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Research in Other Countries => New Zealand => New Zealand Completed Requests => Topic started by: Dale on Friday 15 April 11 16:12 BST (UK)
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Hi
I have the following family of early settlers who settled around Irwell, Leeston, Doyleston area of Canterbury mid 1860s.
Thomas McClune (McCune) MILLAR married Sarah BOYLE Oct 1865 in Chch.
As far as I know they had 4 sons viz
1. Samuel George born c.1867 (can't find registration). Married Margaret Jane Hamilton 1896. Had 5 Children.
2. Thomas John born May 1880. Married Isabella Ayres Amor. Any children?
3. Hugh Alexander born Aug 1882. Married Sara Allen in 1907. 2 known children.
4. William Henry Aug 1885. Married Annie Elizabeth Allen had 4 children.
I am seeking the marriages of
Allen Thomas Millar born Feb 1915
Ronald William Millar born 1921 to Rona Catherine Unknown
Eileen Maud Millar born 1919
If anyone recognises the names above probably from around the Canterbury area I would be very grateful for a PM giving any leads to descendants etc
Thank you
Dale.
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I am seeking the marriages of
Allen Thomas Millar born Feb 1915
Ronald William Millar born 1921 to Rona Catherine Unknown
Eileen Maud Millar born 1919
PM sent.
Regards
Beg
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Help appreciated - many thanks!
Dale
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Hello Dale
I am trying to extend my Allen family. I recognise several people in your post. Sarah/Sara Allen was my grandmother’s sister. Amor appears as the other half of a double wedding in another line of the same extended family, and without checking I believe that Annie Elizabeth Allen is probably a cousin. We are just not quite sure how close. Annie Elizabeth’s father William John Allen came to New Zealand with two sisters - Elizabeth and Mary Isabella. Mary Isabella married here and returned to Irelan. You can see her marriage on Ros Davies site about County Down names.
It is some years since I have used this wonderful site that I am not quite sure what to do. Hope this gets to you as a starting point.
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Mary Isabella married here and returned to Irelan. You can see her marriage on Ros Davies site about County Down names.
https://www.rosdavies.com/SURNAMES/A/Allen.htm
Miss Mary Isabella Allen born Co. Down; married William McBride from co. Down 20 Apr 1887 in Ashley, New Zealand
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Dale was last online on Monday 12 September 2016.
If their email is still working, they might get a notification of your interest; but that was 7 years ago.
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Thank you for giving the Ros Davies link.
I noticed that the message was quite old, but so am I, and I take ages to find things😊
I have found everything Dale required except the marriage of Ronald William Millar and Rona. It is probably not yet available online. I will check elsewhere because these people are good about records - except that the spelling varies from Millar to Miller.
All of the people mentioned fit into my family, and I am excited because I had never linked them properly, because I have so many of both spellings.
Thank you to you and Dale.
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Hello Moffitt77
The following comes from a variety of resources linked to New Zealand records.
Ronald William MILLAR married (NZ) to Rona Catherine EAVES -- marriage recorded in Year 1950* :
[* I have no further information on marriage date or place.
Rona Catherine EAVES, was recorded on two electoral rolls (Canterbury province) in 1949 although her name (... EAVES - status, spinster) had been removed from the Selwyn roll after 7 /11/1949. She appeared also in 1949 on St Albans > Canterbury main roll as Rona Catherine MILLAR, married, along with husband, Ronald William MILLAR. Can't explain why she was shown with married name in 1949 when marriage apparently took place in 1950 ? ]
Rona Catherine EAVES had previously been engaged to marry >
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OPNEWS19431221.2.8
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19431127.2.12
The birth of Rona Catherine EAVES was registered in N Z in 1918 - daughter of Nicholina aand Charles EAVES.
~ Lu
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Burials at Ruru Cemetery, Christchurch, Canterbury >
https://heritage.christchurchcitylibraries.com/Cemeteries/interment.asp?id=136250
Ronald William MILLAR (d. 2005) // Rona C. MILLAR (d. 2004)
[Photograph of plaque can be found at the Findagrave website. ]
~ Lu
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Cenotaph record for Ronald:
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/153347
Minniehaha.
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Possibly the missing birth registration mentioned by the original poster:
1866/9199 Miller Samuel mother: Sarah father: Thomas
Minniehaha.
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Rona was recorded as Rona Catharine Eaves on her birth record. Variations like this sometimes make our records hard to find. Her father, Charles Eaves, died in 1938, and Nicholina Eaves married Arthur William Cooper in 1944.
