Attention Wairarapa-ites

I have a book of my Grandmothers dated 1909. I think she came from the Wairarapa area. She used to talk of the farm she lived on when she was a little girl (she was born in 1896). On the edge of the pages at the top of the book is a word I think might be the name of the farm but it's really hard to read and I wondered if anyone in the area might recognise the name or a variation of the letters I can make out M O T H A U or M O I H A U or it might be an H at the end.....
Their name was Barton and I think they ran sheep.
I remember a story she told of being in her Sunday best and being told by the farm hands that if she could catch a guinea pig by the tail, she could have it, she apparently crawled under the shearing shed after one and got into terrible trouble for messing up her clothes. Dad is doubtful of the truth in this story but it was a story she told me and true or not, it's kind of nice to know your Grandmother thought is was ok to crawl around in her best frock when she was small.

She also laughed about the guinea pigs and their tails or lack of them.

Not much was ever passed down from my paternal grandparents as far as family history goes. They kicked off from Somerset and ended up in NZ.... well someone did on Dads' side, how far back I have no idea. It would be kind of neat if the farm she grew up on was still around in some part.... maybe it's been a house and then a hay barn and is now gone for good but maybe not.

Yakut

There is (or was 7 years ago) a Barton family at Woodside, Greytown. I wonder if they are related? The farm name doesn't ring any bells, sorry.

We are going to a family reunion in the Wairarapa region in June, so I can ask around then. Any further info you can give might help jog a memory!
My Grandfather and Grandmother on that side farmed one of the blocks cleared from the Forty Mile Bush. They pulled out the last stump in about 1950. I am looking forward to a planned tour of what was the old homestead and farm - scene of many a tale.

Hi Yakut

It could be this place.
www.nzfarms.co.nz/l/645246/

Though most Bartons seem to be South Wairarapa.

You could try these places also.

Carterton District Historical Society Inc.
44 Broadway, Carterton (opposite Memorial Club)
Open 2-4pm Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday
Also open by appointment
President: Alison Underhill (06) 379 7827
Secretary: Maureen Leach (06) 379 9021 email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Family History Centre (Latter Day Saints Church)
Opaki Road, Masterton – entry from rear of church, car-park side.
Open 11am-3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Also open the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month

Wairarapa Archive
79 Queen Street, Masterton
Open 1-5pm Monday to Friday
Website: www.library.mstn.govt.nz/archive.html

Wairarapa branch of NZ Society of Genealogists
Research centre, 79 Queen Street, Masterton
Open 1-4pm Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
And 10am-4pm Saturday
Meetings are the third Monday of each month, February-November at 7.30pm
Contact Mrs Bev Towgood, P O Box 726, Masterton
Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Those are good references but I'd say to try the Wai Archives first. We have one of the best archivists in NZ here and the whole team just love questions of the kind you are asking plus an enormous knowledge of local families etc. I recently needed their help and was very impressed - the matter I was looking at is in South Wairarapa so they have plenty of resources. Good luck in your search.

Hmmm, I suspect the house on the website might not be old enough, unless the original was past it and the owners rebuilt. I just thought that maybe, on the off chance, someone might recognise the name at the top of the pages. It's so faint now and on the inside is an inscription from my Great Aunt to my Grandmother who would have been um...... 1896 + 13 = 1909? so it was for her 13th birthday. It took me a couple of goes to read it, "Uncle Toms' Cabin" because it had a lot of Southern twang written into the spelling of some words. It has colour plates with tissue between them and the next page.

I also was also given "Little Lord Fauntleroy" which is similar, with colour plates and tissue.

My other Grandmother had a small bible published in 1850, I have no idea who it belonged to, there is a scratchy signature written with a very fine nib and no one has been able to decipher it or recognise it. I grabbed it and a few others that were heading for the dump (Gasp, shock horror!), Two books my Great Grandfather received for his teaching services at an Ashburton school. They hailed from Staverly and moved to Waiau. I think my Great Grandfather is in the Waiau Cemetery.... Argh, when you start getting into maternal paternal etc etc descendants...well it all gets a bit confusing.

Kim did a database for the AN society and sat here for days singing "maternal paternal paternal maternal..... no........ maternal paternal maternal..... ..... NO! ARGH! OK, ................ (sigh) MATERNAL MATERN........ Oh I need a cup of tea!"

Well, I have the books now and they did not end up at the tip! Along with some long lost photos that were scattered amongst the books. I recognised my Grandfather in one and pulled it out, then another and another. I asked my uncle about them and he called my Aunt over, then Mum came over and they pounced on them. They were sent off to be copied and now everyone who wanted copies have them. So close to being lost forever.

Thanks for all your help!

