Book is Finished

Well the book is finally finished, after a full on day on Sunday and very early Monday morning.  Dropped book off at 10am Monday..............yay.  been bouncing ever since, even the price change cant dim me.

Apparently i was so absorbed in doing the book, that ihave been missing in action fromthe family for about two months.  OPPPSSS.  So now having a 10 day break. 

The reunion is in 10 days time.....so looking forward to meeting everyone.

Cya soon

Claire

The book is finally coming together

Hello folk

Not been here for a while now.  Busy at the beginning of the year to say the least. 

I have had a couple of new contacts with the Taylor line, they have been great.  Thanks Ngarie and Ruth for the updates. 

Marlene has also been on a roll, giving me more info and making sure I am kept up to date, apparently we have just had a family wedding and a new baby this year.  You will have to read the book to find out who, what, where and when.

Noela has also been keeping me on my toes, my family and I went over to her house a few weeks back, what a gorjus place she has, it is going to be great for the Reunion, i am so lookign forward to meeting everyone.

The Alfuth & Ridley lines are now done, just need to format the document.  The Bond line is coming along nicely and the Taylors I hope to start next week.

Any last minute stories?  Never mind I think we will call it a day.

Thank you all for your time, and memories, cya soon

Happy New Year & a long over due Update

Happy New Year everyone, I hope 2012 is very good to you all.

Well havent I been a bit slack with my updates.  Sorry about that.  New info came in at a rapid pace again.  I have had a couple of phone calls from Kevin and emails from down South Island from the Neil line.  Noela has been to visit several times, giving me info from Kevin, oh Kevin sent an email to, so thanks :-)

Everything is comign together now.,  We have a deposit system for the books of $10 each or more preferable you can pay in full $25 each.  The deposit is for printing costs.  I am hoping to do one  print run for everyone so please get your orders in.  It would be lovely to be able to hand them out at the reunion.

If there is not many on order then the printing will be done after the Reunion and that also means there will be a  postal charge too on top of the $25.  Those of you in Australia I will make sure there are copies for yout o take home.  I can manage a short print run by doing this myself rather than at the printers.

So far we have Orders for 28 books........which to say the least is wonderful.  Thank you to those who have paid or are in the process of paying.  Thank you to those who have paid deposits, dont forget to bring the money on the day.

Look forward to meeting you all.

Oh yes news just in............had an order from Nathan Ridley in OZ.  He recently got engaged, though that story will be in the book.......well the anouncement anyway.......

Bye for now

Photos, Family Memories/Stories & News Articles

Well it has been a few weeks since I last posted, I have been working on the Bond story and I still need to work on the Taylor one too.

The Family Reports are coming along nicely, had a few edits back, which has been great.

I have contacted everyone now, so I am hoping that the info will flow.  All I need now are Photos, Family memories and or stories and any newsarticles that would be great to include.  Marlene thanks again for all the photos you sent me, they are great and will have a place somewhere in the book.  Also thank you for the Family Stories, you have been great.

Helen thanks for the updates, photos, they have all been cropped and will also look great in the book.  Glenese, thank you for all the information you sent to me it is great, I look forward to catching up with you at some stage.  Noela.......may I borrow your photos to scan please.  Could I also have the info on the the line that we contacted that day. 

Really need to put that in an email, i doubt very much that noela reads the blog.....lol.  I have not yet heard from Kevin? or the other lady we contacted.  We have only 3 weeks to get the book ready for putting together, I know this is going to be a very busy time of year for everyone, so the sooner the better.

Nicole, thank you also for emailing pictures to me, they are great.  So you have any family memories other than what was in the report you sent.  is it possible to contact some of those cousins as well?

Also a big thank you to Alison, who as sent me more information on the Taylor line, the more the better this will be.  It was great to speak to you :-)

Take care.

Claire

New Bond & Taylor Info

Just a short blog today.

I have given the close by  date as the last day in November, so unless it is a serious error in  a report, then that is it.  A final spell check will be done probably around the end of January, before printing.

Now the Bonds.  I so need to get back into the story of the Bond family, it has been interesting to research.  The factual story has been a a stand still for a while due to concentrating on the Ridley story, due to the fact I have been able to find more information.

Today I got another reply for the Bond line.......YAY.   Glenese sounds lovely, and she has corrected and updated me on her line.  I am now looking forward to seeing some more photos and maybe some memories.  Glenese is in a similar area as myself, so we may be able to meet up.  that will be grand.  Another cousin, it is never ending, which is fantastic.  :-)

Well Glenese, your line is now updated.  I will send a new copy out mid Novemeber for you to everyone to double check.  Look forward to meeting you soon.

I have sent a Ridley Report out, updated today and sent it too all on the Ridley line.

Thanks Helen for Muriels email, I have sent two emails, hoping the last one can be opened.  I have asked her to let me know, I may have to send her a printed copy.

I finally rang Alison tonight, another lady who sounds lovely.  I look forward to hearing from Alison in the near future.  First  I have tosend her a copy of the Taylor family PDF.  hopefully not to much is wrong.  Thanks Marie, for this connection.

Thats about it for now.

The next steps

The Taylors are a complicated lot, though thanks to Marie, Bruce and Nicole I have the family reports, and it is looking grand.  I have another person to contact, thanks to Marie, will really have to do that tonight, I am hoping that this call will give a local angle and more on how the Taylor family grew.

