Monthly Archives: October 2016

England to Australia – via New Zealand?

It was during a holiday to New Zealand in 2006 that I found myself in the vicinity of the Wellington branch of Archives New Zealand. Deciding I couldn’t pass up this opportunity, I wandered inside and thought I would just have a quick look at their various card indexes for any family surnames – including Wintle.

James Wintle married Margaret Hamilton Forsyth at Hartley Vale, New South Wales on 26 January 1889. James had been born at Abinghall, Gloucestershire, England on 8 August 1858 and for years I had struggled to find his arrival in New South Wales. Also living at Hartley Vale was James’s older brother John, who had been baptised at Abinghall on 7 January 1855. Abinghall is one of the beautiful villages of the Forest of Dean.

But back to James and Margaret. Following the birth of their first child in 1891, the new family moved to Waihi on the North Island of New Zealand.  Armed with this knowledge, I thought I would see if I could locate their date of arrival in New Zealand – post-1891 – by perusing  the card index for passengers arriving held at the Wellington archives office. Instead, I found something that had eluded me for years. James and John Wintle had actually arrived in New Zealand from England in 1877 per the Rangitikei as government assisted immigrants. No wonder I couldn’t find their arrival in Australia – I had been searching the Sydney passenger arrival lists from England NOT New Zealand!

Photograph of a painting depicting the Rangitiki. Kinnear, James Hutchings, 1877-1946 :Negatives of Auckland shipping, boating and scenery. Ref: 1/2-015976-B-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22495523

Photograph of a painting depicting the Rangitiki. Kinnear, James Hutchings, 1877-1946 :Negatives of Auckland shipping, boating and scenery. Ref: 1/2-015976-B-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22495523

The ultimate cost to the New Zealand government for the passage of James and John was £13/11/6 each with the brothers declaring they were a bricklayer’s labourer and a farm labourer respectively. The brothers, however, went on to a life of mining. And, unfortunately, we will never know the reason why James and John chose to travel to Hartley Vale from New Zealand – or why James eventually returned  to New Zealand, with his wife and child, but John remained in New South Wales.

Shipping Report for the Rangitikei - The Star, 10 Nov 1877, p2 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18771110.2.3.2?query=rangitikei

Shipping Report for the Rangitikei – The Star, 10 Nov 1877, p2 https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS18771110.2.3.2?query=rangitikei

Kunta Kinte at RootsTech 2017

In April 1977, along with several million other Australians, I sat glued to local television over six nights watching the Alex Haley mini-series Roots.

While the show would go down in history as the first-ever blockbuster mini-series, for me it forged my strong passion for family history – something I had actually started the previous year when I had begun questioning my grandmother about her Scottish origins.

LeVar Burton

LeVar Burton

Starring as the young Kunta Kinte in 1977 was American actor LeVar Burton. Burton later went on to portray the role of chief engineer Geordi La Forge in the iconic Star Trek: The Next Generation television series, as well as hosting the PBS children’s series, Reading Rainbow, which ran from 1983 to 2009.

I find it quite ironic that in February 1977, 40 years on from Roots,  LeVar Burton will be the Friday keynote speaker at RootsTech – and I will be there to hear him!

Quoting from the FamilySearch announcement yesterday, Burton said:

“The story of Roots traces a family’s journey from Africa to America and back. At RootsTech, I’ll share some of my own journey of family, storytelling and the influence of African culture on my American Experience.”

Sightseeing My Hometown

Isn’t it ridiculous that it often takes the sightseeing of an overseas visitor for you to also visit places for the first time in your own hometown!

This was the case recently when our Edenborough cousin from England stayed with us and we found ourselves traipsing around Sydney showing him sights that we hadn’t been to, even though we live here.

The highlight for me had to be our day trip to Cockatoo Island on Sydney Harbour. From its origins as a penal establishment through to its final years as a shipbuilding dockyard, I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea how historically interesting the island was.

The Gaol

The Gaol

Convict Barracks

Convict Barracks

Electrical Building

Electrical Building

Fitzroy Dock

Fitzroy Dock

Abandoned Cranes

Abandoned Cranes

Abandoned Machinery

Abandoned Machinery

And, of great interest, was the fact that while there wasn’t a cockatoo in sight, there were masses of nesting seagulls.

img_2976 img_2973

Another day we ventured out to the historic town of Windsor and, although I have visited Windsor several times previously, I was gobsmacked at the work the local historical society had put into their new museum which I highly recommend to everybody.

Flabbits - only ever spotted in the Hawkesbury district

Flabbits – a peculiarity to the Hawkesbury district

But I guess the most laughable visit was that of the Sydney Town Hall – it’s only taken 56 years to venture inside!