieving man, occasionally a youngest son, sent by relatives to a distant land and regularly sent remittances of upkeep money in order that he does not come back. (Ref. Wiktionary.) Good grief – Crampton’s were poor!
N.B. T.S. Exmouth and the Charlie & Sydney CHAPLIN connection: Like the 3 Crampton boys they were in London Poor Law Schools during the same period. Photo: 1917 - Charlie & Sydney CHAPLIN on the set of The Immigrants.
Patrick: “Charlie’s half-brother Sydney Chaplin was on ‘Exmouth’ for 2 years and left to begin work as a steward on various ships. When-ever he came to England in later years he would go to Grays and at one time presented a cinema projector to the ship, plus films. Sydney was Charlie’s mentor and was primarily responsible for Charlie Chaplin’s rise to fame and fortune.”
This is a very brief synopsis of what became 3 volumes of our Crampton Family History. I began knowing nothing and now I am the story-teller of many mariner ancestors.
George Warcup
John Pickering
I was told that one of my ancestors was a convict whose name was John PICKERING. I found that he was born in 1810 and lived in the East End of London and was the son of Matthew and Agnes PICKERING and was baptised in the Soin Chapel Old Street Whitechapel London.
A search of the Old Bailey website revealed that John had a criminal conviction. On the 28th of October 1830 twenty year old apprenticed carpenter, John PICKERING stood in the dock of London’s Old Baily. He was indicted for stealing three saws and two planes altogether to the value of thirteen shillings. He was found guilty and sentenced to a whipping and six months imprisonment, probably in London’s Newgate prison which adjoined the Old Baily Courthouse. The whipping was probably administered with a birch rod which was a bundle of twigs bound together at one end to form a handle. Birches came in three sizes the adult size for offenders over sixteen was forty eight inches long and weighed twelve ounces. To make sure that the whole process was satisfactory for all concerned, except for the recipient, the officers who administered the punishment left the following advice for those who came after them
“Use of Birch: Hit as hard as possible and as the birch lands always pull the birch so the ends will cut the flesh a lot better.”
Just under two years after his first offence John was in the dock once again, this time accused of stealing another plane to the value of two shillings, to which he pleaded guilty and so on the 12th of April 1832 he was sentenced to seven years transportation.
Tasmanian records tell us that on the 7th of April 1833 John, by then convict number 56263, arrived in Hobart Tasmania along with another 212 convicts on the convict ship Surrey.
Eleven years later in 1844 John PICKERING, aged thirty four, married seventeen year old Ann WATCHORN.
Ann WATCHORN was aged eight when she arrived in Hobart, with her family, on the 24th of January 1837. Ann’s father, Thomas WATCHORN, was a widower, aged fifty, when he brought his eight children to Tasmania on the ship William Metcalfe. Thomas, a bounty immigrant, was an agricultural labourer. Bounty Immigrants were free men and were given free passage to Tasmania, the ship’s captain being paid a bounty for the number of passengers that he delivered in good order and condition. The Watchorn’s are believed to have come from Holme Pierrepont in Nottinghamshire.
There is a Watchorn Street in Hobart, named after a mayor, John WATCHORN, probably one of Ann’s brothers.
John and Ann were to have five children they were:
Matthew Edward who was born in Tasmania in 1848
their next child was Emily, my great-grandmother, who was to marry William HAZLEWOOD, was born in Wellington in 1852.
she was followed by Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Tom, all born afterwards in Wellington.
This tells us that during the four year gap 1848/52 our Pickering family immigrated to New Zealand from Tasmania. The Pickering’s settled in Wellington where, in 1871, Emily aged 20 married William HAZELWOOD, aged 26, in Wellington. William and Emily raised ten children including my grandfather, George HAZELWOOD, all born in Wellington.
Great-great-grandfather John PICKERING lived out his life in Wellington and, in later years, appeared to suffer from alcoholism having been arrested for numerous related offences. He died in 1881. His wife Ann outlived him, and died in Wellington in 1898. For all his faults, great-grandfather John appears to have been a fine tradesman. We have in our home an antique table, a family heirloom. The table’s two turned legs, supported by carved feet, are beech and are clearly very old. The tabletop is kauri, elegantly shaped and fitted. I can remember this table in a room in my grandparent’s home in Miramar and later it held pride of place in my parent’s home in Lower Hutt. Our table’s history, according to my mother, was that it was damaged when being ferried across the Greymouth bar after being unloaded from a ship called the Wild Duck.
To date I have been unable to verify this story and have been unable to find any other of my mother’s family that arrived on the West Coast in the 1850s
My conclusion is that our table was originally owned by the WATCHORN family in Tasmania.
An Invitation to Contribute:
I have a number of people that contribute occasional articles. These appear irregularly if and when the authors send them to me. I use them to bulk up each month's newsletter. The more we have the more "rests "I can give my much-appreciated regular columnists.
This is a way that a person can get some of their writing published. Of course, we are all writing up our research results, aren't we? I have always said that every genealogist is an expert in some small piece of history, resources or research methods.
We circulate this newsletter to about 7,000 subscribers worldwide but is read by many more as it is passed on to other readers and LDS research centres. Every month I get feedback on my poor attempts at writing and I have now made many "new friends", albeit digital ones, I have even had some very helpful assistance in my research.
Why don't you contribute an article?
My basic requirements:
1) The column must be in English
2) The column should be no longer than about 1,200 words
3) The article should be emailed to me in a Word document format
4) The subject should be genealogical or historical in nature
Do not be afraid about your "perceived" bad English. The article will be edited, in a friendly manner, by me and then Robert. Then all columnists and a few valuable proof-readers get to read the newsletter before it is emailed out. You’ll be paid $0 for your article, which is on the same scale that Robert and I pay ourselves for editing and publishing the newsletter.
