NZ Families

Welcome to my new blog about NZ family history. I am currently researching the following NZ families:
  • Cupples (Southland, NZ and Antrim, Ireland),
  • Dudley (West Coast, South Island and Tasmania Australia),
  • Gage (West Coast, South Island),
  • Hemera (Southland, West Coast, South Island),
  • Hinchey (West Coast, South Island and Tipperary, Ireland),
  • Mitchell (Southland, NZ),
  • Watson (Wellington, NZ, Sydney, Australia and Lancashire, England),
  • Wickes (West Coast, South Island and London)
  • Wilson (Southland, NZ)

This blog will follow my endeavours to trace these histories, and hopefully show you a few tips and tricks for finding your long lost family members.

Quaywee.


Popular posts from this blog

Emily May Gilbert/Hemera (Dudley) 1921-1885 - my paternal grandmother

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Emily May Dudley, my paternal grandmother was always known as Gran Gilbert to me. Jeremiah Francis Gilbert (Jerry) was her second husband, but it was her first husband, James Alexander Hemera, who was my grandfather.   Emily, or “Em” as most people called her was born 25 May 1900 in the small town of Dobson on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand. She was the eldest of 10 children to Thomas Dudley and Mary Ann Johnston. She attended the Mercy Convent at Cobden in 1911, its first year of opening, but the following year as work had dried up the family moved to Ahaura north of Greymouth. She left school at the age of 15 with her destination being Slatey Creek, where the family lived.   In 1916 her father made an application to the Education Board for a Grade 0 school in the Big River, Moonlight area as he had six children. It was granted and Emily was temporarily appointed to the position of sole teacher, a job she had probably already been fulfilling unpaid. Scene...
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Edmund Arthur Laurie Wickes - my maternal grandfather

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I only knew one of my grandfathers, my maternal grandfather, Edmund Arthur Laurie Wickes. My paternal grandfather, James Alexander Hemera has been my brick wall for over 30 years and the source of my DNA dilemma. He’s another story. Edmund Arthur Laurie Wickes or Grandad Grandad was the first dead person I ever saw. I remember his death on 23 September 1970 well. He had suffered for many years with breathing difficulties as a result of being gassed in the First World War. In later years he hardly ever left the house as he was almost permanently attached to an oxygen bottle beside his bed. I never heard him complain even though he often gasped for breath. He was set up in his bedroom with a large radio, or wireless as it was called then, that he could twiddle the dials to hear, even if through crackle, every radio station in New Zealand. His passion was horse racing. He had a regular flutter, with my mother the go between him and the TAB. As children we all had to be quiet if Granda...
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