Hi from New Zealand,
My great great grandfather William Denness married Mary Ward at St. Mary the Virgin Church on 5th July 1856. They had six children including Mary Denness born 1 July 1860. She was my great grandmother and married Stephen James Gilbert at Lower Halstow. I visited Kent in 1984, 100 years after they had arrived in Dunedin, New Zealand on the ship Trevelyan (from Glasgow) with two little daughters. She gave birth to my grandfather a week after they arrived (having spent 100 days on the ship). She had three more children and passed away aged 32. Stephen James lived a long time and my mother knew him as a child in the 1930s. I have a photo of him, and a medal as he was in the fire brigade for 13 years in the days of horse and water cart! His son Harry was in WW1 at Gallipoli and had a gun shot wound to the head so lost an eye. He was also in WW2. He had two sons and one of them was my dad whose first name was Denness because of the family connection with the surname.
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Stephen James Gilbert. |
The first photo attached is from about 1892, Stephen James Gilbert is centre and children around him. Laura on the left and Emily at the top were the two children who came to New Zealand on the ship with him. Nellie is on the right, Harry in the centre is 7 years old, Rose is on the floor and Bill (William) on the left. Bill and Harry are both my grandfathers as my parents are cousins, so that is why I am doubly interested in Kent. Stephens wife Mary could not read and write but the children all did well at school according to Papers Past website Otago Daily Times and received prizes. I live in Wellington (North Island) but went to Dunedin (south Island) twice this year - for some odd reason the Otago official death record has Mary as Elizabeth, but I was able to produce her birth, marriage and passenger list name, so they have put "known as Mary" on her official record. "Elizabeth" died the same day as "Mary" so is has to be the same person! Their grave is in the southern cemetery Dunedin and I paid to have the gravestone re-done, it is just one word "Gilbert" - the r and t had fallen off.
There are two ship diaries of the trip published too and the captains log. There was a storm off Ireland, and they had to put the anchor down to avoid going onto the rocks, so very frightening. They were good with ropes of course, and made a swing of ropes for the children. When they were stopped in the doldrums they rode across to ships going the other way with mail for "home". When they got to New Zealand they had to stay on the ship for quarantine, but locals rowed out with bread and vegetables. Emily was 3 years and Laura was 1 year in the Assisted passenger list; Stephen was 26 years and a brickmaker, Mary was 23 years. I was 21 when I went to UK and 23 when I came back to New Zealand - travelling by plane was much easier! I came to the UK again in 1986 and took my mother so visited Kent a second time.
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Stephen James. |
The second photo is approximately early 1914 at Dunedin. Stephen James is in the centre. Nellie is on the right, and Emily on the far right. Rose is on his left and Laura in the far left with glasses on. Bill/William is standing behind Laura and Rose, Harry is behind Stephen next to Bill/William. The other adults are spouses and the children all off-spring. Bill Brown in the top left was a step son, unfortunately killed by a shark as he was a surf life guard. Their descendants are spread back to England, Japan, all over New Zealand and Australia.
I was fortunately to be contacted in 2000 by a Mrs Denness living in Gillingham who gave me info on the family, as I had advertised in a genealogy book. John Dennis (married Elizabeth Bishop on 12th Oct 1769 in Gillingham Parish Church. The second generation married in Gillingham. The third generation married in Rainham. The fourth generation is William Denness and Mary Ward. So I have a lot of info. I was just trying to find out which relatives were in Milton Union and currently am corresponding with a researcher as I am not sure if it was Mary, or her siblings - the father had 13 children as he remarried when his first wife died, so perhaps it was the children from the second marriage. One relative Mary's brother Fred (born Upchurch 1 March 1859) designed a brick kiln, so I have to email a contact about that; some were built around Kent; he travelled all around America. He didn't have any children, but it would be good to remember him because he was bright, he is buried at All Saints Church Findsbury, Kent. She kindly sent me lots of certificates.
They used the name Dennis because Denness sounded a bit foreign.
I have more info as my mother had written a book which I am expanding on, so the link is not lost forever. My niece came to the UK last year, but unfortunately has not got the ancestor bug yet! But she will be back. Other family came from the north of England near where Alice in Wonderland was written - apparently there are lots of sink holes there, and a carved rabbit in Ripon Cathedral, so it is all very interesting as my grandmother was called Alice, and my sister's second name too.
My 14 year son loves cricket and I see from the book I have on Lower Halstow that it used to be a very important part of village life!
Hopefully one day I will visit Kent again with our teenage boys.
Jenni Gibson
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