From our Libraries and
Museums
We are offering a forum to our libraries and museums to publicise their events, and to contribute articles to this newsletter that may be of interest to our readers. Auckland Libraries makes good use of this free service, let’s see if other libraries and museums take up this offer.
For readers of this newsletter: please bring this to the attention of your local libraries etc, and encourage them to participate.
Auckland Libraries
February — June 2022
Are you interested in family, local and social history, the stories of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific, and beyond?
Then why not come along to one of our fortnightly HeritageTalks | Waha pū-taonga and hear more about both our personal and our shared heritage?
These talks are given by experts in their field and can provide valuable insight into our histories and our cultures.
When: Wednesdays, February to November, 12noon - 1pm
Where: Auckland
Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Gallery,
Cnr of Kitchener & Wellesley Streets . Also online via
Zoom
Cost: Free
Bookings: https://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Pages/family-and-local-history-events.aspx
For queries contact Research Central ph 09 890 2412.
Nga mihi | Kind regards
SEONAID
Seonaid (Shona) Lewis RLIANZA | Family History Librarian
Central Auckland Research Centre, Central City Library
Heritage and Research
Auckland Libraries - Nga Whare Matauranga o Tamaki Makarau
Ph 09 890 2411| Extn (46) 2411 | Fax 09 307 7741
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News
and Views
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From the Editor: Because of space restrictions and copyright issues I cannot put the complete articles in this newsletter so here are some URLs that are worth looking at:
How to trace LGBT ancestors
Ancestry.com Now Lets You Automatically Colorize Historical Photos
Recovered census will help unravel life in pre-Famine Ireland
10 Facts about Land Ownership in Ireland
Domestic abuse and the 'rule of thumb'
Virtual Record Treasury of
Ireland launches
In conclusion
Book Reviews
Help wanted
Letters to the Editor
Books for Sale
I’ve actually published two family history books with a third well on the way. They are all on Blurb. Previews are available via the link or via the Bookstore. I must say however that the families have not distributed very widely :-( - only 5 or so direct Wade descendants in NZ. Some in Australia too. I’m the only Cochrane from this family in NZ.
Wentworth Wade OF Dublin: A family history,
The story of the early Wentworth
Wade family of Dublin and the dispersal of later generations to England,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand. With a chapter on the very early
Wades.
(The story begins in Dublin about 1760. Frederick Wentworth Wade 1838-1912 was a solicitor and barrister in Invercargill in the 1860s-1890s and his brother Robert Wentworth Wade 1846-1903 was the Mayor of Hokitika in 1892-4)
Published November 9, 2021
Hard cover. 104 pages.
AUD $70.93
Available at https://au.blurb.com/b/10916345-wentworth-wade-of-dublin or from the Blurb bookstore.
A preview is available.
COCHRANE & LYLE; Scotland to Tasmania
The story of Australian families descended from Thomas Cochrane
1729-1804 and Ann Kerr 1733-1789 of Paisley, Scotland. Including their grandson
Dr. Thomas Lyle, author of ‘Kelvin Grove’ and his brother John who served at
Waterloo. Descendants include the Johnston, Huxtable, Wymer,
Baker and Curtis families. Profusely illustrated.
Published April 2022.
Hard cover. 108 pages.
AUD $ 73.49
https://au.blurb.com/b/11115249-cochrane-and-lyle or from the Blurb bookstore.
A preview is available.
NZEF in New Caledonia
Hi Peter,
Could you let me know if you have any material I could read regarding the NZ Expeditionary Force that were stationed in New Caledonia in WW11. My dad was there and I have 10 volumes regarding them, but would love to know if there any human stories or photos available anywhere I could tap into.
Thanking you in advance.
HMS Dunedin.
Sometime in the early 1930’s I was a guest on board HMS Dunedin when it visited Dunedin. Two of the crew, one an officer possibly, visited our church, Kaikorai Gospel Hall, Taieri Rd. My parents befriended them, keeping in touch and when in port these two always visited our home. Sadly I no longer can remember their names though possibly one was Jack. (not Trenbath)
On this particular occasion, I as a small girl, was invited to a party the crew put on, for I think Crippled Children but they also kindly included me. We were taken all over the ship and fed right royally. What an afternoon and party for small people!! From then on ‘sailors’ were my heroes---and still are rather! though times have changed immensely.
Happy memories
Joy
Advertising with FamNet
Every now and then we get requests to put an advertisement in the newsletter. I have therefore created a new section which will appear from time to time. Advertisements will be included only at the Editor's discretion and will be of a genealogical nature. Fees are very minimal, and the editor will continue to exercise discretion for free events and services.
A Bit of Light Relief
HOW POLITICS WORKS
I TOLD MY SON, "YOU WILL MARRY THE GIRL I CHOOSE."
HE SAID, "NO."
I TOLD HIM, "SHE IS BILL GATES' DAUGHTER."
HE SAID, "YES."
I CALLED BILL GATES AND SAID, "I WANT YOUR DAUGHTER TO MARRY MY SON."
BILL GATES SAID, "NO."
I TOLD BILL GATES, "MY SON IS THE CEO OF THE WORLD BANK."
BILL GATES SAID, "OK."
I CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK AND ASKED HIM TO MAKE MY SON THE CEO.
HE SAID, "NO."
I TOLD HIM, "MY SON IS BILL GATES' SON-IN-LAW."
HE SAID, "OK."
THAT'S EXACTLY HOW POLITICS WORKS.
And thus began the practice of hiring dumb asses to work in influential
positions of government.
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