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Messages - Gwila

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New Zealand Completed Requests / Re: William H and Joseph Vincent .. Where did they Go?
« on: Tuesday 22 October 19 09:06 BST (UK)  »
For those following this thread the NZ Police Gazette is now available in digital form via the 'Papers Past' website. There you will find several entries about Joseph Vincent regarding the abandoning of his children and the years that the court chased him for contributions.  At least 3 of his children ended up in the Industrial School System when Mary spent a prolonged time in hospital and mother and neighbours were unable to provide.  He did several stints in gaol for failure to provide, throughout the 1880's but mostly skipped away including hiding out on Stewart Island.  This may explain why one of the posts here says he has no issue. Not interest anyway.  His brother Peter was living in Woodlands Invercargill at this time and William was living at Mabel Bush also in Southland.  I can supply some links to this.  Throughout the posts here  Joseph's age varies considerably. According to the Police records it would seem he would have been asked for his age and it varies between 1849 and and 1853.  So his birth and age at death should not be treated as gospel.  I am no relation  but doing research on the children who went through the Industrial School system. At least Joseph Jr, James and Elizabeth Mary (Married name Lukey) were in the system.  Coincidentally my ex-husband is related to this family through Meri Harper.  The book that is mentioned although very useful has lots of errors, in particular with the Vincent family and some members of the Vincent side have endeavoured to have corrections made and met with less than polite resistance.

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Cavan / Re: MEACLEM
« on: Sunday 28 April 19 06:41 BST (UK)  »
Many of this family emigrated to NZ including the mother Rose [ Roseanna ]
Robert Meaclem who married Sarah Irwin emigrated to New Zealand (both of them).
Robert Died in Auckland in 1917 and Sarah in Hamilton in 1922. They had seven children in New Zealand. They arrived into Lyttelton, Canterbury NZ 20 Sep with his mother Rose, Sarah and Matilda. See below.
Roberts siblings or close relations in NZ:

1)Brother William 1854 -1923. Died in Ashburton Canterbury, NZ. Arrived on the Dover Castle with sisters Margaret and Eliza. See below for more detail. There are a lot of Meaclems in the Ashburton cemetery so presumably descendents of William.

2) Mother Rose Meachem aged 44yrs from County Cavan arrived in 2nd Jun 1873 aboard the 'Punjaub' into Lyttelton, Canterbury NZ. With her were daughters Sarah 10 (1862-1937)and Matilda aged 8. (1865-1913) Rose is listed as single and a dressmaker. So she would be a widow. She died in Christchurch Canterbury NZ in 1903.
Matilda married Donald Fry and died in Christchurch NZ aged 48yrs.
Sarah is listed on some family trees as marrying James Rennie in 1890 in San Franscisco. I believe this incorrect and this is another Sarah Meaclem from County Cavan having seen some time back very similar family lines There is no online record of Sarah leaving NZ once here but no marriage or death records so could be wrong.

4) Sisters: Margaret J aged 21 (b.1851) and Eliza [Elizabeth] (b.1859)  aged 13yrs  arrived on the ship 'Dover Castle'  on 7 May 1872 to Lyttelton, Canterbury, NZ.. Both described as general servants from County Cavan.
Margaret married William Richards Shattock in 1905. She died in Hamilton in 1932 aged 48/49rs.
According to NZ marriage records Eliza married John William Rogers twice - in 1884 and again in 1892.
I am not a relation however I have considerable information on one of Robert and Sarah's children Robert Irwin who became a habitual  criminal beginning at a young age. He used many aliases so researching him has been rather a challenge including the newspapers of the times spelling the name Meaclem about 10 different ways with Meachem and Maclean being the most common. His aliases were all a combination of his sisters husbands names in one form or another.  I can probably help with more information about this family should anyone need it.

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New Zealand Completed Requests / Re: Arthur Fearn (or Jellyman)
« on: Saturday 01 April 17 13:45 BST (UK)  »

I have pieced quite a bit of information about Elma Frost. She never legally married Thomas Fearn/Fern whom she had 3 children to - Martha, Arthur and Thomas. She also did not marry William Reader to whom had 4 children.  Emma as she was mostly known was an infamous prostitute in the Nelson Marlborough area. 
Fearn was quite a bit older and was a shoemaker and drunkard.
Reaper worked on boats and drowned with the whole crew of a pilot boat in an accident in 1883.

Emma's father was quite a character, well educated but most of his children were largely uneducated and several were 'characters'.  A few short years before his death he received 9000 pounds from the estate of his brother in England. A huge sum in those days. His will was contested with allegations of wrong doing by one of the daughters and son in laws and it took years to sort it out.  So yes Emma is part of a grand inheritance - from her Uncle who she probably never met. I don't know if she ever received her share.  I have more on the family - mostly pieced together from public information via paperspast etc.  There is nothing that ever states that Arthur is not the son of Fearn and Emma wasn't too concerned with her reputation so see no need to cover up his birth. She stated that he was a son of Thomas Fearn in court.

