‘This project sets out to create ways for each of us to focus on our own family stories while collaborating on elements that we share in our family migration paths.’

I am piloting a path about ‘Whaling ships to New Zealand’. I have ancestors who either spontaneously ‘jumped ship’ on their arrival or used the ship to make a planned emigration to New Zealand. My ancestors will be the starting point but I would like to look at the history of whaling and the social context to the topic.

So please have a look at the project (link below) as there are so many migration paths already and one of them may be of interest to you.

https://projectkin.org/migration-stories

The Edmonds cookbook was first published in 1908 as a pamphlet by Thomas Edmonds to promote recipes using his baking powder. Thomas Edmonds developed the tins of baking powder after his customers complained of the unreliability of the currently available baking powder. The pamphlet became a marketing tool to increase his sales numbers. The cookbook continues to have a section based on recipes using Edmonds baking powder but new recipes and sections have been included for all types of cooking.

The Edmonds cookbook has become a New Zealand icon of national identity alongside the ‘Buzzy Bee’ toy, curried sausages or even a well-known rugby team. Also, it became a tradition to give a newly married couple/housewife an Edmonds cookbook as a wedding present.

In fact, my grandmother continued the tradition and I was given a copy when I married in 1995. A long-lasting tradition that I hope continues. What cookbook is your family tradition?

My 4 x great grandfather Henry Hunt emigrated to Sydney, Australia on the ‘Emigrant’ in 1849. He was accompanied by his wife and seven children. I obtained a copy of the passenger list and initially did not register the importance of the other individuals on the page, instead I was excited about finding them, their ages, and their point of origin

Then I noted that there were thirteen passengers from the village of Stourpaine in Dorset including my own. One couple had the surname Hunt, and the other two individuals had the surname Horlock which was Henry Hunt’s wife’s surname (Sarah Horlock) before their marriage.

I searched the 1841 census for Dorset which provides a rounded down age if over 15 years, a village name but no specific house names, no family relationships and a ‘Yes’ if born in Dorset. Not an ideal record for trying to locate ancestors but they had left England before the 1851 census. It was a slow process, but I found all their names! Then a search of parish records gave me their relationships. My to-do list now includes the tithe records, electoral rolls and manorial records.

Henry Hunt and his family emigrated with:

· James Hunt and his wife Ann Hunt formerly Jeans (Henry Hunt’s brother)

· John Horlock, Hester Horlock formerly Turner and their daughter Jane (Henry Hunt’s brother-in-law)

What next with this information?

Like many family historians, I was distracted and went on to another family group. This prompt of looking at ‘Neighbours and Community’ for Week 32 has turned my focus to life on board the ‘Emigrant’. I would like to learn about the ship, the crew, the food, the accommodation, the activities…. another list created.

What is a Turner?

A Turner would use a rotating lathe to shape wood, metal, bone or ivory. The lathe would have been rotated using a foot treadle during the 19^th century and an individual would have completed an apprenticeship usually for seven years.

The family trade began with Daniel Lewis who was born in 1768 in Bristol. I have found his apprenticeship indenture (agreement) dated the 4^th October 1781 to John Sutton. His initial apprenticeship was in ivory, but he later turned his skills to wood.

Daniel Lewis was living and working in a major port that was involved with the trade of enslaved people and the ivory that he worked with would have arrived on the same ships. He named his sons after two influential men – Sir Francis Burdett Lewis and George Washington and the family may have worshipped as non-conformists.

Why explore his daily life?

Firstly, to learn about his trade as a Turner but also to understand his attitudes to being indirectly involved in the trade of enslaved people. And did this prompt the change in his religious beliefs away from the established church and his relocating to London. Or perhaps I need to know if it had no effect, an unwanted conclusion.

On a visit to family in New Zealand during February 2025, I was able to view and photograph copies of their industrial school record. It was a record that I thought would add some depth to their history but was surprised by how much information that could be harvested!

Firstly, what were industrial schools?

Industrial and reform schools for children were created after the Neglected and Criminal Children’s Act of 1867. It allowed local/provincial government to place neglected and abandoned children aged under 15 into care. They tried to separate neglected and criminal children, and the children could be placed into employment or boarded out with foster parents or friends.

What records are available?

The education guide on The New Zealand Archives website provides links to records that are available in the main repositories. But I found Thomas and Ruby mentioned in the Auckland Industrial School – Particulars of Admission with the reference of R1000730.

