Introduction
When my elderly Uncle Alvin died in 2011 my father inherited his extensive collection of family history research. This included a vast computerised family tree as well as a computer full of documents and letters and many boxes of papers, photos and miscellaneous documents. Although I had always thought there was very little that I could add to it, when I started to dig into the records I found I was wrong. Most of Alvin’s research had been collated before the large-scale digitisation of many genealogical records (for instance the New Zealand BDM Online database), making it straightforward to correct and add to many of the facts in the family tree. I quickly found that researching family history is like a journey into a never-ending labyrinth complete with a myriad of fascinating clues, puzzles, red-herrings and dead ends – an end never in sight.
This site really has a dual purpose – it will document some of my own research, as well as serving as a repository for some of documents and articles that Alvin wrote and collected during his time as our family’s unofficial historian.
Raewyn Hooper, 2017
Contents
- Early settlers in The Suburbs of Leigh by Jo Evans
- Houses of the Mathesons by Raewyn
- A Short History of Massey by Raewyn
- Wreck of the Nordic by Raewyn
- William Ward / Dorothy Annie Walkley by Raewyn
- Sidney Stanley Walkley / Ethel Lowe Brewster by Raewyn
- Robert Lowe Brewster / Martha Howard by Raewyn
- Henry Walkley / Hannah Jefferies by Raewyn
- Frederick Ward / Lillian Scott by Raewyn
- Edward Scott / Elizabeth Richardson by Raewyn
- William Ward / Betsy Ann Skipworth by Raewyn
- Victor Smith / Alma Torkington by Raewyn
- Joseph Torkington / Minnie Clarke by Raewyn
- Charles Septimus Clarke / Mary Ann Wyatt by Raewyn
- William Torkington / Eliza Hollis by Raewyn
- John Smith / Christina Matheson by Raewyn
- Angus Matheson / Jessie Matheson by Raewyn
- Benjamin Smith / Martha Neavey by Raewyn
- The Life of Frederick Ward and Family by Raewyn
- The Ward Family by Raewyn
- Did Angus and Duncan Matheson Build “The Spray”? by Raewyn
- Mathesons of Omaha by Alvin Smith
- Where was the Three Gabled House? by Raewyn
- The Missing Diaries of CS Clarke by Raewyn
- What was it like in the First World War? by Raewyn
- Some Material on the History of Leigh by Charles Septimus Clarke
- Omaha The Nova Scotian influence by Vern
- Neil and Norman’s War by Raewyn
- Dorothy Davies’ account of her Torkington family by Dorothy Davies
- War Letters: Two Local Families in 1917 by Alvin Smith
- Vic’s War by Raewyn
- A Cousin: or a tale of genealogical initiation. by Alvin Smith
- Did I get it right? by Alvin Smith
- Early days at Ti Point School by Agnes Matheson
- The Spray by Vern
- Isabella – a migrant by Alvin Smith
- Memories of Holidays at Grandpa’s place by Alvin Smith