Yes, I agree that Samuel had to be born in 1866. Our families often ignored middle names, or a second name was added later, because there could be too many with the same ancestor’s name. In NZ it was often a thing to mock ‘middle’ names especially if they were at all pretentious.
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Lucy 2. Thank you for the interesting clippings. I followed them online, and discovered that Rona’s fiancé had just moved into the same army group as my uncle. A J Smith was a driver/mechanic in that same group. After looking at his photographs which are now in my keeping, I can see that it was one of the most dangerous places to be, because those tanks had to be delivered from one front to the next in the height of the battles. There are hundreds of photographs, and each time I look, I will now wonder if Major Robert Gordon Parkinson is present in any. Some show Casino, and other known battle areas, but many show the men in ordinary activities.
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Everything helps, so I will go back over Dale’s very first questions. It may help someone like it helped me. I will not repeat details that are already present.
Thomas Millar had an interesting middle name, and it is difficult to decide on the spelling. It is a name which appears on several very early ships to Canterbury. Dale has both McClune and McCune. The printout of his wedding to Sarah Doyle has McClure, but you could argue for McClune. This copy also has Miller instead of Millar.
1. Samuel George appears to have been born to them in 1866. Have not researched further yet
2. The big surprise to me - I have two wonderful, if very wrinkled, newsprint photographs of the double wedding of two Amor sisters, daughters of Elizabeth and Richard Amor. Isabella Amor, b1876, and Alison Amor, b1877, married in 1906 in the Leeston Town Hall. Isabella married John Thomas Millar. (As I write, I remember a family habit and that was to give the father’s name to the child but to use a second name in everyday life.) I have not yet found children for this family. Alison Amor married George Nairn, who was my grandfather’s brother. Their 5 children are recorded in NZ BDM. I will search family records for those of Isabella. I am trying to get newspaper originals of the photographs. It is wonderful also because it has in it the first demonstration Ford car in Christchurch. There it is in pride of place, right in front of the wedding photo, and my grandfather, William James Nairn, its owner, probably transported the happy couples!
3. Another surprise, in that it gave me ANOTHER link between the families - Hugh Alexander Millar married Sara/Sarah Allen, born 1878, and Sarah was my grandmother’s sister - Ellen Allen, who married William James Nairn above, in 1908. Their parents were Alexander Allen and Elizabeth Flynn Allen. Sarah and Hugh, sadly, lost many babies, but two did survive - Kura, married name Cullen, and Arnold James.
4. The next SURPRISE rocked me. I had not previously connected the Millar names because the brides were of different generations. Annie Elizabeth Allen was daughter of William John Allen who married Mary Amelia McKee. This Allen family does have a cousin connection to ours, but the exact nature of the cousinship is uncertain. There is a wonderfully long newspaper report of Annie’s wedding, but I cannot lay my hands on it right now. William John Allen and his two sisters all married in the 1880s. I mentioned earlier that one sister, Mary Isabella married in New Zealand but went back to Ireland. The other sister Elizabeth Allen married Hugh Johnston 8 December 1883, Christchurch, Presbyterian. I cannot find this in BDM, but is in newspapers. These 3 Allen siblings were the children of a Samuel Allen, but the Allens were notorious for the very few given names they used.
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Rona was recorded as Rona Catharine Eaves on her birth record. Variations like this sometimes make our records hard to find.
Well, yes, the online listing at NZ BDM does show "Catharine" as the spelling.
But do bear in mind also that the listings you see at that site are transcriptions of the original records - which may have been difficult to read if they were damaged in some way; were faded; were written in a "hand" (- think scrawl) that was difficult to decipher ... etc. etc.
Consider too that the lower-case handwritten (- or even typed) letter "e" can be - and is often - mistaken for the (lower-case) letter " a " :
The NZ BDM online listing of the spelling though, is no guarantee that that was actually the intended spelling of the name.
For comparison > >
at the "New Zealand Birth Index" (via ancestry.com site) the birth was recorded as > >
EAVES - Rona Catherine - 1918 - Birth Quarter : Oct-Nov-Dec : Registerd at Malvern, Canterbury.
And if we want to be especiially particular about say, a "correct" spelling of a name, then there are usually other records (- and indexes) we can refer to, to determine which spelling was commonly used. [Electoral rolls - where a person has supplied their (own) details - are mostly a reliable source. ]
~ Lu
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The other sister Elizabeth Allen married Hugh Johnston 8 December 1883, Christchurch, Presbyterian. I cannot find this in BDM, but is in newspapers. These 3 Allen siblings were the children of a Samuel Allen, but the Allens were notorious for the very few given names they used.
