The Hardy Family

When looking through Charles' first book of clippings I came across a copy of a letter he wrote to the New Zealand Herald dated 21 November 1892 headed "A Recent Visit To Wairoa, Lake Tarawera". I had first seen this letter some years ago and recalled it as a very interesting description of the devastation that resulted from the Tarawera Eruption of 1886. On looking through an earlier section of Charles' book I came across a clipping that was simply headed TUHOTO. Alongside t

Among Charles' clippings is the report in the New Zealand Herald of 9 June 1910 of the death of George Death. Charles' interest in George Death connects to his son-in-law Edward (Teddy) Arthur D'Ath married to his daughter Helena. Teddy was one of George Death's 10 sons. The origin of the surname Death Teddy altered his surname to D'Ath. He did this by Deed Poll on 18 March 1921. Following is an explanation of the origin of the name. The name Death is derived from the place

Occasionally a real treasure from the past arrives in front of me in the form of something that belonged to one of my ancestors. My sincere thanks is owed to Lorraine Spencer for recently passing to me the three books in which Charles Hardy kept his newspaper clippings over the period of 1880 until 1909. I consider it a great privilege to be able to touch some items that I know my great great grandfather put together and regularly looked at during his latter life. The books

When Lorraine Spencer sends me some family history documents I now know that there will be another great story awaiting me. In this case it is the story of William Spencer the brother of Thomas Spencer and an uncle of Edmund Spencer. William was the second son of Thomas and Katherine Spencer. He was born at Knossington on 16 May 1830 two years after his brother Thomas. As can be seen from the reference above he became a church minister. He also attained a Doctorate of Divinit

Kate and her son Eric Spencer Macky in 1881 The story of Kate Spencer unfolded for me during a quest to find out more about Edmund...

The above painting is of the village of Knossington. The white "hoop" shape that can be seen on the left is the well known whale bones...