I'd ask Dad a few more questions but he's in Chch and I'm in the upper Waikato and he's as deaf as a post so he has trouble hearing on the phone. He has these whizz bang hearing aids but they just don't work with a phone, especially if there is any sort of interference on the line or in the background .... like Mum telling him to tell me something or arguing about what he has just told me... or picking up the extension. For some reason if two people are on the line on different phones, the two phones almost deafen whoever isn't speaking at the time. It's fine to and from my end but Ooh the cross words at the other end ha ha.

Ok, I'm dribbling on now, better go throw the goat coats on the line. I had to wash them.

Yakut

:0 Yakut ... my dad has hearring problems to .. and yep used to be a pain to phone home
They got some phone from the Hard Of Hearring people , and its works much better
it's even better now that i took one of those phone line filters for broadband over there and put it onto that phone to

lol sorry to digresss ... um sorry cant help with your family thing

Stu. what a lovely story true or not. can't you just see that kids face tho' trying to catch a guinea pig by it's tail, regardless of the repercussions. I found out that when we moved here my ancestors were some of the people that hepled pioneer the land around here and the mangatanoika river was their boundary, not sure which part of the river but there is also the old family home in Ashurst somewhere's ( other family memebers have seen it) and there is a picture hanging in Ashurts libaray of a ancestor that was the first mayor ( would have to check that) Good luck in your search!! Hope you hear of many happy stories as that one

RE: the hard of hearing - I taught my Dad to text which was great! Except for all the long, carefully enunciated phone calls that were needed to get to that point!:rolleyes:
"What can you see on the screen?"...
"What is to the right of that?"...
"Ok. You have gone...At the top left..."
Take the stylus and tap once..." ...
"That means you have held down the stylus rather than a tap. Do a quick short tap right on the..."
x30
And that was just to try to get him to turn the volume up so he heard the text arrive[]

Just as a matter of interest if you are not totally sure that she was in Wairarapa - Bartons Bush is a well know area in Upper Hutt and 'Moehau Stream' runs past it from the Wallaceville area I think.

Family history research is a fascinating past time and you can discover some wonderful things and some colourful people if you persevere. It has led me to England and beyond and I have met some lovely cousins most of my family never knew existed. Keep it up. NZ records are not too hard to research, Aussie are ok after about 1880 unless you turn up some-one transported and then there's heaps to be found, English are very good, (I got right back into the early 1600s with one line, and 1500s with another) Irish almost impossible (better to go to Ireland in person) and American ok.
If you are really interested join the NZ genealogical Soc. There is a wealth of available information, and some experienced researchers who are willing to help.

Did she ever mention the "ḧidden lake ", because I knew a Barton family who lived on the farm with this landmark north of Masterton? The lake was formed by the 1880s Wairarapa earthquake.

Hmm, I know my Dad had/has cousins in Featherstone?... or was it Fielding? See, I'm hopeless with Nth Is areas, I grew up in the Sth Is.

I have no idea where my Grandfather was from, could have been Chch or they may have met and married in the Nth Is and moved. Next time I get a decent line through to Dad and Mum isn't pestering the conversation, I'll see if I can find out. They've never been very fussed about talking about their past, not like it's a secret or anything, more like it just never came up. Dad's told me a few things about when he was small and there were a few mentions of a place in New Brighton where my Grandparents lived for a short while just after they were married. According to my Grandmother, that was where she learned she could get really sunburned on a cloudy day..... oh and somewhere on that section is buried a casserole dish or pan of some sort with burnt on charcoal remains from the bottom of a vertical learning curve in home cooking. By the time Dad was a teenager, she was pretty good with anything, including game. By the time I rolled along, her cooking was legend.

Considering the transport at the time, they lived in Chch, had relatives in the Wairarapa area and Dad's Godparents lived in Raglan, a fair old stretch in an early model car or even the train considering how fast we need to get places today. My Aunt and Uncle in Christchurch hit the bright lights of Spencer Park for their honeymoon in the 40's, it took ages to get there and now it's just 20 minutes from where they used to live.

When hearing these stories, I look at how far we have come, if that is a good thing or bad. In some ways, like medicine, maybe, but in other ways, a disaster. Kids are no longer found under shearing sheds looking for guinea pigs with tails with their best clothes on. I doubt many rural neighbours had problems with idiot neighbours on MX bikes either. The loudest music would come from a gramophone with a big trumpet, no such thing as woofers, sub woofers and tweeters.

Maybe be I should be a partial Luddite?.... is that the word?

By partial I mean... well, who would want to go to a Dentist with a foot powered drill or a Dr with an alarmingly big needle and a packet of 'powders' and all the other items of torture they used for the greater good.
...... see?.... Partial!

Yakut