The Pakeha

Good morning, evening, or afternoon. My name is Rupert. My family’s kind of confusing but don’t you worry, I’m here to explain it all to you. Just sit back and enjoy the crazy story of my family and how we all ended up in windy old Wellington.

Okay so there is something we need to get out of the way. I have four parents. Yep I have two Mums and two Dads. I know you must be thinking that wow that guy must get loads of presents and I do but that’s not important. What is important is how we all came to be in this wonderful city. And I’m going to start with where my Mum came from. Sara was born of English, Irish and Scottish heritage in southern England. Her father was a pilot and they lived in Ireland, Wales then Hong Kong. What an amazing experience you must think. But at fourteen Sara choose to go back to boarding school in England. In her early thirties Sara met a Kiwi called Richard and they moved to New Zealand. After they moved to Auckland Sara met Mary and moved down to Wellington with her.

Mary grandparents were born in Glasgow, Scotland around 1890. They originally came from poor families in Ireland that left for Scotland because of the potato famine in the 1840s. Their names were Patrick and Margaret and they got married in 1912. A lot of people were from Ireland and had come to Scotland looking for work in coal mines.

After the first world war ended in 1918 it was hard to get good money in Glasgow and by 1924 a lot of people were going on strike. Margaret’s brother was living in New Zealand and Patrick already had family in Australia so on the 26th of December 1926 they booked tickets on an Albion company ship called the Pakeha. The Pakeha was cramped and uncomfortable with about 1,000 immigrants on board. They took all five of their children but my grandad John wasn’t born until 1936, four years after they arrived. When they got to New Zealand they went to Wanganui to where Margaret's brother lived. But work was hard to get. The next year was better when Patrick got a permanent job in Wellington earning five pounds a week. John had four children including Mary, mother of me and my brother.

Glenn’s great great grandfather was Alfred. He was born on the 22nd of July 1842 in West Malling, Kent, England. He married Mary who was born circa 1840. They had a child called Henry Augustus (Harry). He was born in 1872 in Riverhead, Kent, England. They came to New Zealand on the ship 'The Douglas' and landed on 22nd of October 1874, in Wellington. Henry married Gracie 24th of December 1898, in Taranaki street, Wellington. Gracie and Henry had a son called Ronald Augustus born on the 22nd of February 1905 in Petone, Wellington. He then married Hazel Adelaide and they gave birth to my father’s father Barry Ronald on the 23rd of April 1929. He was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington. He married Sheridan, and they had three children Sheridan, Michelle and Glenn Barry, my father.

Unfortunately Robert my other father’s information could not be found.

Well there you have it. My mother Sara, from Somerset, England, Mary’s Grandparents from Ireland, and my father's great great grandparents from Kent, England. So we all come from the United Kingdom.

By Rupert