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Old 18-03-10, 17:32
anne fraser's Avatar
anne fraser anne fraser is offline
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Default No happy ever after.

As a child I was a keen stamp collector amd I knew we had relatives in New Zealand who sent me beautiful stamps with pictures of flowers and animals.
My mother used to tell me the story of their only son a New Zealand soldier who had come to stay with her parents during the war and had then gone to France where he had been killed in action. The photos he had sent his parents of him and my mother were the last ones they received and I think they regarded me almost as a surrogate grandchild.

They also sent us a handtyped book of family memories of clearing a farm near Mount Egmont. My mother always said that my grandmother's cousin had gone to New Zealand as a baby and that she had gone on writing to her daughter. The only problem was when I became interested in family history all the people I could ask about this story were dead and I had long since got tired of my stamp album.

Even allowing for a generous interpetation of cousin I could find no link between the New Zealand family and mine. My grandmother's maiden name of Cox did not help. Then yesterday I googled Adelaide Cox the name of one of her aunts and I found the story of her sister Sarah who married Elijah Gadd a stone mason from Dundry in 1852 age just 21. In 1853 they had a daughter Emma Jane and in 1854 they set sail for Brisbane on the General Hewitt. Unhappily Sarah died at sea shortly after giving birth to a second Child Elijah Samuel. The death of Elijah Samuel is recorded in Brisbane Cathedral at 9 weeks.

Elijah however prospered he married another Sarah had several more children and help build Christchurch in New Zealand. The family story had been proved right my grandmother did have a cousin in New Zealand.
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Old 09-06-10, 23:11
vswells vswells is offline
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It is truly amazing with all the information coming online and being added to over the past few years, how sometimes you get lucky and get a hit on someone or some piece of info that leads to greater discovery! I recently was contacted by someone that read on old posting of mine somewhere else who was connected to the person I was doing research for. It opened the floodgates and between the 2 of us we were able to get a lot of stuff sorted out. Unfortunately, no-one is searching for any of "my" lines yet!

I am glad you were able to prove your grandmother right at last Anne
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Old 09-06-10, 23:18
borobabs
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Brilliant stuff Anne just shows not letting things go, patience and digging around you never know what you will find , glad you found piece priceless information there ;;
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Old 10-06-10, 18:24
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Durham Lady Durham Lady is offline
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Anne, it took me over 30 years to prove some of the stories one of my dad's sisters told me,

a) my father's paternal family were from Cornwall

and

b) they had an uncle who murderd his wife.

I now know the truth of both stories and wish dad, my aunts and uncles were here to share it with them.
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