Ruby Maude Nursey was living in the Children’s Home, Richmond Road, Auckland and attending Richmond Road Public School. According to the record, Ruby was to live with Rev. and Mrs Edgell in Te Aroha, but it was cancelled because ‘.. the girl became aware of it, she seemed to lose control of herself & now becomes excited at the presence of men’. This statement is concerning as you wonder what trauma in her past had changed her behaviour and became the reason to ‘.. keep control of her until she is older and more settled.’.

Ruby’s early childhood had been unsettled with her mother becoming an alcoholic and working as a prostitute. Sadly, in this record her mother is recorded as unknown and her father was Charles Alexander Nursey, a mariner who was late of Mahurangi Heads.

Thomas Edward Nursey was admitted to the industrial school system in 1904 at the age of 14 months under the name of Thomas Brennan. His birth certificate records his father as Charles Alexander Nursey but according to this document, his father was Thomas Brennan, and this is confirmed by Thomas Edward Nursey’s baptismal record at St Patricks Cathedral. The record states that Sarah Nursey (mother) is in goal for drunken behaviour and Thomas Brennan (father) was in hospital having had his throat cut after a drunken brawl. Thomas Edward Brennan had been left in the care of another woman who was homeless. After Thomas Edward Nursey’s admission into care, he was boarded with various families until he was transferred to St Mary’s in Takapuna.

There is a record of someone visiting Thomas Edward Nursey during his time in the industrial school system, but it only provides a date and not a name.

This source has provided not only confirmation of dates and names but social context to Ruby Maude Nursey and Thomas Edward Nursey’s lives. Every time I read the documents, I discover more information and new leads to research

Often the informants address and family relationship was noted. The informant on a death certificate may be a married daughter and suddenly you have their married name. This helps with the search for the daughter’s marriage and perhaps lead to her offspring.

But if the informant on the death certificate had no relationship listed or is not related, still I research the individual and try to ascertain how they knew my ancestor. It might be an associate who perhaps trades in a similar occupation or their local minister. The name of the local minister can provide social history by discovering where your ancestor worshipped and the denomination. I am often surprised how often my relatives changed their denomination in early New Zealand.

As for birth certificate informants, they can be the mother or mother-in-law, the midwife or sometimes the father. Often if it is the father, the child is listed as not being present which may be due to the long distances the father had to travel often by horse to register the birth. Again, helping the family historian to add context to the social history of their ancestor.

So next time you get a birth, marriage or death certificate then look at the informant and research how they contribute to your ancestors’ lives!

Nicolas Congerkalar married Elizabeth Habbott on the 29^{th of} March 1883 in Sydney, Australia. There are many inconsistencies with surnames and information provided on the certificate

Elizabeth Habbott was born Elizabeth Abbott to James Abbott and Elizabeth Davison on the 25^{th of} Mar 1858 in Leicester, England. Her surname was changed to Alexander between 1861 and 1866 when her father ‘disappeared’ and her mother had a new partner called James Alexander. Elizabeth Abbott/Alexander changed her name through three marriages to Nursey, Congerkellar/Congerkalar and Warning with no evidence of divorce for any marriage! Therefore, she was not a spinster or born in Scotland as declared on the certificate.

With suspicion I began to research the surname Congerkalar/Congerkellar.

According to the marriage certificate, Nicolas Congerkalar was a Mariner, born in Athens, Greece and his father was George Congerkalar. A lucky find was his death certificate in 1883. However, it was documented that he was been born in Italy, had been resident in New South Wales for 9 years and had a son called Sottoro. His son used the spelling Coughkeller on many documents.

What were the possibilities I needed to research?

· How was the surname spelt

· Was he born in Italy or Greece

· Why did he describe his father’s occupation as a sawyer

· Was he aware of his wife’s adjusted surname

· Which ship did he arrive on? Was it 9 years ago?

· Was Sottoro a misspelling of Sotero which is Greek for ‘saviour’ or ‘rescuer’?

I still know very little about Nicolas Congerkalar/Congerkellar and it does not help that his wife would adjust her own life to suit her current circumstances.

Where did it originate and what does it mean?

According to A Dictionary of Surnames, it is a regional surname for someone who had migrated from further north in England or Normandy. The surname was popular in the Midlands.

I am unable to locate Charles Bayley Nursey in the 1851 England census, but it is useful to identify the distribution at this time and it will help me to focus my research on family remaining in England. Therefore looking at the distribution of the surname on the 1851 census, the main distribution is in Norfolk and Suffolk which is constant with records I have located for Charles Bayley Nursey’s origins.

