From: Liz
To: Jan
Subject: Beale family

Dear Jan

My ancestor Sarah Elizabeth Abel was my Grandmothers Aunt. She married Alfred Edwin Beale in 1873 in London. They arrived in Napier NZ with their baby Alfred Charles in 1875 and settled and lived in Waipawa until approx. 1883 when they moved to Wanganui and finally Hastings where they are buried. They had 11 children altogether, five were born in Waipawa two of whom died, Laura Sophia Beale - 1877 and George Frederick Beale 1881.

I have searched the cemetery records and found a Beale infant who died in 1880 in an unmarked grave but no information other than that.
I would love to know what they did in Waipawa.

Alfred was a Carter in Bethnal Green and Sarah worked as a machine operator making clothing.

Alfreds' brother William Henry Beale and his sister Susannah Matilda Beale moved to Ormondville where they are buried.
Susannah married Richard Read Groom a storeman and had 3 children.

Hope you can help, I am hoping to come up to the Hawkes Bay before too long it would be great to have some info.
It has taken me a long time to track Sarah down, my family in England had vague history of an aunt who left the UK and we found her this June!!!

Kind Regards,
Liz Stephens
ASHBURTON

From: Jan
To: Liz
Subject: Beale family

Hi Liz,

Well, I haven't heard of the Beales but I'll pop down to the museum later today and see if Rosheen can find any info.

If the children were buried in that era, their names may be on a cairn in St Peters old church yard. Most of the gravestones in the church yard were removed in the 1970's as many of them were made of wood and rotting - but the vestry of the time did make an effort to collect as many names as they could and put them on the cairn as a record of those buried there.(there may be a funeral register somewhere too)

Your ancestors may appear on one of the census documents stored at the museum - but town census was taken fairly spasmodically so we may strike out.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Regards
Jan

From: Liz
To: Jan
Subject: Beale family

Hi Jan,

Thank you for that fast response!! - The Beales and the Abels came from the same part of London, it looks as if Alfred Beale worked for my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Abel which may be how he met Sarah Elizabeth Abel. They were married in May 1873 and we assume from the dates that Sarah was already expecting their first child Alfred Charles at this time as they have the same address and he was born that year. All fascinating stuff - I am looking forward to visiting the area.

Kind Regards,
Liz

From: Jan
To: Liz
Subject: Beale family

Hi Liz,

I stopped off at the Museum on my way home from work and talked to Rosheen about your enquiry. While I hadn't heard of the Beales - she thought the name was vaguely familiar so she'll have a look and see what she can find (so fingers crossed)

I also stopped in at the churchyard to see if I could find the names of little Laura or George on the stone cairn. The churchyard was where most people were buried in early Waipawa times.

I was hoping that maybe their names would be recorded (even though the majority of individual graves aren't marked anymore) but unfortunately their names did not appear.

It could be however that the names recorded were taken from the surviving headstones (made of wood) which apparently were in a bad state of repair in the 1970's -so maybe these two little children's headstones were already rotted away before the vestry thought of collecting the names for the cairn - or - maybe because they died so young they never had markers - which is pretty sad.

Anyway I've attached a photo of the churchyard which has the Cairn on the left - the big oak which dominates the yard and a few surviving stone headstones of some of the really established families in Waipawa.

It is a fair likelihood that the babies might be buried somewhere there - as this was Waipawa's cemetery at the time.

Hopefully more information will turn up.

Jan

From: Liz
To: Jan
Subject: Beale family

Hi Jan,

Thankyou very much for the photo it is good to be able to see where the little Beale babies could have been laid to rest. I think they very often did not mark the grave if the baby was still born or a few days or weeks old.

As I say , whilst the UK records turned up two babies, the Cemetery Records for Waipawa only show one, and does not state whether male or female, so we may have to locate the death certificates to verify the facts.

I think the Beales were very brave, they left their families to come to an unknown future and then had all those children including twins!!
My Grandmother had twin sisters so it must come from the Abel side. I wondered whether they had a job to come too or did they just take a chance that they would find something.

