As I can talk talk talk and wear the ears off many listeners who are too polite to say they are just not interested in hearing my ramblings, I have decided to start this blog about my many experiences, learning curves and meeting of friends and new relatives etc. So here I go :-:
It all started many many years ago, when I kinda had an inkling of a desire to learn a bit more about my grandparents as I knew they were not born in New Zealand. My paternal grandfather (James BRIDGMAN) was born in Ireland and my maternal grandmother (Margaret Ness WYND) was born in Scotland. And they both had very different accents from anyone else in my immediate family. Then on quizzing my parents a bit I discover there are English relatives. My great grandmother, who was my paternal grandmother's mother(Amelia Jane WARNEFORD - Nan) was born to English parents who immigrated to NZ in 1859. My father and his siblings were very keen to let me know of the privilege of that English surname and the fact that one of our ancestors was the first British man to shoot down a zeppelin (Reginald Rex WARNEFORD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A7fGJujN2E and the Warneford name was used in various forms of naming buildings or something significant. There was a scout group in Gisborne named Warneford Scout Group. Then to complicate things more I had the Maori blood in the mixture. Now it never occurred to me that my mothers skin was a different colour and I was very proud to announce to anyone who was willing to listen that I was part Maori. Well I got teased real bad about that one as I was a very white looking Maori. People would say to me ...where is this Maori blood, in your little finger and then procede to laugh at me. I was so deflated and hurt. My maternal grandfather was Maori and it wasn't till years later that i discovered the only white man in that side of my family tree (whakapapa) was way back in the late 1700's. He was a Welsh whaler (William THOMAS)who had three wives in the South Island. He took on a Maori surname which was TAMATI but both names are used in today's generations. Effectively my grandfather was a full blood Maori because as I follow his direct line there was only that one man who was not of Maori blood.
I would often visit my Scottish grandmother and ask her to go through her big copper chest she had full of her family photos. There were old old photos of family in Scotland and lots more of others in Canada. What were the Scottish family doing in Canada? That was the start of many questions and now in hindsight I so wish I had written and recorded everything my grandmother told me. Alas as a child I was keen to listen but it never occurred to me that my grandmother would not be around forever and that I couldn't just tap into her knowledge and hear her all over again. And those photos.....Oh I could cry buckets not knowing what happened to them. Maybe that is an item to go on my To Do list to see if it is at all possible to discover them after 30 years
As for my Irish ancestors......well, now that is a different kettle of fish. My grandfather never spoke to his children about his homeland or his family. I did start in earnest my research when I was in my 20's, but all I knew was his name and that he came from Limerick, Ireland. My work was going to be cut out good and proper for me here.
As for my English side, as my research took off there and I joined a local and national genealogy group, I placed a few queries in the various genealogy magazines. Before long I got a reply from a man who lived up the top of the North Island. He kinda knew of me but didn't know a lot of my family. He wondered if I would be interested in an exchange of information. Of course I was more than thrilled. So I rounded up all the information of my dad and his siblings, their wives and children. I managed to get a bit more about my dad's parents and sent all the info off. A reply was duly sent with the utmost gratitude and would I mind the info being sent off to England to a distant cousin who was writing a book. In exchange I would be sent a copy of the book. Oh it sounded like all my Christmas's were going to come at once. The I forgot about it for a while. Eventually I received another letter from this cousin up North to say a package would be arriving in the mail shortly from him and he thought I would be more than pleased with it. So one day the postie comes to my door and delivers this package to me. Frowning to myself I wondered what this was so brought it inside and quickly ripped the covering off........OMG.... it was the book. Needless to say the rest of the day seemed to disappear into who knows where until I heard the noise of children arriving home from school. Oh drat... I had to put it down and deal with reality until the kids bed time. More on my English family tree will come in later blogs
Now that leaves the Maori side...O...M...G.... where to start here. So I had my grandfathers name. Great start I thought. But then my mother tells me there is another name. What ! ! ! What did she mean another name. Well it turns out, whakapapa is slightly different from your normal family tree. A whakapapa includes , waka (canoe), river (awa), mountain (maunga or mauka), tribe (iwi), sub tribe (hapu), meeting house (marae) ancestors (tipuna) can include the ocean (moana), which all leads to the parents. So there was a lot to learn here and to make matters worse my mother did not know anything of her culture or family (whanau) or the other name. She kinda new it but couldn't pronounce. You see there seems to be quite a similarity here with the Irish Catholics ...Now thats another story .......! ! Two in fact
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