Allene Annie Ruddell 1900-1965

              

                       Subject: Allene, Elsie & Zoe
                       Date: 1918 
                       Photographer: T G Palmer, Cameron St, Whangarei
                       Found: Trade Me

No surname was written on the back of this lovely photo of three girls that I found on Trade Me. Thankfully Allene is not such a common name & I had two hits straight away when I searched Papers Past on ‘Allene Whangarei’. One was a court case that ‘Allene Annie Pollock’ was mentioned (innocent party) and the other was this In Memoriam, it seemed like a good place to start.

 

I looked for grandma in the NZBDMs online and found that she was Alexandrina Stewart who married Samuel Watts Ruddell in Auckland in 1864. Alexandrina was one of the original Nova Scotian pioneers. Samuel was a policeman in Auckland before they left to move to the Whangarei area of Parakao. There they reared their family of nine sons & two daughters (that I found).

One of their sons, George Kenneth, born 1870 later married Annie Gough in 1899 and their eldest daughter was Allene Annie born either late 1899 or 1900. I’m not sure of the year because I haven’t found a birth registration for her yet. However, I found an newspaper article about her marriage which gave the names of her parents.

 

 

 

George Kenneth & Annie Ruddell had the following children:-

Kathleen Hilda 1901
Star 1902
Cecil 1903
George Kenneth 1906
Elsie 1905 d 1905 aged 6 mths
Hugh Ross 1908
Elsie Rose 1911
Zoe abt 1914

Zoe doesn't show up on the NZBDMs online yet but presuming about 1914 as she was 3 years younger than sister Elsie Rose. Allene was born & reared in Mangakahia & was the postmistress at Pakotai for many years before her marriage. On 14 Feb 1920 she married Alexander Thomas Pollock in the school room of Pakotai School with the wedding breakfast being at the home of her parents.

 

During the course of my research as usual I went out on a limb and looked into Allene’s mother’s line, the Goughs. Annie, born 1877, was the daughter of Thomas Gane Gough & Mariana Patira. Thomas Gane was born in Timberscombe in Somerset & arrived in NZ when he was 18 years old. He was born in 1857 the son of Joseph Gough & Priscilla Sheppard Smith. Thomas had two brothers, John James & Joseph Orlando William. According to one of the articles I found in the newspapers Joseph first went to America but later joined his brother in NZ, the other brother John stayed in England. Joseph never married & he died in mysterious circumstances although the inquest verdict was ‘death from gastro-enteritis’.

 

 

 

The Ruddells, Pollocks & Goughs seem to be fairly well known in the North as there were frequent articles on any number of them in the newspapers I looked at. So I’m sure someone connected to either Allene or her sisters Elsie & Zoe would love to have the photograph go home again. I didn’t find out who Peggy was so maybe a friend, cousin or even her Aunty Margaret, sister of Allene’s father.

I found some information from this RootsWeb page that has details from a book titled ‘Parua Bay 100 years and more by W R Vallance’, lots of interesting stuff there.

Also, this article written last year about the Parakao School, not sure if it’s the same school though.

References: Papers Past; NZBDM Online; ancestry.com

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the RUDDELL or POLLOCK family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

The LEANING Family of Nelson

 

• Photographer: Tyree of Nelson

Could these two children be the son & daughter of Thomas & Elsie Leaning of Nelson? Possibly son Willis Robert Steven born 1910 and daughter Esther Mary Ellen born 1912?

I found Elsie Jane Leaning living at the above address in 1946 in the NZ Electoral Rolls, she was a widow with a son Eric Leslie living in the same house.

In the NZ BMDs I found Elsie Jane Way married to Thomas Steven Joseph Leaning in 1907. They had three children before the online cut off date of 1913 but from another family tree I found it seems they had at least another 8 children after 1913. So these two could be any of them really although just two of them suggests there were only two at that stage, the eldest son, Charlie Percy Thomas had died aged 1 yr in 1910.

From what I can gather Thomas & Elsie were living in Nelson after their marriage & probably up until Thomas died in 1937, she must have moved to Westport soon after.

References: ancestry.com, NZ BMDs

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the LEANING family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Marjorie Melrose Burnett 1917-1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subject: Marjorie Burnett
Date: abt 1918
Photographer: Tyree, Nelson, NZ
Found: TradeMe

 

Here we have Marjorie Burnett, a cute little girl whose photo was taken by the well known Tyree photographers of Nelson, two brothers who operated from 1882-1924 and then under the Tyree Studio name until 1947.