Who were they Taylors?  Where did they come from? How big was the family?  Like both the Bond and Ridley families, the Taylors came over during the Vogel Immigration Scheme.  William Edward Taylor arrived on the "Rodney" in 1875, along with is parents George & Frances Taylor nee Maitland, and three siblings, Richard, Fanny Elizabeth and Mercy, sad to say Mercy died on the ship due to scarlettina or pneumonia.  It must of been a big shock to George and Frances to lose one of their own.  The family were orignally from Kent, though a different area from the Ridley family.

George and Frances had 5 more children in New Zealand.  I have followed most of the lines the best I can, thanks to those mentioned above, there will be photos and I hope to have some memory and newspaper stories too.  I dont really want to give to much away.

I have been surprised at how many of the Alfuth descendants are local to the Bay of Plenty region.  It is nice to be able to find cousins on the doorstep that we never knew about, my children and husband have had fun meeting some of these cousin.  We hope to meet many more of you at the reunion next year.

Oh I just remembered I found a picture of the Immigration Barracks in New Plymouth where I think some of our families may of stayed for up to three days, on their arrival in this district.  That is something that I won't be able to confirm, unless there is a list of those who passed through them, something I may look into.

I have also found a possible employer for William Ridley, however I may just use this gentlemans story as something that William was told or learnt about in his first two years, maybe a neighbour, after all this I doubt that I will be able to use a real person as an employer, so for now he shall remain unnamed.

How it all started

All this reseach of mine has been going on for nearly 10 yrs now, I have been researching every branch that is connected to my childrens line. 

This book I am compiling in around June this year.  I got a visit form my local cousin Helen, we had first met with her husband Don just over a year ago previous.  Anyway helen came around to visit and told me about a Family Reunion that involved the Alfuth (Alford) line and those that married into it in the original generation.  Rildley, Taylor and Bond. 

Helen had been talking to Noela (this was the first time I heard her name).  Apparently Noela and a few other cousins and siblings were orgainising this Reunion for 2012 and they wanted to do an information booklet for people about there ancestors and where they came from. 

Silly me.............lol.  Helen knew I had a lot of information already, I said no worries I will do a book.  Things just took off.  I was instantly interested in the Ridley line with this been one of my childrens main lines.  Helen said she would get back to me with news from Noela, via phone calls, apparently Noela doesn't like email.  With in the first week I had found another link to our William Ridley, his older sister Charlotte Norris Pollington nee Ridley came over to Napier, New Zealand a month before William and Eliza left England. 

Charlotte came over  with her husband John and their children, though they lost one son aged 2yrs on the voyage over.  I have all the shipping details and so far not much else.

I got an email from Helen "Can Noela visit on Monday"  yes that is fine, I don't go far on Mondays.  In the end I first met Noela on Wednesday.  Well what a livewire she is!!  She gave me alsorts of information, including a list of other siblings and cousins for me to email and get their family lines.  They included Brenda, Anne, Marlene, Frances.  There were others, though I can't remember the names off top of my head....sorry.

I emailed everyone on the list, saying who I was and asking for family information and research that they may all have, and would like to see in the reunion book.  This was for all lines now.  Some research and notes came through the post, other via email.  I will have to look through my emails to see whow as the first to respond.  I do know that Brenda was the first to snail mail me.  What a lot of information, photos, family bible, news clippings, certificates and all the names I could imagine for the Bond family line.  Lots of data to put in my tree, lots of reading to do and I still have to scan photos to use in the book.

I think it was Marlene who got back to me first via email.  What a lovely lady she is, funny, most certainly, lots of info..........fantastic.  We have had a good laugh so far, Skyping and emailing, I even got to meet Marlene about a month ago when she was up with way with one of her sons and family.  This grandson of her's is gorjus...............and really active.  The family were having time out from the Christchurch quakes, which are still very much ongoing.  Marlene and family thank you for letting me visit and a big happy birthday to the little one next month.

Now where was I.........lol. Got carried away then.  needless to say Marlene has done heaps of research for me, about Taranaki and gathering other research from family, gossiping about memories which I also hope to include in the book. 

Helen, the lady who started me on this journey, THANKS, it has been fun so far.  I still remember the day that everyone visited Noela, Francis and Ann, who jsut happened to bang into Helen and brought her along too, I think my poor husband was a bit shell shocked to meet so many new cousins at once.  Laughter filled the air, with family stories, my favortie one been about the Dressing Gown Lady (Marlene).  Very funny, I dont think all the nuttiness comes through my line anymore, I'm going to blame those Ridley, Bond and Taylor lines.

Helen has also done a heap of research for me as well as emailing other family to get information,  for me, Helen also found Nicole for me too.    Nicole is an impressive researcher today, her Family report was huge, I still need to ask her to contact the other researchers mentioned in the report.  Starting to think that this reunion is going to be huge.

I have to re write the Ridley story coz my historical research is......blah date wise, the other stories also have to be worked on, though I think they may stay a bit more factual. 

Well this is how it all sorted, the story is a bit messy.......however I dont care at this stage, if you do tough.  There are a lot of other people to thank for infomation yet, including Bruce and Marie, who's sister in law I still have to ring.  Wish she had an email instead.........lol.

Well see you horrible lot next blog, keep up the good work and thanks for everything.