The origin and meaning of surnames can be divided into four categories:

· Locative – topographic or

· Patronymic/Metronymic

· Occupational

· Personal/Nicknames

Using this system Nursey is described as a:

· Topographic name for a person who lived on the north side of a settlement or in the North House. The earliest recording for the surname as a topographic name was for Adam de Norhouse in the county of Essex in 1206

· Occupational name for nurse. There are two further origins mentioned as from the Latin ‘Nutricius’ which means nourishing in English and from the Old French ‘Norfice’ to mean nurse

Where does this lead me? Should I think of a One Name Study?

References

Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of Surnames [eBook], 1988, https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3283379W/A_dictionary_of_surnames?edition=key%3A/books/OL2044914M

NURSEY surname, Surname DB, https://surnamedb.com/Surname/Nursey

John Bennington was a bootmaker, a trade that he had learned from his father who was called John Bennington as well. John Bennington junior worked as a boot and shoemaker in Norwich Quay, Lyttelton for 40 years and later started a boot making factory in Waimate.

Sarah Jane was very involved in the business and bought out with her the first Mangle reputed to be in Lyttelton. This consisted of two rollers in a metal frame that was used to wring the water out of washing before hanging it to dry. In fact, I remember my grandmother (Edith Reece) using a mangle on the washing tub in the 1970’s and her reminding me to not get my hand caught as I put the washing through the mangle.

My grandmother (Edith Reece) would have been fascinated to learn that her great grandmother (Sarah Jane) had bought such an item to Lyttelton. Especially as my grandmother had very little to do with that side of the family.

I have often heard it said that New Zealand is a matriarchal society. But I think that was meant as an acknowledgement of how hard women worked to create our country rather than evidence of their control over society. But women did get the vote in 1893.

My maternal grandparents had a difficult relationship, but my grandfather would always reply to any question….ask your grandmother? I think he was always looking for a quiet life.

Sometimes I can become so focussed on working on a brick wall, I forget to review what I already have and ask new questions of that information or document. Some questions I have constructed during the process are:

· How are the marriage witnesses related to the couple and perhaps each other

· The father was a journeyman so where did he do his apprenticeship and what records can I access

· What is the Water Police court in Sydney and can I access these records

· Why is there a gap between the birth and baptism and different locations

Beside each entry on the timeline, I have entered the new questions to be researched. Instead of running at the brick wall, my new sets of questions will hopefully help me to look around or even over it!

My great great grandmother was born on the 30^th June 1883 at The Wade ( Silverdale). Sarah Louisa Thomas became pregnant and married Charles Alexander Nursey on the 20 Jul 1900. Sarah and Charles had two children, Ruby Maude Nursey and Thomas Edward Nursey. From 1 Oct 1901, there are newspaper articles describing her arrests for threatening behaviour, drinking and prostitution. There is evidence that her son, Thomas Edward Nursey born in 1903, was the son of Thomas Brennan who was arrested for similar behaviour.

Sarah Louisa Thomas abandoned both her children to the industrial school system. I have read both children’s admission records and it is heart-breaking as neither received visits from any parent.

Reflecting on these incidents, I initially felt quite angry. However, putting it into social context, I can see the control that alcohol abuse has had on Sarah’s behaviour and with no family or support from the children father/s the inevitable spiral of the children being admitted to the industrial school.

· 31 March 1913 Arthur John Reece married Eva Evelyn Elsie Workman at Mrs Evans’ house, Christchurch. Mrs Evans was his mother.

· 29 October 1920, Arthur John Evans married Rose Anna Olsen at Wellington. I have not found a divorce from his first marriage

· 1942 Arthur John Evans married Timpa Miriana Te Rangi at Palmerston North

· 9 Jul 1957 Arthur John Evans died in Trunk Mill, Erua

The links between them are:

1. Common surnames – Arthur used the surname Evans after his marriage in 1920. He listed his parents with the same first names but changed their surnames to Evans or to Rennington

2. His age remained the same

3. Like many people location ‘moved’ up the South and North Island as they looked for work or try to escape detection

Life as an emigrant may be hard on the voyage but the decision to make that step and never to return to your home country is sometimes hard to understand. As an emigrant, you always feel like a square peg in a round hole. The friends and new family group are part of looking forward to a new life which for many emigrants to New Zealand was a chance to reinvent yourself. And my ancestors did reinvent themselves with new names and multiple marriages!

But like me, I am sure there many things that they missed about home. For me, a few things are cicadas, lemonade ice blocks, Piha beach and sausages with tomato sauce in white bread. For them it may have been smells of their home parish, family lunch on a Sunday or the autumn colours of the trees.

I admire how they gave up everything for a new life often without a chance to return. Whereas I get the chance to almost hug that passport officer when they say to me…. Welcome home!