RANDOM MEANDERINGS

Mary Anne CASTLE formerly PAWSON nee LAWSON 1811 - 1880 My G G G G Grandmother Mary Ann LAWSON was born 13 April 1811 in Otley, Yorkshire, England. She married firstly on 7 January 1828 in Otley to John PAWSON. They arrived in Port Nicholson [Wellington] onboard the 'Coromandel' 29 August 1840 with their 5 children William [b1828], Sarah Ann [my GGG grandmother born 1831]; John [b1834]; Jonas [b1835] and Joseph [b1838]. Their 6th child Edwin was born and died on the journey to NZ. They went on to have a further 5 children. Edwin [b1842]; Hannah [b1844]; Thomas [b1846]; Mary Anne [b1848] and Ellen [b1852]. John was during his lifetime a constable on early arrival in NZ in Thorndon Flat, Wellington. In 1848 he took up carpentering again and in 1850 he was living at Tinakori Road. Thereafter the family left for Lyttelton on the 'Queen', then on to Little Akaloa and lived in Banks Peninsula as one of the early established families. In 1857 t...

C ontinuing on the hunt and return theme and building on the success of my medal purchase earlier this year, I recently bought a September 1937 framed lifesaving certificate off trademe.co.nz. Unfortunately the non-intelligent seller didn't do as i suggested i.e. cardboard over the glass, wrap in bubblewrap, don't put any form of sticky tape near the object to retain the integrity of it, put plenty of fragile stickers on the outside and courier it to me, but stuck a couple of old dirty teatowels to the front adhered by strip sticking plasters, placed in a pillowslip and sent it normal post without any fragile warnings. Of course not only the glass was shattered and the frame broken but the fragile backing tore off with the item :-(   I shouldn't have been surprised the previous owner wouldn't care, afterall it had been stored in his damp garage for years.  This certificate was awarded to Moyra HOWARD for "practical knowledge of Rescue, Releasing oneself from the ...

The HANSON's angel Originally uploaded by SandyEm A little angel i found at the cemetery today :-)

Trawling through Paperspast on the NZ National Library website, I discovered that my GGG Uncle William LODGE [1850-1913, son of Rosannah LODGE and stepson of Thomas Seth LODGE] had an indoor cricket pavilion built in Christchurch. This was beside the then Collin's Hotel [later to become The Occidental Hotel]. As far as I'm aware this would have been Christchurch's first indoor cricket facility as the pavilion at Lancaster Park was in the planning stages when this one was commenced in 1882. The photo below is c1889 - Cricket pavillion under arrow Thanks to Mr CH for the photo! The Star, 21 March 1882 reports : "Cricket will soon become as common a pastime in winter as in summer. In addition to the proposed pavilion for winter practice at Lancaster Park, Mr Lodge has commenced the erection of a similar building in Hereford street, next to Collins Hotel. The structure is to be wide enough to allow of two wickets being pitched, and owing to its proxim...

Me - c1965 How lucky am I! I had an uncle who in the 1950's and 60's had a movie camera... a rarity in those days for the masses. A few weeks back my daughter bought a DVD with her when she came to visit and there on it were some of the home movies that my uncle took way back then including my parents as teenagers before marriage; their wedding [at St Paul's Presbyterian Church...since obliterated in the February 2011 earthquake ]; me as a toddler being chased by my dad. Very precious...especially as i got to see my great grandmother as a moving person! She died before i was born. As it is mum and dads 50th wedding anniversary on 17 October 2009 this is now especially timely :-) and i only had black and white photos of their wedding. It was wonderful to see the moving footage. These are only stills, but hopefully i will be able to rip parts of the DVD off to add to this post. Mum and dad late teens - early 20's - c1957 Mum entering St Paul's...

Approximately 300 soldiers are being disinterred. There has been some concern that the project is running behind time due to weather, bad planning of toxic runoffs etc and the employment of a 'cheap' archaeological firm. However the blog seems to discount this. Follow the news from Fromelles. http://www.cwgc.org/fromelles/blog/ Check out the descendant database http://www.fromelles.net/ Wish i was there helping out! Would be fabulous!

My latest miniature project My project will look something similar to this. Some of the cutie items to use to dress my 'kitchen bench'. Parts cut out and partially painted The 'Belfast' basin

tiny books - cat checked and cat approved Originally uploaded by graceewhite So this is my first post...i think i shall start with a photo of 2 of my favourite things - cats and miniatures :-) This photo was taken by one of my lovely flickr contacts, Grace. She makes FANTASTIC miniatures and is just a lovely person :-)

http://www.sarndra.com/perreau.html - My very rewarding experience of reuniting the honourable discharge certificate and British War Medal of Private William PERREAU, Auckland Regiment with his grandson in Australia. http://www.sarndra.com/begg.html - my page relating to Constable Adam George BEGG of Auckland. Died in the execution of his duties in 1927 aged 27 and how he has become a part of my life.