The Tree of Me

Those who know me know that wherever I go I need to check out anything that relates to ancestors and distant family members. A holiday to New Zealand earlier in the year provided me with a few such opportunities. The first was a visit to St Joseph's Catholic Cathedral in Dunedin and St Joseph's Catholic Church in Queenstown. Photo - Paul Kennedy The obituary of Daniel William Woods states that he was the builder of St Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin.  Past Papers - Otago Daily Times 17 April 1923 The brochure I picked up at the cathedral states that Mr D.M. Woods built the choir loft in December 1883. The surrounds of the icon of the Our Lady of Perpetual Succour were designed by Mr F.W. Peter and constructed by Mr D.W. Woods. However, nowhere does it give details of the builder of the cathedral.  A trip to Queenstown and a walk uphill to visit St Joseph's Catholic Church which was consecrated in 1898. Daniel William Woods married Cather...

The Waitangi Day Blog Challenge from the Auckland Research Centre challenges us to write a post about your early New Zealand ancestors. What stories can you tell about their lives? I have a few members of my family who have moved from Hobart to New Zealand and will write about one of them today. Charles Thomas Seabrook (1844 - 1912) caused problems for many years as he simply disappeared from his home town of Hobart Town. Eventually I discovered that he hadn't moved very far at all and had in fact left Tasmania in 1865 for the town of Hokitika on the west coast of the south island of New Zealnd The West Coast Times of 26th September 1865 reported that a Mr Seabrook was one of ten cabin passengers on board the William Miskin . Like his father Henry William Seabrook and 3 of his 5 brothers, Charles was a builder and soon entered the building trade on the west coast. He was in partnership for some time with his brother Henry William Seabrook, who later returned to Australia....