Recently before I left for a month long trip to New Zealand,
I thought I would help my grandfather out by doing some research for him on his
side of the family tree. I had thought he would have done some research like
going through information like Papers Past in New Zealand. I wanted to help
Claude out as I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find.
The biggest bit of research I wanted to look into was about
the farm in Puhipuhi near Whangarei in Northland, New Zealand. He had thought
the farm had been purchased around 1920 and there was going to be a reunion or
gathering in 2020 as the farm is actually still in the family. I had seen an
aerial survey picture several years ago, but I knew basically nothing about the
farm other than being a dairy farm. The only real thing I did know was that the
farm was a discharged soldier’s farm. By accident, I did come across an article
in 1921 that did confirm the farm had been purchased around the 1920s as the
article was about a J. Williams and his sheep as he had completed his first
year of farming. I knew I had the correct person, although John Williams had
other family members on farms in the local area. Their farms had to be given up
and changed hands from the way I read the files from the National archives.
Wanting to try to confirm the exact period, I looked through
Ancestry, but not in depth within the website. I kept looking through
Paperspast within the newspapers, but kept on coming up with John’s brothers Llewelyn
and Rupert especially in regards to wanting better roads around Puhipuhi or in Llewelyn’s
case two articles about an accident where he lost one eye and his return to the
farm.
The National Archives may not have furnished me with a file
on John Williams, but I did find several others like the land transfers for
Rupert Williams. I will have to find out if there is a file hidden amongst the
files that havnt come up within the searches at the Archives. It will be
interesting. Deciding the parliamentary papers might come up with something if
I looked up information within the Soldiers discharge or even Returned soldiers
if there was anything. I accidentally came across the Sheep returns that
provide you with number between April 30 of one year ending on April 30 of the
next year. These include the numbers of the sheep and lambs within
parliamentary papers so that would mean solid information. It conformed John
Williams had his farm in the 1920s sometime after April 30 1920 and after 1922
the sheep and lamb numbers vanished. I did search either side of the years and
found nothing. I am guessing he somehow sold all the sheep and ended up going
into the dairy industry. There are no individual names for that other than the
cattle numbers for the whole district. I don’t know if the sheep had anything
to do with selling wool to England, but I do have the basics for some research
and time period.
I thought it would be because the dairy factory in Hikurangi
would have only been established, but that had been in 1903, I think it was so
there must have been other reasons that I never knew about.
Other research I have looked into is within Albert
Gabolinscy in Germany. I cant confirm what I have found, but I think if I
actually say what I have found some family members might take that as I have
found proof. I would never use what I have found as proof unless there are
several sources. I found an Albert Johann Gablonski, where I was wondering if
this was the guy in Germany around the same period. Johann actually sounds like
Owen, but that is as far as I will go until I have found more concrete information.
Its what I do, I run down leads. I don’t speak German, but that wont stop me
and I even found a newspaper article on Trove where Albert gives his address in
Kohukohu in a German language paper in Adelaide. I still don’t have him coming
to or even leaving New Zealand in the 30 year time period.
While in the Hikurangi museum, I did come across two
Gabolinscys that were police officers in their younger days especially through sport
like boxing. It makes me wonder if the stories I have been told are really
true, which I think they are. They were police officers, who were also thugs
who were kicked out of the force. When you hear stories of people beating up
Islanders in the 1960s just for fun and you know of others in the family with
issues towards anger then you may figure out thatr runs in the family. I would
like to access their service records and I need permission from the archivist
to do so as they are restricted until 2030 from memory.
My grandparents did show me two certificates that were found under their bed that was to a friendly society known as the Ancient Order of the Foresters. Two family members that I know of were part of this order and from some basic research they were like a type of charity group to helping people. I have found many family members who have been druids or part of orders in New Zealand. You never know what can be found under beds
Sources
J Williams first year of farm 1921 puhipuhi Manawatu Times,
Volume XLVI, Issue 1949, 18 October 1921
J Williams Sheep returns April 1921 H-23b RETURN OF
SHEEPOWNERS AND OF THE NUMBER OF SHEEP AND LAMBS IN EACH COUNTY ON THE 30th
APRIL, 1920 AND 1921.
J Williams H-23b RETURN OF SHEEPOWNERS AND OF THE NUMBER OF
SHEEP AND LAMBS IN EACH COUNTY ON THE 30th APRIL, 1922 AND 1923.
Papers Past - includes Parliamentary papers
