While we are not members of the NZ Society of Genealogists, we recognise the untiring work members do to promote and advance the causes of genealogy and family history. The flyer below promotes this Tawa, Wellington event  that may interest you if you live in this region. I am sure members there will be willing to discuss with you your thorny questions about your ancestry. Perhaps we will see you there. 
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Are you an out-of-towner interested in this event? We may be able to offer overnight accommodation on Friday 28 Aug and/or Saturday 29 Aug. Contact us (Margaret or Terry) if you are interested in this offer. We have room for a couple and a single; or two singles.
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Margaret Milne was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was the daughter of Don and Helen and grew up in Hansens Lane, Upper Riccarton. After her marriage to Terry in Christchurch during 1976  they spent four years in Auckland from 1977-1990 before living in Canterbury, NZ until 1994 and Wellington until the present. The first of their four children (1980-1990) was born in Auckland and the other three in the South Island.

Don was born and grew up in Masterton, New Zealand. He met and married Helen Walker in Christchurch, during 1941. Soon after their marriage he served with the NZ Air Force as a YMCA worker in the Solomon Islands. Together they had a family of four children born between 1949-1955 of which Margaret was the youngest.

The video above records Helen Milne (nee Walker) reflecting on her life.

George emigrated from Aberdeen via London to Masterton in 1910. In 1913 he married Elsie Tooby who was born in Masterton. They married in Masterton and had four children between 1913 and 1918 of whom Don was the third. Elsie was of English descent and lived to be 100.

Donald was born on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides and Helen near Croy, Inverness, They married at Kiltearn west of Inverness in 1906 and they had four children between 1905 and 1917, the youngest of whom was Helen who was born after their move south to Bournemouth, Dorset, England. In 1925 they emigrated as a family to Christchurch, New Zealand.

Very obviously there is a heap of genealogical and historical information buried beneath this post. If you want to know more please get in touch.

Thomas Richard and Annie Mabel Elcox are my maternal grandparents. Annie was a Farmer from Glen Oroua in the Manawatu. Tom arrived in Aotearoa in 1924 after four years serving with the British Army in France, Belgium and India. Annie was born and grew up as the second youngest of a large dairy farming family. They both died young so that my siblings and I, their only grandchildren, never knew them. Their stories are a fascinating study of a very endowed couple serving their families, communities and world. They are told in a new publication, The Grandparents We Never Knew.

Tom (1899-1933) grew up in Areley Kings, Worcestershire, England before offering four years of youthful service in WW1 and on the North West Frontier of India (1917-1921) with the Machine Gun Corps. In New Zealand he very quickly established an agricultural contracting and stock transportation business and fathered three children before he was tragically killed when his truck overturned with a load of sheep aboard in 1933.

Annie (1897-1951) was gifted musically gaining ATCL in 1923.  She worked as a church and community musician and music teacher into her marriage. Living as a widow with three young children, she took on the task of maintainig their family business at Rongotea into WW2 when manpower shortages demaned its sale in 1941. She spent the last ten years of her life raising her children, the second of whom had been born with cerebral palsy. Annie died soon after her younger daughter's marriage at age 53.

Flipbook and a PDF copies of this publication are below.