 

 

 

There is no birth listed in the NZ BMDs for Marjorie Burnett before 1912 so I tried a search for anyone named Burnett married to a Hope and came up with this marriage:-

1915/7009    Ethel Hope Vaughan     Ernest Hillin Burnett

Then siblings of Ernest’s:-

NZ Births
1879/6229  Burnett John Edwin Thomas  Ellen Thomas Rock
1881/12435 Burnett James Richard  Ellen Thomas Roach
1884/17206 Burnett Clement Martin  Ellen Thomas Roach
1887/15358 Burnett Amelia Ellen  Ellen Thomas Roche
1890/11038 Burnett Fenton Montague  Ellen Thomas Rock
1890/11039 Burnett Ernest Hillin  Ellen Thomas Rock
1894/9934  Barnett Percy Casper  Ellen Thomas Roach

James Richard died in WWI in 1915 so that left four brothers who married:-

NZ Marriages
1909/1223 Margaret Jane Couch  John Edwin Thomas Burnett
1911/3976 Ada Bertha Win  Clement Martin Burnett
1916/1361 Barbara Dorothy  McRitchie Fenton Mont. Burnett
1920/6297 Muriel Edith Papps  Percy Casper Burnett

In the 1938 Electoral Roll I found Marjorie Melrose a spinster living in Thorpe, also living in Thorpe were John Edwin Thomas, wife Margaret Jane, Percy Casper & wife Muriel and Barbara Dorothy wife of Fenton Montague although he wasn’t listed. There was no other address other than ‘Thorpe’ so I still didn’t know who Marjorie’s parents were.

Then serendipity stepped in and in the middle of Googling names I came across this sentence on this website:-

Children of John and Margaret: Marjorie Melrose b. 28 Mar 1917 Richmond m. 8 Nov 1938 Trevor Steer b. 23 Dec 1908.
Hilda Jane b. 7 Jul 1920 Washington Valley, Nelson.

Marjorie Melrose Burnett married Trevor Steer in 1946 & is listed in various Electoral Rolls in the South Island until she passed away in 1999, her birthdate is listed as 28 Mar 1917, Trevor died in 1992.

References: Adrienne’s Website; ancestry.com; NZ BMDs; Papers Past.

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the BURNETT family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Is this Lionel Alfred Skipworth 1897-1932

Subject: Lionel Skipworth
Date: WWI
Photographer: Ellerbeck Studio, Gisborne
Found: TradeMe

Here we have another little mystery to solve. This time a postcard photograph of a man in what looks like a WWI military uniform. I’m no expert on Army Uniforms but his hat looks to me like it might be the one known as the ‘lemon squeezer’, hard to tell really. I found some information on the Ellerbeck Studio in Gisborne, it was opened in 1902 by Lawrence Anderson Ellerbeck and most probably continued there until the Ellerbeck family moved to Wellington sometime between 1919 & 1928.

 

 

 

 

 

I Googled ‘75 Thorndon Quay’, which is in Wellington but there’s only a carpark there now! Beat may have been his sweetheart, or a cousin or just a friend, whoever she was she didn’t marry him!

Lionel survived the war and in 1922 he married Mary Marjoribanks. In the 1928 Electoral Roll they are listed as living at different addresses in Gisborne but at some stage they must have been living together as they had a baby in 1929, unfortunately the child was stillborn. As the online births only go up to 1912 I don’t know if they had any other children.

 

 

NZ Births
1929/27411    Skipworth    NR    Mary    Lionel Alfred    S

In the 1935 Electoral Roll Mary is listed as a widow, Lionel passed away earlier that year and Mary died in 1945 aged 47.

NZ Deaths
1932/11517 Skipworth Lionel Alfred 35Y
1945/16797 Skipworth Mary 47Y

Lionel doesn’t seem to have been born in NZ, I can find no birth registration for him. His mother was Margaret nee Ruddock, she married Alfred Skipworth in 1896 at the age of 38. Lionel was born about 1897, his parents were married in NZ so I don’t know why I can’t find a birth reg for him, there’s nothing under either Skipworth or Ruddock. Alfred & Margaret were living in Gisborne in 1900 but I can’t seem to find them together after that, they’re both living at various addresses in the region until Margaret died in 1933 aged 74. They don’t seem to have had any other children. However, we know by the above Cenotaph record that Margaret was his mother, she was living at the same address in 1919.

References: Early New Zealand Photographers; ancestry.com; NZ BMDs; Auckland Museum.

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the SKIPWORTH family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Is this Thomas Bonsall & Frances Collins Skeats in 1898?

