Thomas Tindall 1840 - 1885

Thomas was the 6th child and 5th son of John and Mary Eleanor (nee Charters) Tindall. Born sometime during the first months of 1840 he was baptised in the Holy Cross Church in Chatton, Northumberland on 17th April, 1840.


One of what would eventually be 12 children he was raised at Broomhouse  . In the 1851 census he is listed as a scholar so he received an education and in the 1861 census he is working at home on the farm.

In the second quarter of 1865 he married Jane Rutherford  of Chatton . I haven't yet found the ship they travelled on but presumably they emigrated to New Zealand sometime during 1866.

The first sign of them here is the birth announcement of their eldest child, John William, - March 5, 1867 in Dunedin at the Auld Scotland Hotel. Considering what came later I think it's possible that they weren't just lodging there but Thomas was working at the hotel.

They then went to a small rural settlement called Hilton near Geraldine in South Canterbury where Thomas bought a farm of 186 acres. At some point he also became the licensee of the Hilton Hotel.
In the 1870's Hilton was an up and coming township with the prospect of becoming a boom town, with mineral, clay, coal and lime waiting to be railed out - the area attracted not only farmers but prospectors, sawmillers and construction workers. There was a PO and various stores including a barber's shop and a school. The school opened in 1875 and Thomas and Jane's older children were founding pupils. Unfortunately, the proposed railroad link between Hilton and Temuka failed to eventuate and neither did the township.

Thomas and Jane had 6 children..

John William Tindall  - 1867 – 1932
Mary Isabella Tindall  -1869 – 1958
Jane Tindall  -1870 – 1932
Thomas Rutherford Tindall -1877 – 1954
Robert Adam Tindall  -1879 – 1902
Elizabeth Ann Tindall  - 1881 – 1963

In April 1885 an advertisement in the Timaru Herald

I only found this recently and it was a huge surprise and raises the big question of why? It may have had something to do with his health and perhaps he felt Jane and the children would be happier and more secure back in England with family something should happen to him.

Sadly it was all too late - September 12 1885 -Timaru Herald

September 14th 1885 - Timaru Herald

Only 45 years old when he died Thomas is buried in the Geraldine Cemetery. 

Thomas Tindall is Alan's maternal great-grandfather.

Grandparents Homes 1 - Richardson

 A Genealogy Blog Prompt - Grandparents’ House. Describe your grandparents’ house.


I haven't been achieving much here - too much research, too little writing so when I discovered the 52 weeks of personal history prompts I thought it might be a good way to achieve something.
My grandparents homes is an easy one as I knew both of those houses well - sadly I didn't know my grandparents at all.


The Richardson Family Home

15 Cuba St (later 415), Alicetown, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

My grandparents, James Harrison and Edith Annie Richardson arrived in New Zealand in December, 1911. There is no record of any other address so presumably they purchased this lovely villa soon after their arrival. It would be their home for the rest of their lives and it was where my father and his siblings grew up.

The photo only shows the front part of the house and doesn't  do justice to it's size - it was a very large house. To the right of the flower bed was a path that went down and behind the hedge you can see to the back half of the house. 

Many photographs were taken against that hedge outside the back door including this one of Clive and myself with our grandmother which would have been taken about the end of 1949, soon after we moved from Auckland. By then the house had been turned into three flats. My grandmother lived at the back with my father's youngest brother, there were two sisters living in the middle and our family took up residence in the front. I lived there until we moved again in 1957 when I was 11.

The big bay window on the left was my parents bedroom - a lovely room and probably the biggest in what, in hindsight, was a very small flat. A door had been added on the far left of the verandah and steps and a path added just in front. The front lawn was our play area - we were discouraged from 'going round the back'.

I remember the garage with the ivy that turned brilliant red in autumn and the three flowering cherries around the front lawn that were lovely in spring - trees I still love. I remember the white picket fence with the red gates at each end and the stained glass window in the bedroom Clive and I slept in but not much else about the interior.

My uncle and his wife continued to live there probably until the late 60's or early 70's when it was sold and pulled down to make way for industrial building. That makes me very sad and is why I've never been back to Alicetown and never will. I prefer to remember it as it was.

The top photograph taken , I'm guessing, in the early 1920's. My grandmother on the left, Auntie Cissie and Uncle Gordon.