Depressed - brickwall in NZ - any help pls!!

[tess1957]

here it is - thoughts please!

[spades]

Hi Tess,

Looking at the reverse of the card it appears that Sarah was right-handed and wrote confidently and with style. It certainly seems to be 'SC' and not 'SG'.

You mentioned that the information source was Millicent's recollection. Was there any other NZ connection other than the mention of her mother?

Was Millicent also in NZ? Did she mention places, people, events, residences she lived in, a step-father, deaths of those close to her, etc?

Did Millicent go to school in NZ, where did she work, live, did she marry? If so, when and where? I presume she returned to ENG? When and why?

I checked NZ Telecom White Pages and found 7 Cordners which are certainly worth eliminating at;
http://www.whitepages.co.nz/Pages/WhitePages_SearchResultsDefault/0,2121,a1281,00.html?fpQuery=cordner&fplkey=&fpLoc=&fpListType=&fpExact=off&x=31&y=26

Regards, Tor

[gennig]

Hi Tess

The postcard is a "Universal Postal Union" one.  So can tell you Australia and New Zealand didn't become members of this organisation until the 1/10/1907.

Cheers
Genni

[tess1957]

Hi
Thanks for your input - it really feels like I am making some progress at last thanks to help i am getting.  I have posted the photo on an english site that has an interest in horses - they have fed back that the horse looks like a `whaler` and that the saddle might be of the australian stockmans type so have posted on the general board as well.  Millicent (Sarah`s daughter by Fitzherbert) was left in England to be brought up by Sarah`s Mother. She believed her parents were never married for some reason - who knows what she was told? She was very young when Sarah left and didnt really remember her according to verbal history.  To be truthful she was not the brightest button in the box - so i am having to assume she may have been incorrect in some of the stories she passed down - ie New Zealand was where she said Sarah went, but this could have well been New South Wales, or anywhere really.   I am unaware of any other clues Sarah left apart from the postcard so its all i have to go on.
Tess

[gennig]

Tess

I noted that Fitzherbert Williams was a Widower on the 1881 census.  Have you tried searching/contacting the family from his 1st marriage to see if they have any information.

Genni

[tess1957]

Hi Genni
I have in the last few days managed to find them in the 1871 Census Fitzherbert very helpfully was listed as John Fitzherbert Williams so it took me a while - I am not sure about that line of research, according to legend his family were not best pleased that he had a child with Sarah - I guess it was a bit of a scandal for a very working class girl to be having a child with a Proffessor/Schoolmaster/Literary Gentleman as he has variously been referred to!!  Williams is also a very common name - I have had a look for some of the children mentioned in the 1871 census to see if they married but have only found the eldest son and they appear to have been living apart?  The rest of the siblings were boarders together at one address after their Mother died.  I would have imagined that there would have been little or no contact between Sarah and Fitzherberts family after he had died in 1890 if there was any at all.
Tess

[gennig]

Tess

Have you got the marriage cetificate of Fitzherbert & Sarah.  If so, who performed the ceremony? Who were the witnesses?  I ask this because Fitzherbert's youngest child Cyril was living with his Aunt & Uncle in Hammersmith in on the 1881 census.  The Uncle Charles M Davi(e)s was a clergyman.

Genni

[tess1957]

Hi there
I am waiting for the cert. as we speak - i have seen it once in the past when my 2nd cousin was on the case but she has since died and they have gotten rid of all the genealogy records she kept   Hopefully they will arrive in next couple of days.   As far as I remember, the witnesses were people called `Browne`   They were married in Oakley Square London.
I intend to follow up the witnesses as it might give an extra clue?  At the moment i`m trying to imagine what it was like for Sarah having had a taste of a `better` life with Fitzherbert then having to go back to her Mothers to a tiny agricultural village just outside Farnham Surrey - if i`d had the chance i would have gone too!!
Thanks in the meantime for all your help -
Tess

[DotBrennan]

In the interests of good housekeeping, I’ve moved this post to completed.

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