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Australia / Re: PERRIN - missing from NZ
« on: Thursday 09 February 17 09:12 GMT (UK)  »
Found this snippet about John and Elizabeth Perrin of Kaiapoi, however from your posts you say John and Agnes Perrin so perhaps this is James and Elizabeth.

STAR, ISSUE 7149, 13 JULY 1901. SUDDEN DEATH.

Mrs Perrin, wife of Mr John Perrin and an old identity of Kaiapoi, died suddenly at about nine o'clock yesterday evening. She had eaten a hearty mead at tea-time. An inquest is being held this afternoon. The deceased had been a resident of Kaiapoi for over forty years, and was much respected by, every one. For some years she conducted a nursing home on her own account, and many serious cases have passed through her hands. Her husband', Mr John Perrin, is an old Crimean veteran, and was presented to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cornwall and York at the Hagley Park review on June. 24;

Also another John of Kaiapoi:  PERRIN.— STAR, ISSUE 10843, 9 AUGUST 1913. August 9, at Ranfurly Street, Kaiapoi, John, dearly beloved husband of Sarah Ann Perrin; aged eighty-six years".

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New Zealand Completed Requests / Re: Mitchell Family: what happened to! *COMPLETED*
« on: Tuesday 04 October 16 10:28 BST (UK)  »
Glad it was useful.
The marriages  mention in the posts here,  I don't think relate to this Henry Mitchell. The newspaper reports indicate that he was living in boarding houses or in gaol and no mention of other wives, plus it looks as if he could be the Henry Mitchell who died in 1886.
There are mentions of a baby born on the voyage and/or that Sarah died in childbirth but on the Zealandia records it says she died of chronic bronchitis and diarrhoea and no mention of a child. The newspapers mention 5 children which are the older ones we know about.  There are too many William Mitchell's to work out which one he might be, but dates that would match could be 1925, 1940, 1945, 1951 if that helps. Given that the mother and stepmother Elizabeth were off the scene and Henry patently couldn't give a toss for his children I very much doubt the children came back into a family situation with him. They most likely were licensed out as farmhands or servants as soon as they were 15 under the Industrial Schools Act and William may have made a life in the Canterbury Otago area as he nothing to back to Auckland for.

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New Zealand Completed Requests / Re: Mitchell Family: what happened to! *COMPLETED*
« on: Monday 03 October 16 12:14 BST (UK)  »
This is what I know. I am no relation but a researcher about the Industrial Schools.
Henry was not a nice man.
After Sarah died just a week before arrival he married Elizabeth Heatley in 1875 who looked after his 5 children. He was violent towards her as he was frequently drunk and she left him around the end of 1875. He deserted his children leaving them in a house with a neighbour Mrs Brown feeding them. He appears through 1875 and 1876 in court news for failing to contribute towards his children and from all accounts was pretty unrepentant about it all.  William and George were sent to the Burnham Industrial School in Christchurch in 1875. By 1876 Henry appears in Dunedin and he is in court for failing to contribute towards a child in the Caversham Industrial School in Howe St. This is either George or William having been transferred from Burnham or another 3rd child.
In 1880 back in Auckland, Henry is once again in court (twice during the year) for failing to pay towards his children still in Industrial School/s. He is unemployed and had spent 3 months in jail in 1879 for the same offence. By August 1880 he owed 118 pound and had spent another 3 months in gaol. The court news states here that he abandoned his children on a wharf in Oct 1876, but George and William had already been committed to Burnham in March and reports then said they had been abandoned in an empty house in Wellesley St and fed by neighbours.

 In court news in 1875 William is described as 2 years older than George, however I think the dates were the wrong way round.  Upon the death of James Henry in the Coromandel is states that Henry the father was from Wimbledon Common near London.  He would have been born about 1836 if passenger dates are correct.
I have the paperspast links for this but you can search using Henry Mitchell as an exact phrase.
I know nothing about 3rd and 4th marriages.  Hope this helps. Gwila

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Australia / Re: Did they marry in Melbourne?
« on: Friday 11 December 15 02:59 GMT (UK)  »
To add to this,
Henry Ford made an application to send his 3 children to the Burnham Industrial School in December 1882.  In his application he made the statement that his wife was dead (ie Mary Elizabeth nee Dady) . No mention of Mabel Edith. It's quite possible this was a convenient lie,  in order for his children to be taken off his hands quickly. He was very unlikely genuine in his inability to care for them properly.  Mary is also mentioned in information about the 'First Four ships' arriving in Canterbury - Henry was a 1yr old child on the Cressy. Information there states that Mary Elizabeth Dady was born in Malta abt 1853 and that she died in Christchurch in 1894, however there's nothing on NZ BDM to say this is so, under the names of Ford, Cox or Dady.
What a gal!

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