Times in UK were tough in the late 1800's, Sarah's Father & at least one brother were umbrella makers and all the girls were seamstresses or machine operators making blouses, shirts, and other clothing. I guess they thought they could do better over here, and I'm sure they had a better lifestyle as opposed to living in London, but still not easy.

I have an interest as Sarah Elizabeth Beale was exactly 100 years older than me and came to NZ exactly 100 years before I did!! She was my Paternal Grandmothers' Aunt and was never seen by her family again, where I have the luxury of flying back to the UK every 3 or so years. I would love to know what she looked like - my Grandmother was very dark, as is my Father and my Great Aunts of which there were

I look forward to Rosheen's findings!!
My brother is trying to locate old photos of the Abel family.

Kind Regards,
Liz

From: CHB Settlers Museum
To: Jan & Liz
Subject: Beale family

Hi Liz & Jan

Not much luck with the Museum records I'm afraid.
Not on St Peter's cairn listings
Not on the census
Not on the electoral rolls
Not in the rates books - so not a land owner
Found birth records for all five children born in Waipawa - the 1880 birth and death - William Henry - born 19/09/1880
Also found a death notice from the Waipawa Mail - 'Mrs Beale, the Mother of Mrs Groom of Ormondville, died at Waipawa 23rd April, 1891, aged 77 years.

Sorry nothing more.

Regards

Rosheen Parker

From: Liz
To: CHB Settlers Museum
Subject: Beale family

Hi Rosheen,

Thank you so much for searching for me - I am intrigued that Susannah Grooms' Mother was in NZ at the time of her death, something we did not know. She was Susannah too and we just assumed that she and her husband Charles died in London - maybe he died in NZ too.

It is a little confusing that the baby is William Henry as we have a William Henry born in c.1880 married to Thurza Gibbs, who is buried in Hastings having died in 1961, and we had recorded that the son who died was George Frederick.
Could you please send me the birth records of the others in case we have mixed things up?

Both the Beale brothers, Alfred and William Henry, had babies called William Henry who lived and had children of their own.
I will see if we can find any other information and will look you up when we come up to the Hawkes Bay.

Thanks again for your time
Kind Regards
Liz

From: CHB Settlers Museum
To: Liz
Subject: Beale family

Hi
Sorry my assumption - my early cemetery print-out (prior to data base) as you have said does not give a christain name but gives ages as 0 (record 100834) date of death 18/10/1880. You will be correct about George Fredrick - the death notice merely says 'infant son, aged 3 months' date of death 16th February, 1882. Interesting note that the birth had not been registered until 1882 even though he was born November 1881

Birth registrations as follows;
Herbert Richard 561/1876 dob 7 / 12 / 1875
Laura Sophia 733/1877 dob 10 / 5 / 1877
Walter Edward 872/1878 dob 26 / 8 / 1878
William Henry 1077/1880 dob 19 / 9 / 1880
George Fredrick 1189/1882 dob 22 / 11 / 1881

Regards
Rosheen

From: Liz
To: CHB Settlers Museum
Subject: Beale family

Hi Rosheen,

I have worked it out - George Frederick was William Henry's twin brother, who unfortunately died only lived for one month, and the baby who was born in 1881 and died aged 3 months is not recorded in any family notes in the UK.
I will investigate further to see if I can find a name for him.
Cheers
Liz

From: Jan
To: Liz
Subject: Beale family

Oh well,
It seems we might have reached the end of resources here for now - although I did think it was good that Rosheen found birth records on the Museum database (made from Births, deaths and Marriages from the old Waipawa Mail)
It might just confirm dates for you - if nothing else.

I think those early settlers did have it really tough - many of them just came to New Zealand hoping for a better life and then found it very hard to scratch a living out of a then fairly untamed land.
I think the size of their families made it tough too - having all those mouths to feed!
But then I suppose there was a higher mortality rate back then, and, I suppose big families made more labouring hands if you're working on the land.

Anyway - I'll get your enquiry posted on the website as soon as possible and maybe someone out there will able to help you out with more info?

Fingers crossed

Jan