A young lady from Oxford, New Zealand

My childhood with Great-grandma Rose, when she travelled up to Hamilton City, Waikato and Bay of Plenty where she visited her son – Alan (Shorty as everyone called him), grandsons and great grandchildren.

After my grandmother – Hilda (Biddy as everyone named her) passed away with breast cancer, I continued to see great grandma Rose down in Christchurch, New Zealand until a year before her death in 1986, the day before our late father – Raymond’s birthday.

Rose’s life was instead a mystery to everyone before I was born, and I grew up to get to know her through her daughter Jessie and Keith (senior) down in Christchurch. Between 1982 and 1985, I told Rose that I am doing genealogy, and in the first year, she refused to tell me about her family lineage. I went ahead to do tracing Osborne’s families, and they came out to Christchurch and settled in Oxford, Eyreton, Kaiapoi, and several other small farming areas. As I mentioned in the previous blog, her father was Thomas Osborne, and her mother was Mary Jane Cherry of Oxford. Thomas and Mary had ten children (including Rose) in the second marriage of Thomas. Thomas had married previous and had five children in the first marriage. Mary Jane Cherry had two children from a different father for I don’t have the record yet.

One day I was stopping at Oxford and visited the town Hall there 1983. A gentleman noticed me several times, and I thought it was odd for him to saw me without saying anything. Then he approached to me if I know any Osborne and Cherry even Rose, and to my reply to him, yes Rose is my great-grandma through my father’s side family. This gentleman was Havery, and he invited me to the cafe for a genealogy chat. Harvey came from the Cherry family, and his family lived near Rose, brothers, sisters and Thomas’s home. Harvey asked me if I know what happened to Thomas or the children after moving out to the Christchurch Receiving Home. This Christchurch Receiving Home was a temporary housing to many orphans, female children under 16 years, waiting on foster homes or sent to a service. My reply to Harvey, yes, I understood, BUT I was not clear on why this has happened because Rose refused to answer me. From time to before Rose’s death, Rose mention the name of the family, where they were living, the reason why she tried hard to get all of her brothers and sisters in one house along with her other older family member, the pact from Rose to her brothers and sisters on to stay in touch until they died etc. I recalled Rose refused to stay in any Rest Home if anyone who was from Oxford, because of the bad past, shame and family spat.

My question was why Rose and her brothers and sisters were sent away to somewhere after their father – Thomas’ mystery ending of his life. The answer was Thomas took his life by committing suicide in the home where the children sleeping and Rose was in the other room. Thomas could not cope and manage with a large number of children and no income in 1912. Mary Jane died in 1911, and the previous year young Martha was born. I revisited Rose and mention to her about Thomas. Rose spoke that their father was a good man but went depressed and found life unbearable. Rose and I visited rarely visited to a special person at the home – Norman Eric Kirk’s wife – Lucy Ruth Kirk BUT I did not realised that Norman Eric was related to the female Cherry family as well. Because Norman Eric’s father was a Norman Kirk and he married to a Vera Janet Jury of the Jury-Cherry family. Note Norman Eric Kirk was a New Zealand Prime Minister between 1972 and 1974. His death made a huge impact on every New Zealanders. Rose does not speak highly of Ruth (Lucy) for some reason because of the past in Oxford, New Zealand.

As you Oxford is a small town with a population of 600 people before 1900. The earliest population in 1861 was only barely 25 people, and in 1881 there were 513 or more people. There was a disaster – the Great Fire in Oxford on January 14th, 1898.

Let recap the Cherry’s sisters – Mary Jane and Emily Alice Cherry. Their parents were James Cherry and Sarah Jane Jones. Sarah Jane Jones was born in Tasmania in 1846 to Samuel Jones and Mary Ann McGilligan. Samuel Jones and Mary McGilligan were convicts as well. I must explore the records under the convicts in Tasmania when I can do in my own times.