Subject: L Bonsall & wife
Date: late 19th century
Photographer: Arthur Robert Perry, 13 Wellington Place, Hastings
Found: eBay

First off I had to find out just which Hastings it was referring to as there is one in New Zealand as well as in Sussex in the UK. I thought most probably it was the UK seeing as I had found the photo on eBay and it was posted to me from England, but you never surmise anything in genealogy, right?

I found this nice little article on Arthur Robert Perry on the SussexPostCards.info website:-

Perry was born on January 19, 1866 at Holdenhurst near Throop on the northern edge of present day Bournemouth. His father was Robert Perry, a farmer, and his mother was Emily Perry, formerly Emily Wareham. He was the fifth of six children.
Robert Perry died aged 39 in 1873, leaving Emily to bring up the children at Holdenhurst on her own. The 1881 census describes 15-year-old Arthur as a photographer, but gives no indication as to where he worked.
On July 24 in 1890 Arthur married Elizabeth Emily Fisher at Lydney Parish Church in Gloucestershire. Elizabeth was the daughter of a tin plate worker, William Fisher. She worked as a national schoolteacher at Lydney, which was where she had been born, and was eight years older than Arthur. By this date, Arthur was already settled in Hastings, and continuing his career as a photographer. The 1891 census gives his address as 64 Mount Pleasant Road in Hastings and describes him as a photographer's assistant.
By 1893 Arthur Perry set up in business on his own account at 13 Wellington Place, taking over the studio and shop of Frederick Mann, who perhaps had previously been his employer. The 1901 census records that he and Elizabeth lived at 82 Mount Pleasant in Hastings, but by 1911 they moved to 3 Baldslow Road to a house called "The Brambles". They had no children.
Arthur Perry was still in business in 1924, but retired by 1927. He died at Christchurch in Hampshire in 1948, aged 82.

I’ve now established it was the UK and that Arthur Perry was in business from about 1893 to 1924, which is a rather large time frame in which the above photograph might have been taken. I would say before the turn of the century but I’m no expert!

So now I have to work out what the initial of Mr Bonsall is, is it an L or an S or maybe a T? After a few hours searching through the various census and not finding anyone in Hastings or anywhere in Sussex who would fit I tried FreeBMD, still nothing that jumped out at me! Luckily Bonsall is not that common a name but there were still a few named Isaac, Thomas & Samuel to choose from. In the end I think it was just fate that I found Thomas Bonsall in the 1911 census living in Croydon, Surrey aged 78. He said he had been married for 12 years which seemed like a short time for a man of his age which suggested a second marriage. He was a retired timber merchant but unfortunately his wife was not at home. Another few hours research brought me to this conclusion, as to whether it is correct is another matter!

Thomas Bonsall was born on 1 Mar 1833 and baptised 12 May in the St George the Martyr Church in Southwark, Surrey. His father was Thomas a shop-keeper in Union St, mother Ann.

I can find no sign of him or his parents & siblings in the 1841 or 1851 census. On the 11 Aug 1851 he married Elizabeth Harriet Dalton in Newington, Surrey. Over the next four census they were living mainly in London or Camberwell where they had at least four sons before Elizabeth died in the last quarter of1897. A year later in Dec 1898 Thomas married Frances Collins Kynaston nee Skeats in the St Luke’s Church, Camberwell. Frances had been previously married to Frank Kynaston in 1877 in Dorset.

In the 1901 census they are still living at the same address, 9 Elizabeth Tce, Camberwell along with ‘adopted son’ Robert Henry Kynaston aged 9 (his birth was registered in the 3qtr quarter of 1898).

On their marriage certificate they are both listed as widowed but wait, Frank Kynaston I found was still alive in 1901! Was Frances a bigamist? You wouldn’t say you were a widow if you were divorced would you?

By 1911 Thomas & Frances were living at different addresses, Thomas boarding in Croydon, aged 78, been married 12 years, a retired timber merchant. Frances was still in Camberwell with her son who is now ‘Robert Bonsall’, married 13 yrs had one child still living, she was living on ‘her own means’.

Thomas passed away later the same year and in the probate of his will he mentions only one son from his first marriage and the man he was boarding with in the census, no mention of Frances or Robert. I’ve found no death or remarriage for Frances although I did find that Robert died in France in WWI in 1917.

Frank Kynaston died in 1929 and the probate of his will mentions only two schoolteachers.

Thanks to Linda, whose husband is connected to the Skeats line, for all her help in sorting this out. Unfortunately none of it actually proves I have the right people for the photograph but it seems to me they make a very good match.

The man in the photo looks like he’s quite well to do and it could be that it was taken in Hastings while they were on their honeymoon in 1898, to me personally the woman in the photo looks to be a lot younger than him because she has no wrinkles yet! And he obviously had some descendants from the children with his first wife as the person who wrote on the back said ‘grandfather’.

