Family History in NZ

My husband Eric and I are both deeply interested in our respective family histories, and have done intensive research on relevant historical records in NZ and the UK. Both of us have written and self-published books about our ancestral family lines, gathering many photographs and all available information about them, including from PapersPast. What kind of people were they? Why did they come to NZ? How did they contribute to NZ’s historical development? 

 Margaret’s ancestors:

  1. The Dunlops of Poverty Bay:   My Great-great-grandparents, James and Sarah Dunlop, came from Scotland in 1849, and settled on the East Cape. They had 13 children, most of whom became farmers with large families. They narrowly escaped Te Kooti’s massacre. I have written their story, incorporating James’s 3 surviving diaries. Read More...
     
  2. The Smiths of Kaitaia:     Their 2nd daughter Jeanette, my Great-grandmother, married Thomas William Portland Smith, a medical orderly in the British Army, and settled in Kaitaia, pioneering as dairy-farmers. They had 14 children. Tom was the first President of the NZ Farmers’ Union, and acted as the paramedic for the district. (See Pioneering Families.) Read More...
     
  3. William and Madeline Smith:   Their 9th child, William Alexander Smith, my Grandfather, was one of the first carters on the East Cape, beginning with a bullock team. He married Madeline Lawford, a talented pianist, and had 5 children. (See Teamster and Pianist.)
     
  4. Their eldest daughter, my mother Olive, married Jim Weatherly, a new immigrant from the UK, highly educated but penniless. After farming in the Bay of Plenty, they settled on the Manukau Peninsula, at Kohe Kohe, near Waiuku, raising 6 children in a self-sufficient lifestyle. I have written their story in 3 Parts, based on Jim’s work-diaries 1927-87, in Weatherly NZ. Their youngest son Robin represented NZ in the 1966 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Jamaica, winning a Bronze Medal in Archery, only 3 months before he died. Read More...

     
  5. Jim’s ancestors:  a. the Weatherlys were a large professional family in England. Jim’s father Cecil Weatherly was an editor on the Encyclopaedia Britannica, his grandfather a much-loved country doctor near Bristol. His mother Marion Deane helped to nurse soldiers during the Great War. I have summarised their stories in a slim booklet: Jim Weatherly’s Ancestors – the Deanes and the Weatherlys.

Eric’s ancestors

Eric is a 4th-generation NZer, whose ancestors came from the Midlands and London. 

  1. Four Bowater brothers came from the Midlands to Wellington in the 1860s. His Great-grandfather Charles Bowater married Eliza Rutter and settled on the West Coast of NZ as a gold-miner, raising 8 children.  
     
  2. His son Charles Bowater II, Eric’s Grandfather, moved to Wellington and worked as a shopkeeper. His first wife Isabella McLean, of Scots ancestry, died of TB, leaving 3 young children; he married again, to Janie Hall and had 3 more children. They were deeply involved in the Salvation Army. Eric has written the Bowater family story in Spirited Sallies.
     
  3. Eric’s father, Albert Charles Bowater, was only 2 when his mother died. He spent most of his life working on dairy-farms in the Waikato. He married Muriel Pratt, a farmer’s daughter; they had 5 children, Eric being the eldest. Read More...
     
  4. Muriel was the second child of Herbert Pratt and Ethel Wright. Herbert had served in the British Army in the Boer War, and came to NZ in 1904. Ethel was the eldest child of David Wright, son of Henry and Elizabeth, who had arrived in 1852, and took up land in Taranaki. David served in the militia in the Land Wars, married Ellen Goodwin, and became the first railway station-master in Hastings. Eric has told these stories in Soldier Settlers. Read More...