Maud Sophia Ann Gear

Notes:

In her teens, when Maud's daughter Cathreen asked her grandfather Bert why her mother had been given so many names, he told her they thought she might be an only child (!) so she was given all the family names. They of course went on to have another 14 children. Maud, living with her family in Blackball at that time, also visited Otira. She remembered travelling by horse-drawn coach from Otira to Arthur's Pass, sitting on the knee of a soldier on his way to WW1. Her Aunty Ann (Kidd?) went with her and together they made the return trip to Otira with the coachman. Maud was very young at the time but her memory of her Otira visit was always very vivid and remained with her all her life.

Maud married Robert McGhie on 27 Jun 1928 in Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand. Robert was born on 23 May 1901 in Minto's Land, Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Living

Other Events and Attributes:

• Probate: 4 Feb 1959, Greymouth Court, Greymouth, West Coast, New Zealand

Notes:

Bert was registered as Edward Henry Gear at birth. He was always known as H.E. Gear so he must have assumed he was Henry Edward. Bert had a great singing voice; all the boys sang. He was the chairman of the Granity School Board for 22 years. He was also on the Nelson Education Board. He was a rugby coach and referee. Bert worked as a blacksmith for the Mine Department. When his daughters got married, he made each of them a poker, girdle and iron frying pan. He also made all the beds in their house. Each time Margaret became pregnant, he would make another wooden cot. In their own home, Bert called Margaret "Biddy". She'd reply, "Oh, get away Bert." They were very affectionate with each other and great parent role models. Bert was a heavy smoker and died of a massive heart attack on 12 December 1958. For several weeks before he'd been breathless but wouldn't go to the doctor.

Edward married Margaret Guthrie Kidd on 10 Aug 1909 in Millerton, West Coast, New Zealand. Margaret (daughter of William Kidd and Ann McQueen Alexander) was born on 12 Dec 1890 in Brunnerton, West Coast, New Zealand; died on 30 Sep 1972 in Westport, West Coast, New Zealand. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Probate: 6 Oct 1972, Greymouth Court, Greymouth, West Coast, New Zealand

Notes:

Margaret was called Maggie and Biddy. Margaret and Bert were very community minded. Margaret was a member of the Women's Institute and was one of the first women in New Zealand to fly in a plane. She played the piano and sang. Margaret made all the girls' clothes; embroidery, lace, petticoats etc. She also made the boys' clothes. In the photo of the nine young Gear boys, she'd made all their clothing. She was a great card-player. One of my few memories of her is that she made nice marmalade.

Charles + Sophia Moore. Sophia was born in cir 1860. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

William was a jeweller in Scotland and went to sea when he was about 15. Some time between 1875-85 he made his way to New Zealand.

William married Ann McQueen Alexander on 18 Jul 1885 in Greymouth, West Coast, New Zealand. Ann (daughter of Thomas Fraser Alexander and Isabel McLean) was born in 1867 in Stafford, Hokitika, West Coast, New Zealand; died on 20 Oct 1914 in Westport, West Coast, New Zealand. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Religion: Presbyterian

Notes:

It was in Brunnerton that Ann McQueen Alexander met William Kidd. Their marriage certificate lists William as a coalminer and Ann's mother, Isabella McLean Alexander, as a witness.

Around 1909-1910, work was beginning on the building of the Otira tunnel through the Southern Alps, connecting Westland and Canterbury. It was in 1914 that Ann Kidd died in Westport of breast cancer. William Kidd was an electrician at this time and went to Otira to work on the Otira tunnel project. His youngest daughter, Elizabeth Ann, went with him, presumably to keep house for her father.

Ann was born at Stafford, Hokitika during the gold rush era. Situated on the bar-bound mouth of the Hokitika River on the West Coast of the South Island, Hokitika sprang into life in 1864 when gold was found at her back door and despite its hazardous entrance and the snags that infested the river, Hokitika was officially gazetted as a port on 8 March 1865 by the Canterbury Provincial Government which was desperate for revenue. It developed into a thriving mining town and an important port. The first settlers were John Hudson and James Price who set up a store on the banks of the Hokitika River in 1865 to cater for the miners pouring in following the gold strike in 1864. In 1866, with a population of more than 6,000, the town was almost twice its present size. People were either digging for gold along the banks of the river or servicing the gold mining industry that had spread along rivers in the region. By 1866 Gibson Quay was usually crowded with small ships - or at least those that had survived the ordeal of entering port. Despite this, more overseas vessels and more immigrants arrived at Hokitika than at any other New Zealand port in 1867. Between 1865 and 1867 there were 108 strandings - 32 of which were total wrecks. River floods joined the surf in making difficulties. Food and supplies came by sea by many coasting-craft which broke their backs crossing the bars or which ended their working-life on the north or south. Hundreds of adventurers were willing to pay £5 apiece for the 12-hours passage from Nelson and the high rates of insurance did not deter ship owners. The Hokitika Harbour Board did not come into existence until 1876 and the Hokitika Harbour limped on long after the gold ran out, trade dwindled and the port was closed in 1954. Hokitika was the largest "port of value" between 1865 and 1867.

