Depressed - brickwall in NZ - any help pls!!

[tess1957]

hi
really am at a loss and wondered if anyone could think of a way forward.  gg grandmother Sarah Newman b 1862 Surrey.  Went to work in service 1870s.  Married the boss - a professor name Fitzherbert Williams m. 1881, after 8 years of marriage they had a daughter  - Millicent in 1889. Fitzherbert then dies in 1890 - I forgot to say he was c30 years older than Sarah.  In 1891 census Sarah is living with her mother Maria in the family home in Hale Farnham Surrey along with Millicent.  Sometime after this and before 1901 census Sarah left for NZ -this thru verbal history passed down from Millicent.  A postcard exists that Sarah sent from NZ of herself riding a horse - on the back is a dividing line so probably c1903-4  She signed the card With Love & Best Wishes SC.  We have all assumed that she must have married after getting there but who knows??  A very nice person in NZ offered to do some look ups in NZ but could find nothing for Sarah Williams/Newman with no middle name unfortunately so am stuck with no idea how to get past this hurdle
Any suggestions would be gratefully received
Thanks teresa

[RootsChat]

Dear Teresa,

I have read your message a few times and find myself a little confused with what information you are trying to find out  

Are you looking for help on the Surrey side, if so maybe it is worth posting this question under Surrey.

Or, are you looking for help in New Zealand ?

Or are you looking for how Sarah arrived in New Zealand from Surrey England, if this is the case then it may be worth posting the message under Emmigrants !?

Or could it be all of above !

Regards

Sarah
Admin

[tess1957]

hi sarah
thanks for your reply - sorry for confusing the issue - it makes sense to me !!
Basically im trying to trace Sarah in NZ - what happened to her etc.
I have her birth cert - her marriage cert to Fitzherbert - the census that shows she was in Hale Farnham in 1891 with her daughter.
Millicent told her daughters (only one is still alive) that Sarah had gone to NZ.  We have the postcard/photo but nothing else to go on.  As a last resort I guess I could spend a week or so at Kew searching the outgoing passenger lists for Southampton (her most likely port of departure??) but i was wondering if someone could think of another way of narrowing it down that i hadnt thought of??  I was hoping that someone had done a similar search and could think of something else - Im not sure what the procedure would have been in those days so dont know what records may have been kept.  I dont think she had any money so may have applied for poor law relief - would she have travelled under her maiden name or married?  
hope that makes it more clear
Teresa

[PaulineJ]

How likely is it that she married before departing for NZ? It may be worth looking at that possibility before you start trawling through passenger lists.

Pauline

[spades]

Hi Teresa,

I wondered if a clue lay in the postcard signed 'With Love & Best Wishes SC', so I went looking for a marriage of both Sarah Williams and Sarah Newman to a groom beginning with C after 1890-1920 and found one for Williams in 1911 which I matched to an Alfred George CORDNER, folio 7102 using Varcoes NZ Marriage Index
http://marvin.otago.ac.nz/marriages/marriages.php.

There were none for this time period for Newman. This marriage date is years later than your 1903/4 postcard by several years, but how certain are you of its date?

A Sarah Cordner died in 1946 in New Plymouth. I've drawn a very long bow here...

Regarding the ship she emigrated on, I suggest you leave it until you know more about the name she might have travelled under and can perhaps take an educated guess about the year and port of arrival.

Tor

[tess1957]

Hi
Wow Riley - thanks for that - how kind of you - its so hard to know where to begin on a case like this as there are so many variables - all im truly sure of is that she (Sarah) must have left UK between the 1891 census and the 1901.  The family always said it was NZ she went to but with no supporting evidence??  The photo of her on a horse is fascinating - it shows her riding astride on a nice looking horse with a western style (to my english eyes!) bridle.  It doesnt look as if she just `posed` on the horse for the photo - she really was riding it.  I did wonder if there was somewhere i could post the photo to get some feedback breed of horse etc.  Someone might come up with something.  All I can tell is that it must have been a chilly climate as she is well wrapped or that might just have been the fashion?  The horse looks a bit like a quarter horse to me but im more familiar with horses in england.
Thank you again Riley
PS I have already checked for marriages in this country and have come up with nothing - she was a canny lass - after all she definitely married above her station - a servant girl marrying a professor the first time around - ive also looked for a will as well - nothing.

[gennig]

Hi Theresa

It wouldn't hurt to post the picture on here. 

Genni

[tess1957]

Here it is then - hope ive done it alright!
Tess

[gennig]

Hi Tess

Is there anything else on the back of the photo ie. postmark etc.

Genni