Doris Cottage

Mrs Emily Menzies, Doris Cottage, 1958

The same research inquiry about the Harraway painting mentioned in the previous post originally started as a question about Doris Cottage. Where was it in Otautau? The original inquiry actually appeared (on 27 July) on the Otautau, New Zealand Facebook page, so there was a ready audience to tackle the question. We also asked some key museum people. The inquirer supplied a photo (above) which helped to verify the location and information about her grandmother who lived there.

Doris Cottage was a wooden house situated at 47 Queen Street, right next to the first Presbyterian Church. The house is no longer there. A subsequent house was built but then eventually relocated leaving an empty section today. We would like to know more about Doris Cottage such as how it got its name. If you have any information please let us know via email or the Otautau Museum Facebook page. Thank you.

Note: We're closed for the winter but will open again in October 2015. You can request an individual visit by request if you would like to see the museum in person.

Harraway Painting

A family research question crossed our desk this week regarding a painting. It was signed by E Harraway and dated 20 Nov 1901. 

The painting was found in a house at 47 Queen Street, Otautau, and was unframed. When the owner moved away in the 1960s, she took it with her, and it was later framed.

We don't know of any Harraways in Otautau, yet there must be some connection somewhere.

If you have any information on the painter or where the landscape is taken from, please get in touch.

Thank you.

Note: We're closed for the winter but will open again in October 2015. You can request an individual visit by request if you would like to see the museum in person.

Family History - the McLeans

We've had a family history search come our way lately - actually several - but this one came with photos.

The person is looking for information to do with the McLean family who originally came from the Isle of Mull, Scotland.

Parents were Charles and Christina McLean. They had about 9 children, three of whom came to NZ about 1911 (or before). The sons who came were Donald (1884-1966), Callum Campbell (1885-1918), and Donald Archibald (1889-1977).

Ada & Donald McLean c 1918

Donald, the elder with no middle name, enlisted for WWI from Otautau in early 1915. While overseas, he married Ada Norton in England in 1918. They had a son, Donald William Charles (1919-1986) who was brought up in Otautau. Donald had a brief business as a bootmaker in Otautau - his father, Charles, was a shoemaker back in Salen, Scotland. The son, Donald William Charles, ended up in the electrical trade in Riverton. He married Violet Hanifin.

We're looking for any information on Ada McLean nee Norton. She is buried in the Riverton Cemetery as is Callum Campbell, Donald's brother. Is she from a family in NZ or did she come from England?

She died in 1922, aged 30, but we wonder if she had any other children before then.

We're also looking for the identities of the people in the following photos.

Ada and son but who are the others?

In this photo, the woman reclining is Ada McLean and probably her son, Donald William Charles. We'd like to know who the girls and woman kneeling at the back are. Nieces? Cousins? Is this Ada's mother?

Then there are these two women whose names were written on the backs of the photos but with no surname. They look like sisters and probably dated more recently than the rest of the photos. Do you know them or their connection with the McLeans?

Martha 

Winnie

Ada & Donald McLean

The last photo is Ada & Donald again as a young couple. After Ada passed away, Donald remarried in 1930 to Georgina Rose Tweedie (1900-1990). We are looking for any information on her and whether they had any children. Donald is buried in the Wairio Cemetery. Georgina was cremated and buried in Green Park Cemetery in Dunedin.

If you can help in any way, please contact us via email. Thanks!

We're open Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and at your request.

Family History - Clark

We've had a recent enquiry about the Clark family. This line starts with Thomas and Catherine (nee Pattison) Clark who came out from Scotland in the early 1860s and married in 1865 in Riverton. They settled in Isla Bank and then moved to Heddon Bush, retiring in Winton c. 1912. They had five children. David married Rhoda Parry in 1894 and settled in Otautau; and his sister, Margaret married James Ryan in 1890 and settled in Bayswater.

David Clark was a Councillor on the Wallace County Council and had a successful Clydesdale breeding business. His best known horse was Tam O'Shanter.

It is our understanding that there was a Clark family reunion in 1991 in Isla Bank. Does anyone have any information on this family reunion and/or have relevant photographs? If so, please contact us via email - thanks!

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Family History - Miss Rimmer

This week, we had a couple from Auckland asking about their relative, Miss Alice Rimmer, a singer/musician/teacher from Auckland. Her forteit was opera and sacred music, and she came to Invercargill in 1912 to teach. She performed at the annual Otautau Methodist Church concert at the Town Hall in May of that year as well as at the Methodist Church in July. Interestingly she also taught singing and music in Otautau. She was not long in Invercargill and returned to Auckland. If you know anything about Miss Rimmer, please get in touch with us. Thanks!

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Family History

Just a reminder for those who email us about family history. Please check your junk mail as our replies may be going there until you denote that we're 'safe'. I've answered many family history questions only to never hear back again from the inquirer. I can only think they never got my email because they never checked their junk mail for a reply. So please check your junk mail.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!

Family History - Crawford

We've been looking into the Crawford family for a descendant whose friend has contacted us. If you have any information about this family, please let us know. So far, this is what we've learned via web sources - Papers Past and the BDM.

The Crawfords came to Otautau in the early 1900s from Dunedin. Frank Crawford had a partnership with John Ravenscroft in the household goods business - Crawford & Ravenscroft. Their store was on Main Street, probably where the empty draper's shop is now - between the old National Bank and the Central Garage. Frank was a member of the bowls team and active in the community. Frank's brother, John Crawford, sold bicycles in Gore.

In 1905, John Ravenscroft took his life, leaving Frank to continue the business on his own. Frank sold various parts of his business but kept it going until he moved to Christchurch with his wife. He sold his motor and bicycle business to W. J. O'Connor who was a blacksmith in 1912. In Christchurch, it seems he may have joined the Opawa Bowling Club.

Frank's brother, John, married Eliza Ann (Annie), the only daughter of Ewen Matheson, a prominent storekeeper and civic leader in the town. They married in 1902, but Eliza died that same year aged 28.

John then married Bessie Ball Turnbull in 1907, and they had a son in 1908. The son, John Percival, died in 1911. A year later, John took his own life in Otamita, northwest of Gore. Though he lived and worked in Gore, he, his first wife and son are all buried in the old Otautau Cemetery.

If you have any more information on Frank Crawford or his brother John, please let us know so that we may pass it on to Frank's descendant.

We're open Wednesdays and Sundays, 2pm-4pm, and by request. Your comments are always welcome!