In 1948 there were still several banks, hotels, boarding houses, a hospital, newspaper, breweries, dairy factory, a whitebait canning factory, etc., and the largest gold dredge in the world was still working three miles from the town. The population of the Hokitika borough was 2,840 with gold mining (sluicing and dredging), saw milling and farming the chief support for the town.

Ann was a self-taught nurse and midwife. It must be remembered that they always lived in mining communities that were quite small and most had no doctor, and the nearest hospital was far away. Ann's grandson Frederick "Snowy" Fox had grown up with his grandparents close by. Snowy told how his grandmother Ann was often out at nights attending sick people or delivering babies.

When Snowy himself was born his mother Frances (nee Kidd) was very sick and they could not get Snowy to breathe. He was premature and weighed only two and a half pounds. Ann put him under the kitchen tap and ran warm water over his face; after two minutes of this he cried. She oiled him, wrapped him in cheesecloth, tucked him under her coat and took him to her home, which was just along the road. Despite his troublesome beginning, Snowy lived till his nineties.

Ann got her skills from delivering many babies over many years and looking after sick people. With her daughter Elizabeth "Ann", she also lay out the bodies of anyone who died. "Ann" was about 15 when her mother died so she was pretty young to be doing this.

On 20 October 1914 Ann Kidd died in Westport of breast cancer. Work had begun around 1909-10 on the building of the Otira tunnel through the Southern Alps, connecting Westland and Canterbury. William Kidd was an electrician at this time and went to Otira to work on the Otira tunnel project. His youngest daughter "Ann" went with him, presumably to keep house for her father.

William's granddaughter Maud Sophia Gear, living with her family in Blackball at the time, also visited Otira. She remembered travelling by horse-drawn coach from Otira to Arthur's Pass, sitting on a knee of a soldier, on his way to the First World War. Her Aunty Elizabeth "Ann" Kidd went with her and together they made the return trip to Otira with the coachman. Maud was very young at this time but her memory of her visit to Otira was always very vivid and remained with her all her life. Otira tunnel was opened on 4 August 1923.

Elizabeth "Ann" Kidd's son, Jack Burgess, stated his mother was the first woman to go through the Otira tunnel. When the viaduct across the Otira Gorge was built, my Aunty Della walked across it on the day it was opened in 1999 and before it was open to traffic.

Notes:

Married:
The marriage took place in the Presbyterian Manse at Greymouth.

Alexander + Frances Crawford. Frances was born in cir 1835. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Frances Crawford Kidd died when her son William was about two weeks old.

Notes:

Thomas Fraser Alexander's father was a farmer, and Thomas left home when young because he didn't want to be a farmer, and his father was very strict and hard on him. Some information on Thomas came from his great-grandson Snowy Fox, who knew him as a young child and used to go with him to look for gold on the beach at Birchfield. Thomas carried the gold pan and Snowy carried a special bucket that Thomas had had made for him. It carried the water needed for panning the gold. Thomas's great-granddaughter Maud Gear remembered sitting on Thomas's knee as a small child and being fascinated by his long white beard. Thomas allegedly married twice before he immigrated to New Zealand, the second time aged 25, and was left a widower both times. Possibly, both women died in childbirth.

On 22 September 1863 he married Isabella McLean in Invercargill. On their marriage certificate they are both "over age" meaning over 21, and he is a widower. It was thought they may have met in Otago as the gold rush was on at the time of their marriage and the nearest place to be married was Invercargill, but now it's known they met in Victoria, Australia.

Thomas was a mine manager in Brunner. On 26 March 1896, three weeks after he'd left, a disastrous mine explosion occurred and 67 men lost their lives. Thomas knew them all. It was the highest loss of life in a New Zealand mining disaster.