It's there ... at NZ BDM online >
1883 / 3108
ALLUN (spelling) - Elizabeth -- JOHNSTON - Hugh
~ Lu
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Thank you. Your note reminds me that I did find that version. I have too many forms of records, reams of paper files, four non-compatible computer software types, formerly not able to be transferred, and of course ‘bulging’ current computer files - if I can call them that.
You are so right about handwriting. My own name, which I thought would be uncommon, has about thirty variations, with only the initial M common to them all. I dare say there could be some versions without the M, but I don’t want to think about that.
I recognise a knowledge of handwriting in what you have written. Do you think that it is possible to identify a person’s age from a handwriting style. I have an important letter written by either an aunt or a cousin. They both signed off with the same shortened version of their common name, so I don’t know which of them wrote one of the most important messages in all of my research. I believe that I can identify the difference between the writing of someone who was born 1867, and another who was born in 1995. Can you direct me to someone more knowledgeable about such things, so that air can confirm my findings. I do have one chart, but fear it is limited.
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Lu
Sorry about the typos, especially in a post about writing etc. These 83 year old fingers seem to miss the keys quite often, and the old eyes miss things in the proofreading. M77
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Hello M77
No need to apologise ... you are doing just fine !!! :)
I don't have any expertise at all regarding "handwriting" ;D ... but there will be someone in the wider RootsChat forum, who can assist you.
Bear with me and I'll find the link for you and add it here.
~ Lu
* * A D D E D * *
Link for posting a query to the "deciphering handwriting" board >
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/handwriting-deciphering-recognition/?action=post
And if you click on this next link, you'll maybe find some items of interest on how others have been helped, the nature of their enquiries, etc. (Perhaps browse some of the information before you add your own query ? ) ;)
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/handwriting-deciphering-recognition/
~ Lu
edit: to correct spelling
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Cenotaph record for Major Robert Gordon Parkinson [to whom Rona Eaves was engaged to marry] which may be of interest.
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C19144?n=robert+gordon+parkinson&from=%2Fwar-memorial%2Fonline-cenotaph%2Fsearch&ordinal=0
Minniehaha.
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Birth date for Ronald:
1921/22817 Millar Ronald William Annie Elizabeth William Henry
2005/26639 Millar Ronald William 8 June 1921
Minniehaha.
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Extract from reply #13.....
"There is a wonderfully long newspaper report of Annie’s wedding, but I cannot lay my hands on it right now."
This could be it?
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EG19140418.2.15?phrase=2&query=annie+elizabeth+allen&snippet=true
Minniehaha.
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Yes, thank you. This is the message which clarified much for me. When I learn how to add a photograph, I will post the marvellous double-wedding one mentioned earlier. M
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Just to say that I was wrong about Mary Isabella marrying William McBride and returning to Ireland. The message about them is published in Ros Davies’ site but is probably just to mention their marriage. Mary died in New Zealand very young, at 25. Another sad loss of a young woman in the family. M
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2. The big surprise to me - I have two wonderful, if very wrinkled, newsprint photographs of the double wedding of two Amor sisters, daughters of Elizabeth and Richard Amor. Isabella Amor, b1876, and Alison Amor, b1877, married in 1906 in the Leeston Town Hall. Isabella married John Thomas Millar. (As I write, I remember a family habit and that was to give the father’s name to the child but to use a second name in everyday life.) I have not yet found children for this family.
Hello again
Some snippets for you : The husband of Isabella (nee AMOR), John Thomas MILLAR, died in July of 1915 aged 35 years. She was the beneficiary of his Will dated August, 1914.
There is no mention of any children in that Will, and like you, I was unable to find any births in the NZ index, registered to this couple.
Link to probate file for John Thomas MILLAR, of Doyleston, Farmer >
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE66873498
~ Lu
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Death notice for John Thomas MILLAR :
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19150714.2.3
To date have only found this one notice of death (the day of death stated t as 12 July - although 13 July 1915 is given as date in probate file).
I can't find a burial for this man either (MILLAR / MILLER checked) but will look further.
Isabella too remains a mystery at this point. Doesn't appear to have remarried and no death found. Still to check further the "Isabella" name (often misspelled or mis-transcribed).
~ Lu