The reason they were no longer living together could be that Thomas found out about Frances’ first husband still being alive, my own personal opinion though. Whatever the reason, it seems their marriage just didn’t work out, it might have been the rather large age difference.

References: sussexpostcards; ancestry.com; FreeBMD; familysearch.org; Commonwealth War Graves

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the BONSALL or SKEATS families please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Leslie Edwin Hill & Kathleen Agnes Cleghorn

We have lift off! With many thanks to Margaret Johnston & Angela Reynolds we’ve been able to identify the couple in the previously posted unidentified marriage group photograph titled ‘The Dorset Wedding’.

It turns out that the bride’s mother was Miriam Maud Matthews, (circumstantially) the sister of Mary Emily Matthews (wife of William Leslie Dorset) and the Aunt Emily the photograph was originally sent to for Christmas.

Miriam Maud Matthews married Arthur Cleghorn in 1882 and the rest is history!

NZ Marriages
1882/2995 Mariana Maude Mathews Arthur Cleyhorn (the spellings are theirs not mine)

Kathleen Agnes Cleghorn was born in 1886 and Leslie Edwin Hill was also born in 1886, his parents were Edwin James Hill and Clara Anita Aitken.

Leslie & Kathleen lived in Ballance near Pahiatua in 1928 but by 1938 had moved to Houto in the Kaipara area in Northland. That fits in with Helensville being the place I found the photograph originally.

I don’t know if they had any children, there is a Desmond Leslie Hill living in Houto in the 1954 census along with his wife Evelyn Violet. Desmond was born in 1926 so if he was their son they had him quite late in life, Kathleen would have been 40 by then.

Kathleen passed away in 1886 aged 69 and Leslie in 1962 aged 76, and they are buried in the Maunu Cemetery in Whangarei. Desmond & Evelyn are also buried in the same cemetery.

References: Papers Past; Wairarapa Archives; NZ BMDs.

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the HILL or CLEGHORN family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

The Dorset Wedding

Further to this wedding photograph I posted back on 23 Nov 2008:-

 

 

The Photographer, George Edwin Harvey, was in business for just a few short years in Pahiatua, from about 1911 to 1918 when he died. In trying to work out when this photo was taken I thought originally it was about the 1910 mark. It is possible that his business was taken over by someone else and they may have kept the name so the photograph could have been taken much later.

 

I think I may have been able to work out the family this photo belongs to although I can’t say for sure who the couple are. On the back is hand written:-

To Aunt Emily & Uncle Willie
With love from Kathleen & Leslie

That in itself didn’t really help me that much but further down written in very large letters in pencil it says:-

10 x 8 Mrs Dorset

Since 2008 the NZ Electoral Rolls have become available on ancestry.com so I searched for a Dorset family living in Pahiatua in the early part of the 20th century, and found a Willliam Leslie Richard Dorset who looked promising. I searched in the NZ BMDs and came up with William Leslie Dorset marrying Mary Emily Matthews in 1865, the parents of Wm Leslie Rd:-

DORSET Births in NZ
1866/15596 Dorset    Mary Charlotte       Mary Emily    William Leslie
1868/93      Dorset    William Leslie Richard Mary Emily    William Leslie
1869/38792 Dorset    Alice           Mary Emily    William Leslie
1871/41933 Dorset    Reginald           Mary Emily    William Leslie
1873/133    Dorset    Norah Hamilton       Emily Mary    William Leslie
1875/8238  Dorset    Norman           Mary Emily    William Leslie
1877/15089 Dorset    Mabel Mary Jane       Emily        William Leslie
1879/11266 Dorset    Olive Matthews       Emily        William Leslie
1881/3227  Dorset    Richard Mathews       Emily        William Leslie
1883/11309 Dorset    Margaret Richaline       Emily        William Leslie
1887/389     Dorset    Norman Hampton       Emily        William Leslie

It seems to me that Mary Emily was later known as just Emily so there we have a Willie & Emily who might possibly be the Aunt & Uncle the photograph was sent to. William was a sheep farmer in Mauriceville in the Wairarapa for many years, both he & Emily died in 1926 both aged 84.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Matthew25187 at en.wikipedia

It seems that perhaps a sibling of either William or Emily lived or married in Pahiatua and that one of their children sent the photograph as a Christmas gift.

So without going into further research to find out who Kathleen & Leslie are I’m going to leave it a that for the time being. I’m sure that will be enough for descendants of the Dorset family of Pahiatua to know who they are.

References:
ancestry.com; NZ BDM Records; Photographer’s Database Auckland Libraries

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the DORSET family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz