BJNL's GENEALOGY

When my mother-in-law died, my husband inherited a box of items that belonged to his mother, Shirley, and before her, to his grandmother, Winifred (Winnie), and his great grandmother, Emma. You can read about Shirley, Winnie, Emma and the treasure box in my post Our Treasure Box.   Amongst the items in the box are two Christmas cards and several postcards sent to Winnie from her husband Bill during the First World War.     Bill and Winnie Bill was born William Harold Coop at Roxburgh, Central Otago, New Zealand on 25 October 1894 [1] . You can read about Bill's family background here . Winnie was born Winifred Alice Darcy at Black’s Point in Reefton, West Coast, New Zealand on the 25 November 1895 [2].  You can read about Winnie and her family background here  and here . Winnie and Bill likely met in Wellington, New Zealand. They married on 18 December 1915 [3] at St Thomas's Church in Newtown, Wellington [4]. Winnie was 20 and Bill was 21. At the time of their marriage, Bill

When my mother-in-law died, my husband inherited a box of items that belonged to his mother, Shirley, and before her, to his grandmother, Winifred (Winnie), and his great grandmother, Emma. You can read about Shirley, Winnie, Emma and the treasure box in my post Our Treasure Box . Amongst other items in the box are postcards written to ‘Winnie’ from ‘your brother Jack’ . These postcards are particularly intriguing because, as far as I have been able to ascertain to date, Winifred didn't have a brother called Jack. Nor did she have a brother called John; Jack being a name commonly used for those called John. So, who was Jack? Only one of Jack’s postcards was posted as a postcard. The rest would have been sent to Winnie by envelope. All of them were sent home to New Zealand during the First World War. One of them has a photograph of Jack in uniform. From this we can infer that Jack was away from New Zealand on active service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF). This in

 When my mother-in-law died, my husband inherited a box of family treasures. The box contains a collection of photos, postcards and other family-related items. Photo ©Jane Chapman 2022 Most of the items in the box belonged to my husband’s mother, Shirley, his grandmother, Winnie (Winifred), and his great grandmother, Emma. Emma Mumford (Born Veale, previously Darcy), Shirley Coop (later Chapman) and Winifred 'Winnie' Coop (born Darcy - Lambton Quay, Wellington, New Zealand about 1935 Emma Emma was born Mary Emma Veale on 26 September 1873 at Kyeburn in Central Otago, New Zealand[1]. During her childhood, her father was a miner at the Kyeburn Diggings. Later, the family moved to the West Coast.  Emma married her first husband, William Darcy, on 4 May 1893 at Reefton on the West Coast[2]. Emma and William had been married for a little over 5 years when, on 5 July 1898, William died from a cerebral inflammation following measles[3]. Emma found herself widowed with two children, Wi