He'd moved on with his wife and younger daughter Margaret to manage the Mangatini mine, above Millerton, north of Westport. It was early 1896 and he was the first state-appointed mine manager. Also living in Millerton were his daughter Ann & husband William Kidd with their six children. Thomas was now 70 years old.

Thomas Fraser Alexander lived the last 20 years of his life with the Broadfoot family (his daughter Margaret's) in Birchfield. He died at their home on 7 August 1918, aged 93 years.

Thomas always read his Bible on Sundays and never worked on the Sabbath. One particular weekend his daughter Margaret went to her father's bedroom to see if he was all right as he usually rose early in the morning. Thomas was sitting up in bed reading his bible. When Margaret explained it was Saturday, Thomas jumped out of bed and appeared in his working clothes, axe in hand, and was off to the wood pile where he worked for the rest of the morning.

Thomas visited Otira to see the tunnel work in progress. His son-in-law William Kidd was an electrician working on the tunnel project.

Thomas married Isabel McLean on 22 Sep 1863 in Invercargill, Southland, New Zealand. Isabel (daughter of Hector McLean and Ann McQueen) was born in cir 1825; was christened on 31 Jan 1825 in Ardclach, Nairn, Scotland; died in 1898 in Waimangaroa, New Zealand. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Also Known As: Isabella McLean

Notes:

Isabel's New Zealand death certificate states she was 56 and had lived in New Zealand for 43 years. This would make her birth year 1842 and means she would have come to New Zealand in 1855, aged about 13, but she was actually born in 1825 and aged 33, travelled alone from Scotland to Victoria, Australia, on the ship "Monica" in March 1859, where she was to meet widower Thomas Fraser Alexander.

Notes:

Married:
The marriage took place in the home of the minister, Benjamin Drake, in Don Street, Invercargill, New Zealand.

? + unknown. unknown was born in cir 1810. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: linen weaver, hand loom weaver

Notes:

A George Alexander was born c1780 in Dunbarney, Perthshire, Scotland.

George married Margaret Guthrie in cir 1820. Margaret (daughter of William Guthrie and Jean Tait) was born in 1788; was christened on 13 Apr 1788 in Pow of Errol, Perthshire, Scotland; died on 30 Jun 1860 in Auchterarder, Perthshire, Scotland; was buried in Aberuthven Churchyard, Auchterarder, Perthshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1851, North Corsiehill, Kinnoull, Perthshire, Scotland

Hector + Ann McQueen. Ann was born in cir 1800. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to the birth record of their daughter, Elizabeth, the Alexander family was living at Craighead of Elcho in 1766.

James married Jean Willet on 14 Jun 1765. Jean was born on 21 Oct 1740 in Dunblane, Perthshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: agricultural laborer
• Census: 1841, Kinnoull, Perthshire, Scotland
• Census: 1851, Garry Cottage, Barnhill, Kinnoull, Perthshire, Scotland

Notes:

William Guthrie was described as a workman at Pow of Errol (1788), Mains of Errol (1790 and 1791), and Lorny (1794) in the baptismal records of his children. The marriage of William and Jean Tait was recorded in the minutes of the Kirk session of 9 July 1787. At the time of the 1841 census, he was living in the parish of Kinfauns. Living with him were his daughter, Helen, and her three children, Robert, Alexander, and Jean. At the time of the 1851 census, these same people were living together at Garry Cottage, Barnhill, Kinnoull Parish, Perthshire. There is no proof that three of the children (Anne, Charles, and James) listed for William and Jean Tait Guthrie were in fact their children. This may be the William Guthrie recorded in the parish records of Dunbarney as having had a child in 1804. This William Guthrie was identified as a servant to John Archer, tenant at Easter Kinmonth, which seems to differentiate him from the William Guthrie identified as a weaver in other Dunbarney baptismal records.

William married Jean Tait on 9 Jul 1787 in Errol, Perthshire, Scotland. Jean (daughter of William Tait and Helen Croyle) was born in 1764; was christened on 23 Aug 1764 in Errol, Perthshire, Scotland; died on 18 Jul 1836 in Kinnoull, Perthshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In the death record of her daughter, Margaret Guthrie Alexander, Jean's name is given as Jane Tait. This is probably the Mrs. Guthrie whose death and burial are recorded in the parish records of Kinnoull Parish. Her burial date was 18 July 1836, and the mortcloth fee was paid on 6 July 1836. Cause of death was old age (73), and the burial was in Kinnoull.