Griffiths Web Site

My name is Martin Summann and I started this site.This site was created to find my wife's (Dorothy (Griffiths) Summann) relatives in New Zealand . She has been living in the states for the past 40 years and have lost contace with her relatives. The following is a letter written by George Griffiths. Dear Mary,     It was nice to hear from you, and you have a remarkably vigorous hand for 76!     I have not worked on family history for some years, and have only a sketchy  outline of it, but I will set out in brief what I know:-     John Griffiths' obituary in the “Southern Cross” of October 22, 1921, said he was born at “Goseley”, “Segeley” parish, Staffordshire, on November 22, “77 years ago”, and came to NZ in the ship Zealandia reaching Lyttelton in December 1871.     His birth certificate shows he was born on November 22, 1845, at Legge, Coseley, in the parish of Sedgeley, Staffordshire, and the birth was registered on December 1, 1845.  His father was John Griffiths, blacksmith.  His mother was Mary Griffiths, late Wyre, formerly ?Harker (possible Harper) – which means that she was born Mary Harker, married a Wyre, and was widowed when she married John Griffiths.  In 1861, Sedgeley was a town of 36,367.     I know nothing about John Griffiths's family origins or his youth.     On April 13, 1868, when he was 22, he married Hannah Saunders (25), a spinster, in the parish church of Quarndon, Derby.  She lived at Quarnden, where her father, William Saunders, was a coal dealer.  John Griffiths was then described as a boiler-maker, living in St Peter's Parish, Derby, and his father was also described as a boiler-maker.     It would seem that John and Hannah's first son, also John (my Uncle Jack) was born to them in Derbyshire.      I have nothing about the circumstances of their emigration, or their voyage out, but the Zealandia arrived at Lyttelton from London about December 22, 1870.  (Members of the family have told me that John's two brothers, Tom and Sam, also came out to New Zealand, and 2 or 3 of his sisters, with their mother, who, in the 1890's was living in Riccarton, Christchurch, but I have never satisfactorily been able to research these siblings members.)     John's wife – given in the death certificate as Ann, not Hannah – died at Yaldhurst on August 11, 1871, from “exhaustion after labor”. I have no records for this child, which I have presumed to have been stillborn.      John's obituary says, having served his time as a blacksmith in England, he worked at his trade with F.W. Delamani, Yaldhurst, Canterbury.  He then moved to Timaru and worked for Mr. Peter Sinclare, and while there handled all the iron work for the Timaru breakwater.  He was a member of the life-saving crews in the Timaru surf-boats, and was also employed later by the contractors for Timaru's water-supply.     On February 14, 1874, he married Emma Hodder, described as milliner and spinster.  Both was aged 28.  They were married at the residence of Mr. W.M. (or B.) Gibson, Church St., Timaru, by the Rev. Josiah Ward.  The witnesses were Benjamin Gibson, timber merchant, Chruch St. and Ophelia Clough.  I think that Emma Hodder described herself as the daughter of a London commercial traveller.  It was the first marriage conducted by the Rev. Ward on behalf of the Woodlands Methodist Church, Timaru.  John was a prayer leader and the Sunday School treasurer.     John's eldest son, Jack, was aged 5 at the time of the wedding, then came:    Emily Rhoda, b November 23, 1874, at Timaru     Harold Mitchell, b January 26, 1876, at Timaru (died April 19, 1876, age 11 weeks, from marasmus (progressive emaciation))    Charles Ernest, b January 9, 1877, at Timaru    Samuel Edgar, b November 4, 1878, at Timaru. (The Mitchells have told me Sam had a twin, born dead – the miscarriage of one preceded the live birth of the other – but the Registrar-General has no record of it.)    George Frederick, b September 29, 1880, at Timaru.     From about 1879-80 to 1882, John Griffiths joined the Railways department to become leading blacksmith at the Addington Workshops.     Only one child was added to the family here:          Lillian Mary, b August 2, 1882.     John then went to Invercargill's railway workshops as blacksmith until his retirement in 1906.  Born in Invercargill were:          Gertrude May, b May 14, 1884          Elsie Elizabeth Sarah, b January 9, 1886          Arthur Lyno, b March 5, 1890    The directories give their addresses in Invercargill as: -           1886: no entry          1887: Eye St (North side, near Nith St), Journeyman blacksmithy          1888: (William) Griffiths, journeyman blacksmith, Crina St.          1889: same          1890: same          1891: directory not available          1892: John Griffiths, journeyman blacksmith, Esk St (North side, near Doon St)          1893: unlisted, but had moved from Esk St.          1894: (William) Griffiths. Princes St. South Invercargill (then a separate borough: towards Tramway Road)          1895: same          1896: same          1897: same          1898: John Griffiths, journeyman blacksmith, Princes St.          1899: same          1900: same          1901: John Griffiths, foreman blacksmith, Princes St.          1902: same. (Also Samuel Griffiths, grocer's assistant, Don St.)          1903: and thereafter, the same.     John's wife, Emma, died on October 3, 1905, at their residence.  John died at Oteramika Road, on October 17, 1921, age 76, of heart desease and bronchitis.    John was keenly interest in the Manchester Unity Oddfellows and the Order of Foresters, and passed through the various chairs.  Devoted Primitive Methodist – got a watch for conducting the Methodist choir in Timaru, was in the choir of the old Leet St. Church, then in Wesley Church, Teviot ST., and finally with St. Peters.  He frequently wrote (letters or articles) to the newspapers, and contributed articles under the pen-name “Trelawney” to the “Southern Cross”     I have only scrambled notes on the next generation:\              Jack married Agnes Hislop, was clerk and accountant at Southland Frozen Meat, Mataura; died in Ross Home, Dunedin in 1959, aged 89.  Never on very warm terms with most of his half-siblings.     Charles went to Boer War, married Agnes Tannock, had four children.  Divorce case c.1916. He later lived in Poverty Bay and was a competent painter, dying (perhaps at Tauranga) from a rose thorn or bee sting, he was also a very good singer.      Sam, traveler for Auckland draper etc, as you will know     George, first in timber yard, then Southland Building Society, then a photographer in Dunedin and Alexandra, then a teacher in Southland.  Married (1) Kate Hesson, no children, the (2) Kate Anderson.      Lillian married James Crisp, cabinet maker     Gertie, married Bert Hardy from West Plains family.  Finished in Sydney making Hardy's Indigestion Cure adopted from Emma Griffiths' recipe.     Elsie, married Ted Stuck, plumber      Arthur married twice, fine singer. died 1937 at New Plymouth.      John's wife, Emma Hodder, came from a family which appears to have originated in Dorset in the 1830s, where her eldest brother and sister were born.,  A third child was born in Hampshire, and the family seems to have moved to London by 1842.  Emma was one of three born in the parish of St Sepulchre, she being born on February 2, 1846.  Her address then, 32 Hosier Lane; father described as carman or carrier.  It has also been said that her father was a shopwalker in a London shop, and also a commercial traveler.      There is bitsy information about members of her family.  She was said to have been pushed into migration because she fell in love with a married Methodist parson.  She was assisted by the NZ emigration authorities and came out on the Hydaspes, at the age of 24, single, arriving at Lyttelton on September 29, 1869.     That gives a rough outline of what I know, and I hope that helps fill out the story for your American nieces.  You will be able to fill in plenty about the later generation.     Best regards from us all.                                    George) Griffiths