My cousin here in New Zealand is apparently descended from William MAY & Elizabeth Jane WINTERS via a daughter Amelia MAY, Amelia being my cousin's great-grandmother.
Amelia MAY married John Thompson CRAWFORD in New Zealand in 1879.
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/NZ Marriages
1879/1968 Amelia MAY, John Thompson CRAWFORD
She was John's second wife, his first wife being Rosetta OAKLEY whom he married at Tuapeka down south in 1864. Rosetta died in tragic and mysterious circumstances in 1879, being found drowned on a beach, the verdict at the inquest leaving the cause of death open. John was a pianist and violinist who made his living wherever he went from his musical abilities and side line as a piano tuner. It appears that Rosetta sang and also played the piano. John and Rosetta lived at Greymouth then Westport in the South Island from at least 1869. John & Amelia by 1880 for a short while were living in Nelson and soon after that until at least 1886 were living at Gisborne in the North Island. John died in Auckland 1891 age 54, described as being late of Glasgow, Lanarkshire in his death notice, which makes him born about 1837. Plenty of information can be found about John at Papers Past in the West Coast (of the South Island) newspapers, Nelson newspapers, and the Poverty Bay (Gisborne) newspaper, but there is a big gap between 1887 and 1891 which is strange considering John's previous musical exploits in entertainments well reported in the newspapers.
John was in charge of music at Westport's Theatre Royal. The Theatre Royal and Commercial Hotel burnt down just a few hours after Rosetta unaccountably went missing in 1879, which set a few tongues wagging. Her body wasn't found for some days until it turned up on the beach.
I haven't traced the WINTER/MAY lines in detail because they are not actually my lines. I was briefly looking at the ancestry of my cousin's father a couple of days ago after I realised I knew little of him, and my cousin didn't know much about his forbears either (my cousin had asked a question about his mother's ancestry, which is where our connection lies). I wasn't looking to go back far but a number of researchers have left good clues on the web regarding a number of my cousin's paternal lines, and of course the usual NZ online resources are helpful, especially the fabulous and ever informative Papers Past website in the case of John CRAWFORD.
Peter
peter
