Shared Photo: Henry Maurice as rail porter Blenheim

Question

I wanted to share this family photo of Henry Maurice with the community. Location: Blenheim. Date: .1917 Henry (Barber) Maurice as station porter Blenheim
Lived 1853-1934, Born in Woolwhich, Kent, England. Ran away to sea aged 14, worked for the Royal navy on slave chasers. Shipwrecked on St Pauls Island (Isle St Paul) in June 1871 for 3 months, when the troopship HMS Megaera was run aground, to prevent sinking. On a visit to New Zealand, Henry jumped ship in Wellington and changed his surname from Barber to his mother's maiden name of Maurice. Henry hid by working as a head shepherd at Upton Downs in the Awatere, around 1880 for a number of years. He married Charlotte Emily Joyce at the house of her mother, Charlotte, and step father James (Worser Heberley) Waikawa Rd Picton in 1889. Charlotte passed away in Wairau Hospital in Blenheim in 1896 aged just 38, leaving Henry with 3 children. Henry remarried, his housekeeper in 1898 but she too passed away in 1914. Henry worked as a porter for the railways at Blenheim Station, where he is shown as being employed, on his son Ken's marriage certificate in 1917 aged 64. This picture is of him in that role of Porter. Henry passed away in Blenheim aged 91 years in 1934. He is buried in the Omaka cemetery in Blenheim.

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Answer 1

As a fellow Kiwi from the top of the South, John, this is a great post. What you could now do is to copy and paste it to Henry's profile and then find his death and cemetery sources. As an aside, perhaps his last name at birth should be Barber???

I remember you asking about Wikitree in a NZ FB group. Nice to see you here. Sing out if you need any help. You might also like to add New Zealand as a tag and join the New Zealand project.

Comments

Thanks, some good thoughts there, I have a pic of his headstone which I will add.

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Hi again Fiona, I have been back in and edited Henry's profile, I'm starting to get in to gear. I have put so many ancestors up at once and now to spend time giving the ones I have the information on, some characterisation and where possible pics. Also I still have lots to work on re the source of my information. I have plenty of that to work with just need to collate and apply, Makes me realise the amount I have on paper but not digitally as I thought. Glad my scanner has good OCR software saves a lot of typing.

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I learned not to add too many people at once and to source as I go, otherwise it's just not going to happen. Most of my research is in NZ and that's where my interest lies, so my poor Scottish grandparents still have no bios or sources. On the other hand, I've got to know the history of the Motueka Valley really well. Most of the people who lived there are only vicariously related, but I keep coming across them. I was reading a book yesterday and there were photos of three people I "knew" from the 1890s!

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I have more to build on from that area, The Johnstons and McCallums over the Hill Takaka Collingwood,  Johnston's mining. They mined iron ore and started Hermatite paints. I have a good line mapped out on them David Johnston arrive in Petone in 1842 later moved to top of South.